I went to Boston on May 7th with two goals in mind: one - to meet with the administration of the St. Elizabeth Medical Center and the other - to talk to Michael Maysky and other members of the Association of the Russian Speaking Physicians of Massachusetts.

St. Elizabeth, which is now Caritas St. Elizabeth is the location of the 2nd National Conference of R-AMA and we need their support for this event to be successful. I got more than I expected - I met with Dr. John Pastore - the Head of the Educational Committee of the hospital and with John Burke - the vice president. Both were very supportive and we had a good conversation. The hospital is ready to provide its Conference Center, support stuff, facilities, help us with fundraising, preparation of the first issue of the R-AMA Journal etc. Of note - John Pastore, MD is a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1985 for his work in the International Physicians for the Prevention of the Nuclear War group. Quite impressive. Now we have the support we needed - it is time to start working - we have 4 months before the Conference.

I met Michael Maysky, MD at the hospital on Friday and than again on Saturday at his house. I also had a pleasure to meet his family and two other doctors - Nellie Konnikov and Tatiana Feld. After two hours of discussions we agreed that we have common goals and interests, and since R-AMA is an "umbrella" organization on the national level, we will both benefit, if Massachusetts Group will join R-AMA as an independent state chapter. During the next 4 months we both will work on the adaptation of R-AMA by-laws so it accommodates the interests of the group, discuss it with individual physicians and will finalize the merger in September during the National Conference. Former President of the Boston Group Lyuba Vartikovski, MD, who now works at the NIH in Bethesda, MD totally supports this idea. I think that it is a very important development for R-AMA and I am glad that we found this common ground. Not to omit the important part - the dinner was wonderful also.

Boston is my favorite city in America and just walking along its beautiful old streets in Downtown, Business District, wharfs is great. Nothing can beat Boston - architecture, history, culture, food, accent - it is awesome. I am convinced we will organize a great conference and people who will come will be more than satisfied.

Next trip is to Chicago - to meet with three other groups…
We are much stronger together…


Boris Vinogradsky, MD