Society of Hospital Medicine Announces New President and President-Elect, Welcomes Two New Members to the Board of Directors

Hospital Medicine Leaders Bring New Perspective to SHM Board

While at Hospital Medicine 2018 (HM18) in Orlando, the Society of Hospital Medicine’s (SHM’s) Chief Executive Officer, Laurence Wellikson, MD, MHM, announced that Christopher Frost, MD, SFHM was voted President-Elect. Steven B. Deitelzweig, MD, MMM, SFHM and Jerome C. Siy, MD, SFHM were also elected to the Board for three-year terms.

“Hospitalists are perfectly positioned to address issues in a number of areas, including readmissions and inpatient mortality by working with ambulatory primary care and specialist providers,” explains Nasim Afsar, MD, SFHM, SHM’s new president as well as the Chief Ambulatory Officer and Chief Medical Officer for Accountable Care Organizations at the University of California Irvine Health. “Over the coming year, we hope to build more linkages to integrate hospitalists into population health management by looking for opportunities where we foster closer alignment with ambulatory care.”

Dr. Afsar has played an instrumental role in SHM and has served on the Board of Directors since 2012, including as treasurer from 2016-2018. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hospital Medicine and is the founder of the Los Angeles Chapter of SHM.

New board member Steven B. Deitelzweig, MD, MMM, SFHM is the Service Medical Leader for Hospital Medicine and Medical Director for Regional Business Development across the Gulf South at Ochsner Health in Jefferson, LA. He previously served as Vice President of Medical Affairs for Ochsner. Dr. Deitelzweig has been an SHM member since 2000 and has served the society on multiple committees since joining.

“I’m so privileged to have been elected to serve our membership to which I’ll bring my skills collaborating on clinical solutions to our partner hospitals at Ochsner Health System,” says Dr. Deitelzweig. “I have led and consulted on several strategic affiliations with health systems with learnings that I know will be applicable to growing SHM.”

Also joining the Board is Jerome C. Siy, MD, SFHM, Department Chair of Hospital Medicine at HealthPartners in Minneapolis-St. Paul. As a member of SHM for more than 15 years and recipient of SHM’s prestigious Award of Excellence for Clinical Excellence in 2009, Dr. Siy has been a driving force in advancing hospitalist practice and improving patient care in the U.S. and beyond.

“Hospital medicine has matured and grown, and our scope has changed dramatically to include observation care, telemedicine, palliative care, perioperative medicine, research and academic medicine and more,” explains Dr. Siy. “During a time of dramatic change in healthcare, I look forward to helping SHM connect hospitalists with the resources they need to strengthen their skills and ultimately provide better care for patients.”