NewsArchives« Archives index IMSANZ Needs You in Ensuring a Better Future for General Internal Medicine (GIM)"Who or what is IMSANZ and what does it do?" I hear this question not infrequently when I move among my colleagues, including some I thought would already know the answer. As general physicians, we sometimes encounter confusion in the minds of other health care professionals, government bureaucrats, and the public as to what it is we actually do. People seem to be more certain of what a cardiologist or gastroenterologist does, and are more likely to have heard of the Cardiac or GE Society. Since its inception in 1992, IMSANZ has put considerable effort into defining and publicising the role and attributes of the general physician, and advocating the cause of GIM in the corridors of power in both government and college circles. Many recent events indicate that the voice of general medicine is at last being heard - the convening by the college of the General Medicine Forum earlier this year, the RACP invitation to IMSANZ to plan and organise the annual scientific meetings in 2003 and 2004, the public admission by the college president Robin Mortimer that general physician care was being lost, to the detriment of patients (RACP News From the President 2003), and the current review of the college training program with a view to including more general medicine in the advance training program of all specialties. In supporting these moves and in strengthening our voice in setting the future agenda, we need, now more than ever, to marshall the full resources of a large, vibrant and committed community of general physicians. There are approximately 4,500 fellows in the college, of whom almost 1 in 3 indicate in workforce surveys that they practice, at least partly, general medicine. General physicians comprise one of the five largest specialty groups within the college fellowship. In contrast, the current membership of IMSANZ is only 420, or roughly a third of all those who practice GIM. This compares with other specialist societies, which boast coverage of more than 80% of eligible members. Why such a low membership rate? Possible reasons include: ignorance of IMSANZ; disenchantment with the activities or philosophy of IMSANZ; uncertainty as to what IMSANZ has to offer; and reluctance to pay yet another membership fee (particularly after paying your indemnity premium, AMA fees, college fees and any other specialty society fees!). Whatever the reasons, we need to reverse them, and in doing this, I am asking you, our valued current members, to do what you can to reach out, engage and recruit all those with an interest in general medicine who might share our vision. In doing this we stand to enrich ourselves in the process. I respectfully offer some suggestions:
This is a critical time for IMSANZ and for general medicine, and I thank you for any support you can provide. Let me finish with this quotation slightly paraphrased from that of a famous figure in history: “Ask not what your society (IMSANZ) can do for you but what you can do for your society.” Ian Scott |