Coming Out of the Darkness and Into the Light
My fellow Osteopathic Physicians:
I truly pray that you and your loved ones are safe in these harrowing and divisive times. None of us are left unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as we thought things were letting up on the pandemic front, our nation is now wracked with violent protests over the wrongful death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
I really feel that we are like the groundhog on Groundhog Day trying to come out of our hole to see an end to winter but getting scared back in by our shadow. I implore each and everyone of you to find your faith and courage through these tough days to be the truest of your potential and to be the best osteopathic physician that you can be. It is imperative that we all work to help get things back to normal for our profession and especially for our patients who may or may not have had their care compromised in some way during the response to the pandemic. Let us remember our most sacred tenets and be there to promote health and well-being in our patients.
“Osteopathy is a search for communication and cooperation with the natural
laws of healing.”
James S. Jealous DO lecture 2003
Our deeper level of holistic and humanistic philosophy will be key to establishing both communication and cooperation with, and ultimately more efficient and comprehensive health care for, our patients that will help our society begin to move back to a level of normalcy where fear can hopefully be reduced to the point of non-existence. This stability will be an initial step to start healing all of our wounds and learning the proper lessons we should garner from all of these events. That lesson is this:
United, we can stand against the darkness and come together out of it and into the light
.
If you are interested in helping defray the cost of this litigation to protect the practice of Osteopathic Medicine, please contact me directly at
President@NevadaOsteopathic.org
.
NOMA stands with you all and will continue our advocacy work and CME efforts to help establish normalcy for our profession.
Lawsuit Against State Board of Pharmacy and Governor Sisolak
As many of you already know, NOMA has taken a stand against the outrageous actions of the aforementioned parties in their interference with the sacred physician-patient relationship. NOMA emphasizes that this lawsuit was
NOT
just about the restriction of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine in the outpatient setting, but also about the violation of and intrusion on our scope of practice. We again assert that only physicians should be making decisions regarding treatment choices for their patients and that administrative bodies and/or elected officials
neither
had nor have any right to interfere
with that sacred duty of ours to properly treat illness (with proper informed consent) and to promote health. The restriction on these medications, if left unchallenged, will be an unacceptable precedent to allow for more interference in the future and allow non-medical entities to basically practice medicine; this we will
NOT
allow.
An
initial petition
was drafted that highlighted our arguments against the regulation and was delivered to the State Board of Pharmacy and the Governor on April 9th. This generated several phone meetings with the pharmacy board to try to come to an amicable compromise or solution: but one was not to be had at this juncture. Ultimately, due to the lack of willingness of the Board of Pharmacy and the Governor to compromise, a lawsuit (
complaint for emergency declaratory relief
) was filed on April 21st. Following this a
compromise letter
on April 23
rd
from our side to the defendants was issued that stated we would withdraw the lawsuit if they would release the restrictions. Unfortunately, this letter of compromise was rejected and we have since filed a motion for an injunction against the regulation itself and are awaiting a decision by the judge. Please feel free to view these documents
here.
NOMA stands firm in its commitment to fight against this egregious attack on our rights to practice as physicians. We will update you more as the situation develops but the strength of our arguments gives us great confidence that we will ultimately achieve victory. It is through this ultimate victory that NOMA will ensure that the darkness caused by this illegal action will never again be inflicted upon any physician in Nevada. Let this light of hope guide us all.
NOMA gratefully acknowledges all of you who have sent us articles and studies as well as your personal experiences of trying to treat the SARS-COV 2 virus to date, and encourage any and all additional submissions. It is you who make this fight that much more worthy to continue.
NOMA also humbly asks any of you who can contribute to this effort financially to please donate today as this can get costly. Please click the following link to
H
elp NOMA continue the fight
for our mutual practice rights and the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship that is under attack by the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy and the Governor.
Resumption of CME Meetings
Due to pandemic restrictions, NOMA made significant changes to our 2020 CME schedules. The previously scheduled
One Day Symposium in Northern Nevada
for May 2
nd
was cancelled and we are planning to reschedule this meeting to early November (specific details to follow). Also, given that the state just began re-opening, we moved the
Annual Meeting
from late-July to late-September. The
One Day Symposium in Southern Nevada
is cancelled as the usual timing overlaps with the
Annual Meeting
.
Information for all these events can be found on the
website.
For those who don’t yet feel comfortable traveling or participating in large group events, NOMA will offer a live-stream registration option for the
Annual Meeting
. This will allow for interactive participation and still meet the requirements for AOA Category 1A credit. We are trying to get things back to normal as soon as we can so we can come out of the darkness of uncertainty and back into the light of fellowship and education with our fellow osteopathic physicians.
May GOD bless each and every one of you and strengthen our NOMA Family.
Sincerely and Humbly Yours,
Bruce Fong, DO
President
