Thursday, January 6, 2011

As we begin...

Five days into the new year, we had our first big meeting.

In 2011, PHA will deliver over three million dollars of medical education across five programs in our Medical Education Fund.  This is extremely important in a field where the number of treating physicians has grown from about 100 to well over 6,000 in little more than a decade.  It is important to expand knowledge of diagnosis and treatment and to connect medical professionals with experts in the field. 

With two medical associations (one for physicians and researchers, the other for nurses and other allied health professionals) operating under the PHA umbrella, the organization continues to be in a great position to deliver this knowledge in ways that help to improve practice in the field.

PHA manages several of these programs directly but also uses contractors to provide support on logistics and slide development.  

Today, we met with our primary contractors to finalize plans for 2011 programs.

Long-time board member Jack Stibbs flew in from Houston to join us.  As our volunteer (thank you Jack!) attorney, Jack has guided PHA through a decade of important legal agreements and he was here today to help us again.

This time Jack came with his daughter Emily, now a college freshman.  One of the great joys of our work here at PHA is seeing young patients grow to young adults...and indeed Emily, who was diagnosed at age six is one of those.

...and it was great to have her help our Patient Outreach and Services staff, Emma and Michal, review our programs for young patients.

All in all, today was a very good day...a very good start for the year.

So, thanks again to the Stibbs family.  That's Jake, Marcia, Jack and Emily in the picture - at the Crawfish Festival they organize every year to support PH research.  Their next one is March 26, 2011!

2 comments:

  1. Rino, I just posted a very nice "thank you" and wouldn't you know it disappeared. I do have a bad habit of clicking the wrong button at the wrong time.
    If I can remember most of it... it is just beyond awesome how, clinicians and patients can not only work together but share and give hope and support to each other. This also includes the pharmaceutical industry with all the support they offer.
    The research that you (PHA) offers gives those of us in the PH Community hope -- hope for a better treatment, hope for a cure. PHENOMENAL HOPE
    Thank You,
    Merle
    Support Group Leader (x's 3)
    PHA Support Line Volunteer (FYI-I received a call today from a doctor who wanted help for a patient)
    PHA On-Line Mentor
    MAJOR Advocate - Political and other
    PHA's Outstanding PH Citizen Award Recipient
    A few other things -- :o)
    Always remeber to smile - it's contagious

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  2. Thanks Merle. I remember when we used to have the DOS operating system and things would disappear regularly. About what you wrote, you're right, it's all of this works because people function as a team.

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