The California Medical Association (CMA) installed Los Angeles ophthalmologist David Aizuss, M.D., as its 151^st president during the organization’s annual House of Delegates (HOD) meeting this weekend in Sacramento.

In his address to the delegates, Dr. Aizuss said that physician satisfaction and practice sustainability would be among his top priorities in the upcoming year.

“The presence of third parties in clinical decision-making is corrosive to our relationship with patients,” said Dr. Aizuss. “We must protect both our patients and professional prerogatives, independence and authority.”

Dr. Aizuss also noted that heavy administrative demands and emerging payment systems have forced physicians to spend increasing amounts of time on computer work at the expense of patient care, leading to physician dissatisfaction and burnout.

“CMA recognizes the urgent need for additional programming to mitigate physician burnout…Good care includes caring for us, the physicians,” said Dr. Aizuss.

Dr. Aizuss will officially take the reins at the close of this year’s annual meeting and will serve a term of one year as CMA president.

“Our CMA brand has strength, effectiveness, power and influence,” said Dr. Aizuss. “My goal as your president is to be an effective spokesman and to communicate your concerns, desires, needs and hopes for a professionally satisfying medical practice and effective patient care.”

Dr. Aizuss has been a CMA and Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) member for 37 years. He has been a member of the CMA Board of Trustees since 2010—serving as vice-chair and chair of the board before being named president-elect at last year’s HOD. Dr. Aizuss has also represented the physicians of California as a delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA), and is currently serving on the AMA Council on Legislation. Dr. Aizuss is a former president of LACMA and the California Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

Through the David H. Aizuss, M.D., Medical Corporation, and the Ophthalmology Associates of the Valley Medical Surgical Group, a partnership of medical corporations, Dr. Aizuss focuses exclusively on direct patient care. He is a medical staff member at Tarzana Hospital and West Hills Hospital, in Los Angeles County and serves as an assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.

He received his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School and completed his residency and fellowship in ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles.

The full 2018-2019 CMA Executive Committee includes:

• President: David H. Aizuss, M.D., Los Angeles
• President-Elect: Peter N. Bretan, Jr., M.D., Watsonville
• Chair of the Board: Robert E. Wailes, M.D., Oceanside/Encinitas
• Vice-Chair of the Board: Shannon L. Udovic-Constant, M.D., San Francisco
• Speaker of the House: Lee T. Snook, Jr., M.D., Sacramento
• Vice-Speaker of the House: Tanya W. Spirtos, M.D., Redwood City
• President: Theodore M. Mazer, M.D., San Diego