Foundation to honor 2022 award recipients

Please join the Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation (Foundation) on April 21, 2022 at 6:30 to honor the 2022 Superhero of Medicine and the Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, Young Physician Leadership award recipients. Register for free today!

Superhero of Medicine Award

2022 Superhero of Medicine
Patricia Téllez-Girón Salazar, MD

The Superhero of Medicine Award is presented annually to a physician from among those nominated for having superhero-like attributes and using them to go above and beyond the call of their profession. Patricia Téllez-Girón Salazar, MD, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Co-Chair Latino Health Council, received multiple nominations for this award. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff noted that Dr. Téllez-Girón Salazar has been fighting her nemesis, disparities in health in the Dane County Latinx community, for more than 20 years. While the COVID-19 pandemic increased these disparities, Dr. Téllez-Girón Salazar also amplified her work and vaccination rates for the Dane County Latinx population topped those of the state and nation thanks to her tireless work educating the community and leading the Latino Health Council. Time Magazine called her a “medical messenger” in March 2020 for her work sharing information with the local Latinx community.

When notified of her award Dr. Téllez-Girón Salazar shared the following, “Since childhood, I have been guided by a love for people, a desire to help others, and a love for learning. My dream, as a youth, was to find a way to combine my passions for people and for learning. Family Medicine has proved to be the perfect way to fulfill that dream. Keeping that in mind, for the past 25 years I have been providing direct medical services to the underserved, educating others on how to better serve them, and advocating and creating community services for them. Also, by mentoring and teaching minority students and other students at various levels of training I aim to increase diversity and have more helping hands that hopefully eventually will also work either as health care providers or in other fields where they can advocate for the underserved.”

Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, Young Physician Leadership Award

2022 Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, Award Recipient
Roger Kapoor, MD

The Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, Young Physician Leadership Award is presented annually to a young physician who exemplifies the unique attributes of the late Dr. Viste. These include an overwhelming commitment to their patients, their profession and the community. Roger Kapoor, MD, MBA, FAAD, Senior Vice President of Beloit Health System, also received multiple nominations for this award. Leo Egbujiobi, MD, shared, “Dr. Kapoor represents everything that is good with our health care system. For patients, as a physician, Dr. Kapoor makes house calls to those who are unable to leave their home or nursing home bed. In his capacity as Senior Vice President at our Health System, this year he organized an effort that improved patient experience scores at our main ambulatory clinic (with approximately 15,000 visits a month) from the 16th percentile to the 66th percentile within one year. Dr. Kapoor has also risen to the unique challenges of the pandemic and served his community as the COVID-19 Incident Commander for his health care system.”

Dr. Kapoor expressed his gratitude to the Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation, “Dr. Viste’s indelible impact on health care and the medical field remains inspiring and it is a great honor to receive this award.” He continued, “I stand on the shoulders of a great team at Beloit Health System to whom I am profoundly indebted for their friendship, partnership and support.”

Please save the date to join the Foundation for this virtual event and learn more about these remarkable physicians and their journeys. Each winner also receives a grant for a community organization that they feel is making a difference, and they will share why they chose the Dane County Latino Health Council and the Beloit Health System Foundation. Both of these awardees have risen to the challenges of the pandemic in their work. Let’s not permit the pandemic to take away their ability to be recognized for their contributions.

Contact Foundation Executive Director Marje Murray for additional information. 

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Health care worker battery bill advances; independent nursing bill update

Health care worker battery bill

A bill in the Wisconsin State Legislature increasing the penalty for intentionally causing bodily harm (battery) to certain health care workers passed out of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety March 2 on a 5-2 vote. The proposal responds to a troubling increase in incidents against health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee approval means the bill is now eligible for action in the full state senate, which is expected to meet next week to wrap up the general legislative session for the 2021-22 biennium.

Current state law generally classifies battery as a Class A misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of up to a $10,000 fine and/or 9 months imprisonment, with the penalty increasing to a Class H felony (a maximum $10,000 fine and/or up to 42 months in prison) for harm to nurses, emergency care providers and emergency department workers. Senate Bill 970 expands the enhanced penalty to battery against a health care professional, a staff member of a health care facility, or a family member of a health care professional/staff member. The bill also makes certain threats of violence a felony if that threat happens in response to a health care worker doing their job in an official capacity, or in response to something that happened at the health care facility. The Wisconsin Medical Society joined with a large coalition of health care entities supporting the proposal.

The State Assembly passed companion legislation late last month, so if the full Senate approves the bill the proposal would head to Governor Tony Evers’s desk for final consideration.

Independent nursing bill update

When the state senate meets next week for likely the final time this legislative biennium, it is expected to concur with changes the state assembly made to a bill last month allowing advanced practice registered nurses to practice independently in Wisconsin. That action will send Senate Bill 394 to Governor Evers for his signature or veto. If the senate indeed concurs, the large coalition of physician-supporting organizations will alert its members about the need to ask Gov. Evers to veto the flawed bill. Stay tuned next week to Medigram, the WisMed Mobile App and your email for an Advocacy Alert when it’s time to act.

Contact WisMed Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer Mark Grapentine, JD for more information.

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Reminder: vote for Society offices via WisMed Mobile

President-elect Nominee - Don Lee, MD

Wisconsin Medical Society (Society) Members can vote for the Society President-elect and Treasurer via the WisMed Mobile app.* According to the Society’s Constitution, Article V, the President-elect and Treasurer will be elected by the general membership.

The Nominating Committee of the Wisconsin Medical Society prepared a slate of nominees for Society offices during its January 21 meeting. The nominees, including those for American Medical Association (AMA) Delegates are as follows:

• President-elect: Don Lee, MD
• AMA Delegate 2023 and 2024: Barbara Hummel, MD
• AMA Delegate 2023 and 2024: Tosha Wetterneck, MD

Treasurer Nominee - John Cook, CPA

The Wisconsin Medical Society Board of Directors, as directed by the Society’s Bylaws, selected its nominee for Treasurer on January 22, 2022:

• Treasurer: Mr. John Cook, CPA

The ballot for President-elect and Treasurer will be available until the close of business March 10. All Wisconsin Medical Society members are eligible to vote via WisMed Mobile.* The candidate materials are available for review on the ballot as well.

The Board of Directors will consider nominees for the AMA Delegates, Board of Director and Nominating Committee members at its meeting in April.

*If you haven’t downloaded WisMed Mobile app, you can do so here. For assistance, please contact membership@wismed.org or 800.762.8975.

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Seven ways to improve investment performance

Too often, investors focus on reducing expenses as the only means of improving investment performance. Yes, low expenses are important, but they account for less than a third of the potential added performance. There are six other ways to improve investment performance. Morningstar, Vanguard and Envestnet studied and published research on these seven techniques:

• Dynamic withdrawal strategies - adjusting which assets and the amount used for income.
• Asset allocation - having the right mixture of stocks, bonds, real estate, cash and alternative investments based on when the investment will be used.
• Lower cost investment - self-explanatory.
• Systematic rebalancing - selling some of the winners (sell high) and buying assets that recently fell (buy low). Studies show the best time to rebalance is based on trigger points around volatility rather than calendar timing.
• Tax-efficient withdrawals - it’s not income amount, but how much remains after taxes.
• Asset location - investment growth is taxed as capital gains, ordinary income or tax free in Roth accounts. Holding the right investment in the right account maximizes after tax growth.
• Tax loss harvesting - when markets fall, realize capital losses to save on taxes.

If you haven’t accounted for all seven strategies in your portfolio, schedule a meeting to see how your portfolio could benefit.

You can also download the 2022 tax brackets, retirement contribution limits, investment checklist and quick decision flow charts from the new WisMed Mobile app.

For personalized help eliminating debt, investing smart and securing retirement, please contact Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF® 608.442.3750.

Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®
WisMed Financial, Inc. part of the Wisconsin Medical Society.

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