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Over 5,000 Physicians Sign "Open Letter from America's Physicians" in Just One Month

Doctors Leverage Sermo to catalyze national awareness about the real healthcare issues

Cambridge, Mass., July 1, 2008 — The U.S. physician community is making history today on Sermo (http://www.sermo.com) with the formal announcement of the Open Letter from America's Physicians. Through Sermo, physicians across every specialty and every state are uniting and taking action to address the most crucial challenges facing the current U.S. healthcare system.

What began as a disparate group of physicians expressing concerns online about the challenges of practicing medicine today evolved into a coordinated grassroots movement. Thousands of physicians came together on Sermo when a single colleague suggested they write an Open Letter to the American public detailing the challenges of delivering quality care to their patients. The Open Letter has enabled thousands of practicing physicians to collaborate in an effort to demonstrate their commitment to protect patients and reclaim their profession.

With approximately 600,000 practicing physicians in the US, the number of physicians who have already signed the Open Letter equates to millions of signatures in the general population. At this rate, the Open Letter is likely to reach tens of thousand of signatures in the next few months.

The goals of the Letter are simple: Give collective voice to the physician community and restore the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Through a series of polls and discussions, over one thousand physicians contributed to the final Letter, which outlines the following challenges physicians face in delivering appropriate patient care:

  • The insurance industry's undue authority and oppressive control over healthcare processes
  • Excessive and misguided government regulation
  • The practice of defensive medicine in response to a harmful and costly legal environment

"What the public does not know is the pervasive hypocrisy of the current healthcare system and how it has diminished the authority of the only true advocates for patients: physicians," said Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, the head of the Open Letter Writing Committee and the physician who began the initial discussion on Sermo. "We must raise awareness about the challenges physicians face in delivering quality care to our patients. Today's healthcare system has lost focus to the point where patient well-being is placed after politics, profits, and special interests. These trends are hurting our economy and compromising the doctor-patient relationship. We invite all physicians to join us in this historic effort."

I'm a Physician, Where do I Sign?
To support the effort, visit http://www.doctorsunite.org. Here you will be given the opportunity to learn more about the campaign and sign the Open Letter.

Among those who have already signed is Dr. Edward Annis, a former president of the American Medical Association (AMA) and influential figure in the move to involve physicians in the healthcare debate. Most notably, Dr. Annis delivered a nationally televised address in response to President Kennedy's speech on Medicare in 1962. At 95 years old, he is the oldest Sermo member to sign the Letter.

"I consider the Open Letter to be a superb document containing easily substantiated facts as to why people have been separated from their doctors and why today's medical costs are so abusive and unjustified," said Dr. Annis, former AMA President. "I hope the Open Letter gets nationwide distribution to alert the American people."

Next Steps: Laying the Foundation for Change
As the Open Letter continues to gain signatures, physicians on Sermo are already in the process of creating solutions based on consensus generated around Guiding Principles. These principles will be used to structure discussions with the 2008 presidential candidates in an effort to further address the real needs of patients nationwide. To arrive at the Guiding Principles, physicians are asking themselves:

  • If we were able to design a new healthcare system from scratch, how would it be structured?
  • What would be the nature of the doctor-patient relationship?
  • How would patient decisions be made?

Moving forward, physicians on Sermo will create small task forces that will use the Guiding Principles as a foundation for providing actual solutions to issues outlined in the Open Letter. As with the Open Letter and the Guiding Principles, these solutions will incorporate the feedback of thousands of practicing physicians. Taking this initiative even further, the Sermo community is helping to establish a non-profit organization that will be focused on elevating the Open Letter campaign and its message to redefine the doctor-patient relationship and affect change in healthcare.

Why Sermo?
With 70,000 physician members, Sermo has become the place for physicians to exchange the latest in medical thinking. Now, physicians from across the country are leveraging the Sermo platform to affect change in healthcare through the Open Letter. With its unique registration process, Sermo ensures that only physicians sign the letter and continues to provide a secure platform where physicians can discuss, comment, rank and vote on the contributions of thousands of colleagues in one place.

About Sermo
Sermo is the largest online community exclusively for physicians with nearly 70,000 members in the US. On Sermo, physicians exchange knowledge with each other and gain potentially life-saving insights directly from colleagues. Sermo harnesses the power of collective wisdom and enables physicians to discuss new clinical findings, report unusual events, and work together to improve patient care. Through its unique business model, Sermo has created a marketplace that brings value to the knowledge of practicing physicians. By participating, physicians are reimbursed by institutions in healthcare, financial services and government for their insights. For more information about Sermo, visit http://www.sermo.com.

Press Contact:
Erin Walsh
PerkettPR for Sermo
P:781-686-9502
E: sermo@perkettpr.com