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Passing the Torch

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Dear Esteemed members of the Thunder Bay Medical Society,

It has been my greatest honour and pleasure in my medical career, thus far, to serve our Society as your President from 2020 to Present.

We have experienced a lot of uncertainty through the past few years, as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped our world and forever changed the face of medicine and how we provide care for our patients. Regardless of our specialties, we have all had to learn how to adapt to these changes- some of which were imposed and some of which we carefully crafted to address a need brought about by the pandemic. Thank you to each and every one of you for persevering and putting our patients at the pinnacle of why we practice medicine.

It is likely the understatement of the year to say we are all exhausted. The pandemic’s greatest change, and unfortunately the most negative, has been the social isolation. The medical community has historically developed into a tight knit community. This aspect was torn away from us forcing us behind screens and putting a screeching halt to our social events.

I, like so many of you, used to excitedly anticipate reconnecting with colleagues, and meeting new ones, at our CME events and President’s Gala. My one desire for the TBMS is to reclaim the tight knit community we have been so blessed to be a part of.

As my last act as your President, I had the great honour of hosting the President’s Gala last evening. What a phenomenal evening of fellowship and connection with those that joined us. Thank you to our esteemed colleague, Dr. Mark Thibert and his jazz band, Mood Indigo, for honouring us with your gift of music. The ambience was amazing and the music provided the perfect backdrop for our colleagues to enjoy a night catching up with old friends and new. The opportunity to be our authentic selves and see so many shake off the stress and drain of the daily medical grind and connect at our human level was refreshing.

For those in attendance, I was deeply honoured to introduce to you the new TBMS Executive and pass the torch to our new President.

I am hopeful for our future as a Society. I am hopeful because of the fire in the bellies of our new executive towards their collective desire to bring us all back together, to modernize the Society and to continue to mould it to best address the wants and needs of our Membership.

Without further ado, I present to you our TBMS 2023 Executive-

Past President- Dr. Anna Laakso

President- Dr. Sanjay Azad

Vice President- Dr. Rasheed Osman

Treasurer- Dr. Matt Holmes

Secretary- Dr. Shikha Bansal

Members at Large- Drs. Hadia Naqi and Yasser Labib

As always, the Executive seeks and desires your feedback as members. Our Annual General Meeting will occur in November 2022. Keep an eye out for more info in the coming weeks. Please feel free to connect with any of the Executive. To reach our Society Administration Secretary, Marion Robinson, her email is secretary@tbms.ca.

I have so much excitement to work under the leadership of Dr. Sanjay Azad as he leads us all forward as a Society.

Yours in health and friendship,

Dr. Anna Laakso, Past President

Thunder Bay Medical Society