HJNO Jul/Aug 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2021 49 Tanya Busenlener, MD Co-President Medical Association of Southeast Louisiana enables us to provide accessible, equitable and quality medical care. Also, during the mixer, we explained the great effort we took in selecting the first board. JPMS and OPMS each chose five members of the board, and we made sure to have academic, private practice, early career and long-employed, and residents and medical students represented. Our mission is to unify and empower physicians in Southeast Louisiana to en- hance medical care and the quality of life in our community. As a board, we estab- lished value statements that will guide our organization. All along, we have been in- tent on doing what’s in the best interests of our physicians and our patients through- out Southeast Louisiana. So, how will we make MASELA success- ful, so we can accomplish our mission and vision for physicians and patients? Together. While we represent different specialties, ethnicities, ages, genders and modes of practice, we are all physicians with many of the same challenges and needs. We need all physicians throughout SE Louisiana to get involved and join one of our subcom- mittees, which will be the backbone of MASELA. We have two types of committees: physician segment committees and pro- fessional committees. Physician segment committees will focus on the particular needs and challenges of women in med- icine, early career physicians, employed physicians, private practice physicians, medical education and academic physi- cians, and physicians-in-training. Profes- sional committees include the Legislative & Regulatory Committee, Stakeholder Re- lations Committee, Public Health & EMS Committee and the Physician Well-Being Committee. We are also forming peer groups offer- ing mentoring opportunities, and there are online opportunities to engage through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Engage- ment in MASELA can be on a physician’s own terms. We truly believe we are a place for all physicians to come together and make a change in the environment in which we practice so that we can improve our own professional satisfaction and well-being. Our first priority is addressing physician well-being. We are concerned about both the causes and solutions for our stress. We are evaluating MASELA’s niche in this are- na so that we are offering valuable support to physicians and not duplicating services that are already available to our doctors. We need ambassadors and leaders to come forward. We need physicians to tell their colleagues about MASELA and to get them to join. Physicians who want to learn more about MASELA, go to masela.org . As Co-President, I am excited about MASELA’s future and our ability to im- prove healthcare in the region. n “While we represent different specialties, ethnicities, ages, genders and modes of practice, we are all physicians with many of the same challenges and needs.”