I want to thank Dr. Wilson Ko, our immediate past president for his distinguished dedication and vision, as well as our board of directors for their service and a job well done.  I want to thank Dr. Huseh Hwa Wang for her unwavering commitment to CAMS for the last thirty plus years.  I want to thank the Meeting Chairs Dr. Jerry Huo and Dr. Mary Lee Wong for a very successful scientific conference, the Dinner Chairs Dr. Danny Fong, Dr. Johnny Lee and the Social Chair Dr. Blanche Leung for a glamorous dinner gala at Cipiani Wall Street tonight.  I especially want to thank Dr. George Liu, President of CAIPA and their board of directors for their continued support of the scientific conference and the co-sponsorship of the gala.  But most of all, I want to thank each and every single one of you for your support and participation tonight.  Your presence tonight is what make this gala successful.  Last but not least, I want to congratulate the Scientific Award recipient, the esteemed Dr. John Fung for his academic accomplishments, and the Community Service Award recipient Ms. Marie Lam for her tremendous effort, accomplishments, and generosity to the community.  This gala is to celebrate your dedication and hard work.

Since the inception of CAMS in 1963, the Society has fulfilled its mission and has grown in an exponential way.  The objective of CAMS is to promote the scientific association of medical professionals of Chinese descent and to assume the role as the representative organization for all Chinese American medical professionals.  CAMS is now one of the largest, most successful national Chinese American medical societies with three regional chapters and more than 1,200 members.  Under the leadership of one of our past president Dr. David Chiu, CAMS was instrumental in forming regional chapters as well as FCMS (Federation of Chinese American and Chinese Canadian Medical Societies).  Chinatown physicians under the leadership of Dr. George Liu and Dr. Sun Hoo Foo have formed one of the most successful IPA’s in the country, CAIPA.  CAMS has provided 43 scholarship and 6 fellowships in the last five years, totaling $116,000.  Through the generous contribution of CAIPA members, more than $1.1 million has been donated from the CAMS/CAIPA Community Service Fund for research and community projects to improve the health status of Chinese Americans.  CAMS is now also recognized on a national level.  I have the opportunity and distinct honor to represent CAMS this week in Kaiser Permanente in California, to sit in a panel "Health Care Reform: Institutional Diversity Imperatives."  I was seated next to Dr. J. James Rohack, President of American Medical Association, Dr. Willarda V. Edwards, President of National Medical Association and Dr. Elena V. Rios, President of National Hispanic Medical Association.  We were introduced as Presidents of the four major medical associations.  It was intimidating at first but we had an active exchange on health care reform, diversity and disparity.

CAMS continues to bring high quality, nationally known speakers to our annual scientific conference, as evident by the well planned program this year.  We continue to offer CME credits to our members, physicians and nurses, while providing topics and information relevant to their continued practice of serving the Chinese Americans.

We are standing in the dawn of a new era.  There are many tasks to be done.

Data collection on various diseases relevant to Chinese American population such as cardiovascular disease, viral hepatitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, nasopharyngeal cancer and mental health, to name a few is so desperately needed.  The increased prevalence of these diseases has to be brought to national attention so funding for research can be allotted.  Task forces on these diseases must be created due to a lack of research of the Chinese Americans.

Our website has been revamped under the leadership of the Website Chair Dr. Raymond Yung.  We have an ambitious goal of setting up a Chinese American Health Education Network bilingual national website.  This is accomplished through working with local health organizations such as Chinese American Independent Physician Association (CAIPA), Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, the East Asian Unit of American Cancer Society, the Chinese American Cardiovascular Association (CCA), the Chinese American Healthy Heart Coalition, the Chinese Community Partnership for Health (CCPH) and the Federation of the Chinese American and Canadian Medical Societies (FCMS).  We also need to expand our communication channels to our members to update information and solicit responses and feedback from our members.

CAMS has recently taken up and will continue to have an active role in community issues.  We have continued to provide flu vaccines, organize press conferences to inform the community about seasonal flu and H1N1 flu and provide health news and education through the Chinese newspapers.

CAMS has recently taken up an active role in standing up for our physician members.  In response to an unfavorable article on malpractice in Chinese obstetricians, CAMS has taken leadership and organized a meeting between the press and leaders from CAMS, CAIPA and our brother organization ACAP, the Association of Chinese American Physicians, represented by Dr. David Zhang.  We stood as one united voice and had a very positive, constructive and productive meeting leading to a working relationship of trust, respect and friendship with the press.  The press has interviewed the Medical Societies of the State of New York through the effort of Dr. Lisa Eng.  An article featuring the positive images of the Chinese physician organizations has been published.  We will be forming a media response team consisting of various specialities to provide expert opinions, to answer medical questions, and to address issues when they arise.

Whether you are for or against it, health care reform is coming.  To the practicing physicians, health care reform threatens our autonomy.  Working with CAIPA, we will need to form our own Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and Medical Home models that will work for our community.  We need to see how health care reform will impact our community and position ourselves with our community to maximize the benefits of health care reform and programs for health care disparities.  We need to advocate for our patients.  They not only deserve appropriate quality care but also free of cultural and linguistic barriers.  There needs to be adequate Federal programs to support medical interpretation and translation services for medical and mental patients.  Access to health care depends not just on insurance but also on being able to understand and to navigate the health care system.  Many legal immigrants are denied access to health coverage for their first five years even if they pay taxes like everyone else.  Residency "wait times" for Medicaid eligibility should be eliminated for legal immigrants.  We need to encourage comparative effectiveness research in the Chinese population.  We need quality appropriate research and data collection to identify and to address disease prevalence, care and outcome.  We need to incorporate a curriculum in culture sensitivity in medical and health professional schools as well as in hospital residency training.  More culturally sensitive services need to be provided by hospitals.  We need to encourage and to mentor young researchers to conduct research in our communities.  We need to encourage cultural competent healthcare providers to provide services back to our communities.  We need to train the next generation to assume leadership roles in health care policy and regulatory agencies.  Health information technology must address the needs, competencies and access points to patients who do not use English as their primary language, have limited health literacy and have barriers to internet access.  Tort reform must be an integral part of health care reform.  Bad outcomes do happen but not all bad outcomes are attributable to medical errors.  Affordable health insurance must be available to all.

To continue to propel our academic and charitable goals and serve our communities, we need to develop a capital fund drive.  We will also continue to work with other local and national organizations and hospitals serving the Chinese community.  To facilitate a stronger national voice and representation for Asian Americans, we have to join and work with other groups such as FCMS and NCAPIP (National Council of Asian and Pacific Islander Physicians).  Our immediate past president Dr. Wilson Ko is currently the East Coast Vice Chair.

This is your society.  We are working for you.  We are here to fight for you.  CAMS is working for you every day, with not just an annual scientific conference or gala, but 365 days a year.  We have a very dedicated board of directors.  I would like to invite all of you to be involved, to inspire us, and help us grow.  I want to activate our advisory council and invite all previous presidents, interested medical and nonmedical individuals to be involved.  I want all of you to be passionate about our goals.  We now stand strong with a membership of more than 1,200.  As a society we need to continue to grow.  I would like every member to think of themselves as part of the membership committee and continue to recruit members.  We would like the physicians in training and medical students to be more involved because they are the future of this society.  CAMS exists, accomplishes and will succeed because of all of our partners.  We physicians and health professionals have chosen this career to help people.  Let’s all try harder.  Let’s get to work.  Together we can, we have and we will make a difference!