Candidates for Secretary: Roger Peele, M.D.
Publication: Psychiatric News
Three key roles for the secretary are (1) the approval of the minutes; (2) reviewing potential conflicts of interest within APA, and (3) as a member of the Board, voting on all issues. My position on each of these roles:
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Minutes. Excellent minutes are written now, thanks to the staff—but they are not ratified until months later. This practice can cause problems. For example, about a week after the September Board meeting, a disagreement emerged over what the Board decided about an important question. The dispute will not be officially settled until the Board approves the September minutes at its December meeting. We can do better. Since all Board members are required to have a computer during Board meetings, and all motions are on all computers, it is practical to have minutes developed immediately. As secretary, I will move to approve the minutes just before the motion to adjourn.
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Conflicts of Interest. The secretary reviews disclosures for potential conflicts of interests. Thus, it is important that the secretary's own potential conflicts be clear, and my campaign statements in recent years have been quite specific as to income. All members have potential conflicts. (For example, adequate Medicaid payments have been of special interest to me.) I believe that the best way to address potential conflicts is not by excluding members from participation, but through specific transparency.
Key Issues for the Board:
A major issue the Board will address is APA's governance. My guiding principle will be to vote for proposals that increase the opportunities of interests to impact the direction of APA. Some of these interests are specific to a state, some are subspecialty focused, and some are personal—such as gender, race, and ethnic background. Furthermore, it is essential that many MITs and ECPs have a role in APA's governance. In recent years, I have worked to make the Assembly more representative. For example, I supported minority initiatives to be in the Assembly, was speaker of the Assembly when it voted to add MITs, and my speaker's report (1987) advocated bringing subspecialty organizations into the APA governance. It is important that this expansion be continued. The costs associated with expanding representation can be met through better use of modern communication technologies and increased volunteerism.
The major clinical issue that the Board will address is the draft of DSM-V. How should it be judged? Answer: By the degree that it reduces the use of NOS diagnoses. Proper use of DSM-IV leads to NOS diagnoses 30 percent of the time. A patient wants to hear from a physician that his or her problem has a diagnosis and that diagnosis is associated with a body of knowledge that helps the physician address the problem. DSM-V must provide a meaningful diagnosis for virtually all patients to provide a basis for which to develop knowledge and treatment. The litmus test for the draft of DSM-V is the degree to which DSM-V use of NOSs will approach 0 percent.
Fred Gottlieb and I would like to have an issue campaign. Thus, this statement is being sent to him five days before the deadline, in the hope that he finds areas that will stimulate debate and interest in this election.
My APA activities and brief CV can be found at <RogerPeele.com>.
Primary Professional Activities and Sources of Income
Professional Activities
95%—County government
75%—Clinical
5%—Teaching
5%—Health care policies
10%—Administration
5%—Low-income primary care clinic
Income
100%—Montgomery County government (about $170,000 salary and about $30,000 in benefits)
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Published online: 4 December 2009
Published in print: December 4, 2009
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