The 2023 House of Delegates (HOD) convened Sept. 8-10 at the Embassy Suites in Plainfield to elect officers and AMA delegation members, set organizational policy, attend CME speaker sessions, and engage in fellowship. The HOD considered 70 resolutions this year. Twenty-two resolutions were adopted, 33 were adopted as amended, two were referred to the Board of Trustees (BOT) for study and two were referred to the BOT for action.
Four physicians were honored with resolutions of appreciation. Retired Indiana Department of Health Commissioner Kristina Box, MD, was recognized for her work as commissioner and was also made an ISMA honorary member by acclamation. Michael B. Hoover, MD, was honored on behalf of the AMA Delegation for his longtime service to ISMA. Finally, Maria Del Rio Hoover, MD, and Heidi M. Dunniway, MD, were recognized for their longtime work as co-chairs of the ISMA Women in Medicine Committee.
Rep. Brad Barrett, MD (R-Richmond), was named ISMA Legislator of the Year. Sen. Michael Crider (R-Greenfield) received a special legislator award for authoring and helping pass Senate Enrolled Act 1 (Behavioral health matters) during the 2023 legislative session.
Members continued to utilize ISMA Pulse to share unofficial preliminary feedback on resolutions before convention. In year three using Pulse, ISMA saw a 56% increase in member-to-member engagement and a 15% increase in engagements on resolutions from 2022 to 2023. There was also a 60% increase in responses per resolution. This year had 144 total participants, with 45% of the feedback coming from delegates and 55% from nondelegates.
Several resolutions addressed gender-affirming care, physician licensure issues, and scope of practice:
Resolution 23-010 directs ISMA to oppose legislation limiting access to gender-affirming care for adults (18 and older), including bills which would criminalize physicians or patients seeking that care.
Resolution 23-042 directs ISMA to oppose medical and surgical transition treatment for minors in the state of Indiana and advocate for a similar position at the national level. Taken together along with current policy, the net result of these new policies means that ISMA will (1) continue to oppose the criminalization of physicians for providing care and criminalization of patients for seeking care, (2) oppose the provision of gender-affirming care for minors, and (3) oppose legislation that limits access to gender-affirming care for adults.
Resolution 23-019 and
Resolution 23-021 call on ISMA to pursue and support changes to medical licensure, credentialing, and privileging processes to eliminate language related to past mental health conditions, assure confidentiality of requested information, limit requested information to only what is relevant to medical practice, and focus impairment questions on current untreated issues that may impair a physician’s judgment or ability to practice in a competent, ethical, and professional manner.
Resolution 23-017 directs ISMA to seek legislation that prohibits physicians from being employed by nonphysician practitioners they supervise, delegate to, or collaborate with.
Resolution 23-018 calls on ISMA to seek legislation that requires nonphysician practitioners to be supervised by a collaborating physician for no less than 25% of their total clinical time (1) during their first two years of clinical practice and (2) in the first two years after transitioning into a different specialty.
While convention has concluded, ISMA Pulse will keep beating.
This year, for the first time, Pulse will provide updates on resolutions passed during convention. The latest update to Pulse offers a tracking grid that allows members to follow what happens to each resolution. You can subscribe to the resolutions you want to track and receive regular updates on their status.
Visit
www.ismapulse.com to utilize the new features. (Requires ISMA username and password to access.)
Also watch for the complete 2023 Actions on Resolutions, memorial resolutions and resolutions of appreciation to be posted at
www.ismanet.org/resolutions.