6
Vol. 66, No. 3 2015
Northeast Florida Medicine
From the Editor’s Desk
“One City, One Jacksonville.” This is the rallying cry of
our newly inauguratedmayor, Lenny Curry. He emphasized
this after a very contentious and partisan campaign.Whether
he received your vote
or not, it is a simple
yet powerful message
of cooperation in order
to better our commu-
nity as a whole. His
hope is that multiple
civic organizations will
work to bring sections
of our city together
to accomplish great
things.The goal is One
City, One Jacksonville.
The DCMS certain-
ly has and will contin-
ue to contribute to this message of unity and collaboration
within our wonderful city. In fact, it has been doing this for
multiple decades. It was Dr. George Trotter, as a member
of the DCMS indigent care committee who founded We
Care Jacksonville in 1993. This is a volunteer coalition
of health care professionals and clerical staff that assist in
providing primary and secondary care to the underserved
people of Jacksonville. Promoting healthy living without
alcohol and tobacco may encourage these individuals to
make the right choices whichwill allow them to be successful
in other aspects of their lives. By offering our services to
these men and women, we are doing our part in assisting
them on the road to independence.
Physicians of the DCMS have been involved with the
Jacksonville SportsMedicine Program (JSMP).This unique
program provides valuable services to the community in
order to improve and/or maintain the health and wellness
or our local student athletes. Volunteers from the DCMS
and various other medical institutions participate in pre-
school year sports athletic screenings.This is a terrific way to
ensure that these children are healthy enough to participate
in football, soccer, basketball and swimming for instance.
Each year, a few students are identified who have a heart
murmur or an orthopedic condition that requires further
evaluation prior to being cleared for sports. Many DCMS
physicians also volunteer to provide medical coverage at
local Friday night high school football games in the fall.
Without our services many of the great things done by the
JSMP may not be possible.
Members of the DCMS are active on a variety of other
local organizations aimed at keeping Jacksonville healthy.
These groups include the Center for Global Health and
Medical Diplomacy, the Childhood Obesity Coalition, the
Environmental Protection Board, the First Coast Diabetes
Coalition, Healthy Start Coalition of Northeast Florida, the
Mayor’s Council on Fitness and Wellness and Volunteers
in Medicine just to name a few.
Thus, it is crystal clear that the medical community, led
by the DCMS, has been all about One City, One Jackson-
ville for many decades. However, there is room to do even
more. For example, unfortunately gun violence has become
a more evident concern in Northeast Florida. Certainly
many factors, including socioeconomic and cultural issues
make this quite a complex problem. Local doctors are in a
position and have the opportunity to discuss gun safety in
order to protect our community’s children from causing
or being the victim of intentional or unintentional injury
and/or death. A “physician gag law” limits our ability to
discuss these issues with the most vulnerable members of
our society…the children. Not only does this violate the
doctor’s first amendment rights, it also is preventing us
from truly looking out for the best interests of our patients
while also doing our part in reducing senseless gun vio-
lence. What can we do about this? Through our efforts in
organized medicine, we can send resolutions to the FMA
and/or AMA so that these organizations can fight on our
behalf to reduce such unfair government restrictions on
our medical practices.
The DCMS has been and will continue to be an organi-
zation that looks out for the well-being of the public. This
group of volunteers will continue to help physicians care
for the health of our community for many years to come.
In the process we will do our part in living out the motto
One City, One Jacksonville.
v
One City, One Jacksonville
Sunil Joshi, MD
Editor-in-Chief
Northeast Florida Medicine
