Albany Medical College Practice Physicians Join State and County Medical Societies

WESTBURY, NY (05/16/2011)(readMedia)-- The Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) is proud to announce that all 325 medical staff physicians of the Albany Medical College (AMC) Faculty Practice have united to join MSSNY and the Medical Society of the County of Albany (MSCA), the state and county's only professional organizations that represent the interests of patients and physicians of all specialties. The doctors joined as a group and, in so doing, became the first-ever "institutional" members of the Albany society and the second institutional members in the state.

"We are delighted to welcome these physicians into membership and strongly believe that they and our medical societies will mutually benefit as the result of this new union," said Paul Hamlin, MD, President of MSSNY. "The individual AMC doctors' voices are strengthened by being part of MSSNY and the MSCA; and their united voices, in turn, will strengthen the influence of the medical societies on the legislative, regulatory and business environments that impact physicians in NY State. Individual physicians can no longer cope alone with the many new challenges facing them every day in their attempts to deliver quality healthcare to their patients. The primary mission of MSSNY and MSCA is to help physicians overcome those challenges, but as they become more and more acute, we need every physician to be a part of the effort."

Commenting further, Dr. Hamlin said, "We commend Albany Medical Center's leaders for their foresight in finding new ways to maximize benefits for their faculty practice physicians, and we look forward to hearing their ideas, particularly on healthcare policy issues. We applaud Dr. Ferdinand Venditti, Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs at Albany Medical College, and Dr. Peter Sosnow, President of the Medical Society of Albany County, for their hard work in bringing this large group to MSSNY. We hope that other hospital and academic groups will emulate their decision."

Dr. Venditti in turn said, "Our faculty practice physicians are excited about joining the medical societies and working with them to effectively address the challenges facing physicians and patients in today's rapidly changing healthcare environment. We look forward to working with MSSNY to shape and support the physician agenda."

For additional information and/or to set up interviews related to this announcement, please contact Janice Morano (516-488-6100 x302 or jmorano@mssny.org) at MSSNY, Jonathan Dougherty (518-438-0769 or doughj@albmed.org) at MSCA, and Jennifer Freeman (518-262-5376 or freemaj@mail.amc.edu) at AMC.

Founded in 1807, the Medical Society of the State of New York is the state's principal non-profit professional organization for physicians, residents and medical students of all specialties. Its mission is to represent the interests of patients and physicians to assure quality healthcare services for all.