William Y. Hoffman, MD CSPS President

Dear CSPS Member;

I am pleased to be able to update you on the activities of the California Society of Plastic Surgery.

Education remains one of our primary objectives. This year marked the first CSPSERF visiting professor, Dr. Bob Singer, who visited almost all the training programs in the state during this past year. His talks on facelift techniques and practice management have been invaluable for residents in training. As President, I have not quite kept up with Dr. Singer’s schedule but will have visited 5 of 7 programs in the state, as well, doing cadaver labs and giving talks. We have had webinars on MICRA, practice management and grant writing during the past year.

Advocacy is our other major focus. Although we do not have any battles approaching the MICRA debates last year, we continue to work on influencing the legislative agenda in Sacramento with our lobbyist Tim Madden. We have opposed expansion of scope of practice for nurse practitioners and optometrists; the latter together with our ophthalmology colleagues. The bill approving NP’s practicing without direct MD supervision was passed but we have been active in explaining to the powers that be that there is not a specialty in nursing that would license NP’s to operate medi-spas. The bill’s intention was to provide additional primary care in underserved areas and we have tried to direct the focus there. The optometry bill (allowing “minor” surgical procedures) was defeated last year but has been resubmitted; we continue to oppose this. We have joined with the ASPS in opposing a national change in coding for microsurgical breast reconstruction.

Research is another area where we have leveraged CSPSERF dollars. We have entered in a fund matching agreement with the PSF and the first grant will be awarded this year; we should be announcing the recipient at the annual meeting. We are still in discussion with ASAPS about a second matching grant. We are alone among regional societies in offering this type of research funding.

ASPS introduced a new governance structure this year which includes participation in an advisory council called the Council of Representatives and we have successfully applied for a seat at the table. It remains to be seen how this plays out but we look forward to some influence on the national stage.

Our society is now on a solid financial footing, after several tumultuous years where it appeared we could go under. Our management firm PRRI with directors Stan Alger and Lorraine O’Grady have done an admirable job of implementing improved financial controls and reporting. They have been great at organizing the committees, improving membership and dues collections, and especially arranging the annual meeting.

Our annual meeting is approaching on Memorial Day weekend in San Francisco at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, a landmark location on the recently renovated Union Square. Contrary to what you may have heard, San Francisco is alive and well and we have a great program planned, with a focus on the intersection of aesthetics and academics. ASPS President Greg Greco and ASAPS President Melinda Haws will both give updates on the societies and will also participate in panels. Ivana Percec from the University of Pennsylvania, who has combined research in aging with a university based aesthetic practice, will be the Brody Lecturer.

I hope we will see you there!