Well, I'm not actually on an airplane at the moment, but my column this month does relate to travel. My family and I went on vacation to Keystone, Colorado. We were meant to be skiing, as is our custom every winter. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not cooperate and Keystone had only 18" of snow, so the skiing sort of, well, let's just say we didn't ski much. But we did take a day trip to Breckenridge. The kids went to the rec center with their grandparents to swim in the pool with the water slide. Jennifer and I spent a love

Well, I'm on the road again - seems like the only time I have to stop and think is on an airplane somewhere. I tend to write most of my stuff above 30,000 feet - hopefully the pressure in the cabin is good enough that any amount of oxygen deprivation doesn't come through in the content.    Just finished filling out one of those surveys the hotel sends you after your stay. You may have gotten one of those before - maybe you ignored it; maybe you didn't. I tend to

I have occasionally had the honor of meeting some official or other - a legislator, captain of industry, or other person of influence - and have had to talk about what I do.   Many of us have. We are called upon to wax philosophic about the profession of psychiatry and comment on the human condition. And so I share with you my thoughts on this issue, knowing that mine is but one opinion in a field fraught with dissention. You remember the joke about talking to two psychiatrists and getting three opinions?

\Well, I didn't in fact die from a brief rhinoviral infection. And the state troopers never knocked in my door to confiscate my 48 pseudoephedrine tabs, although I did feel that the camera at the pharmacy window was watching me a little closely. Lucky for me I didn't need an antibiotic. Knowing my doctor, he would have prescribed one that really works well, but is also expensive and likely restricted by my insurance company. And now we get to an issue that really gets my blood flowing - formulary restrictions.

I have a cold. Nothing life-threatening, although I sort of wish it was because it feels like my head could explode any minute. But I'm not asking for sympathy. I just thought I'd mention it, because I wanted to get some cold medicine.   I can take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for the headache. Those are over the counter, so no problem. They work OK. I can take an antihistamine, but that really doesn't do so much since I'm not really

Some presidents follow a format for these columns. I have nothing against formats except that I hate them for their…well, “formatness.” The way I see it, I get to write to you all about 10 times this year and they’ll print what I write pretty much for free and without question, as long as I make some degree of sense and don’t embarrass myself or the profession too much. So, what I’m really trying to say here is, I hope you enjoy what I have to say.

I write this column to you all from Honolulu, Hawai’i, where I am attending the APA Annual Meeting. For me, the annual meeting is the most vibrant expression of our organization, full of life, ideas and hope. And while sometimes I feel the inconvenience of disrupting my life and depleting my bank account to attend, those feelings easily dissipate when I arrive to pick up my registration materials. Going to the meeting in paradise this year isn’t half-bad, either.

 A teacher taught me that a doctor is someone who possesses specialty knowledge and skills in the recognition of illness and in healing, and who advocates for patients. I spent many years acquiring as much knowledge and skill as I could with the idea that the most knowledgeable and skillful would be the best doctors. As I begin this year of being your president, I wish to share with you the greatest lesson I learned. Being knowledgeable and skillful is but a small part of being a doctor – the real key is in being a tru

With this my final opportunity to address the membership as your president, I find myself thinking of renew, reinvent and rejoice. Renew and recycle refer to the cycle of MPS leadership. As many of you who actually read this newsletter know, leadership in an elected position at the MPS is a series of terms that span several years. The tradition is that one moves from treasurer to president-elect to president and then to council chair. The democratic foundation of the MPS would accommodate an opposed election for any one of these positions, should there be a revolution; h