In This Month's Issue
In this issue of SGIM Forum, articles offer a variety of perspectives from our community’s common identity as general internists and members of SGIM. Jean Kutner, SGIM president, shares her own SGIM journey and sage advice from long-time leaders in the Society on getting engaged. Eric Bass, SGIM CEO, teams up with Schwartz and Staiger, chairs of the Leadership in Health Policy Program, to provide a vital update on a new primary care coalition in partnership with other professional organizations. Kwolek, et al, and Shrivastava and Bennett, offer two articles from the Women and Medicine Commission, introducing their new Workgroup on Parenting initiative launched in November 2020 and offering a program director’s leadership view on policies to promote a family-friendly residency environment.
As of mid-December 2020, the first waves of COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States have only just begun. Peek offers a critical commentary on equitable vaccine access for the most vulnerable communities suffering from poor outcomes COVID-19 due to structural racism. Reflecting on an earlier stage of the pandemic, Kutscher and Kladney compare COVID-19 test counselling benefits during the pandemic to those of HIV test counselling during the AIDS epidemic. From the front lines, Holliday shares her emotional journey of caring for a dying COVID-19 patient as a resident and facilitating his family’s final goodbyes remotely.