President's Message
Dear Greater Saint Louis Community!
The 2023 year is a new beginning after a long, persistent battle with COVID-19, which affected all of us in ways we cannot easily express. We fought together, some of us at the frontline, including physicians like myself. Being an Infectious Diseases physician, I witnessed the turmoil and disturbance within our community and our admirable ability to strive for recovery from this long-lasting event. We physicians and healthcare workers appreciate your support and help through these tough times. The pandemic and its aftermath, as I learned in my line of work, were trying times for all physicians; we saw people face many hardships, some being our own, and worked endlessly to ensure that our patients and the people we served were healthy and safe. I am sure this took a toll on everyone to an extent, as the calamity of COVID-19 was overwhelming for not only health professionals, but civilians, and the entire nation.
Our community came back strong after all of our shared efforts!
Let’s continue our work and efforts together during this new beginning. I would like to start this by focusing on revitalizing and emphasizing the APPNA physicians and community wellbeing. With the help of the dedicated APPNA Executive Committee, we will organize focused educational sessions on addressing and solving current challenges faced by physicians and help them achieve their maximum potential.
We also aim to introduce projects for the community's wellbeing, as we must give back to the community that worked alongside us to bounce back from the effects of the pandemic. I will be overseeing the introduction of upcoming projects that I hope will be ongoing after this year. These projects entail providing people with healthy outlets pertaining to selfcare, creative pastimes, and healthy coping mechanisms.
One of these creative pastimes and coping mechanisms that I am particularly fond of is poetry and intellectual interactions with literature. To practice this, we will be hosting a grand Mushaira, initiating a book club, and have a plethora of the aforementioned seminars on more healthy outlets.
I look forward to starting this journey, together, and greatly value any feedback or suggestions that you, as an engaged individual of our perseverant community will share. I will see to it that this feedback is attended to, and we truly appreciate the continuous engagement of the StL community in helping us bring the change and care you all deserve.
Thank you,
Sumbul Meraj, M.D.
CEO Infectious Diseases Consultants.
Associate Professor Infectious Diseases Saint Louis University.
Chief of Operations ID Service Line, Medical Director, Vituity.
Consultant Telehealth Infectious Diseases, Access Physicians.
Consultant Infectious Diseases, IDPC
President, 2023
Greater St Louis Chapter of APPNA