Medical leadership and the future of health care

Introduction of Doctor Shore by President Richard P. Anderson It is my pleasure at this time to introduce the Ralph Alley lecturer. You will notice in your program that this lecture is supported by a grant from the Cardiothoracic Research and Education Foundation of Spartanburg, South Carolina. This is a private foundation created by one of our own members, Dr Joe R. Utley. Joe is presently recovering from a severe illness and can’t be with us, and we certainly wish him a speedy return to good health. Dr Ralph D. Alley, for whom this lecture is named, was not only a founder of this Society but he served as a mentor to most of the officers and many of the members over a period of 20 years. As both an inspiring teacher and a humanist, I believe that he would approve heartily of our lecturer this year, who is Dr Miles Shore. Doctor Shore is a psychiatrist. He was educated at the University of Chicago in undergraduate work and then subsequently at Harvard University. His distinguished career in mental health includes both clinical and administrative appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine and at Harvard University. He is presently Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Mental Health Systems at Harvard. In 1993 he was appointed visiting scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and in 1996, together with Dr Joseph Newhouse, Jack M. Matloff, and other members of this Society, he created the Health Policy Executive Program, Understanding the New World of Health Care. Subsequently, he has served as an enthusiastic director of that course. His particular interests are health policy and leadership. Those of us fortunate enough to have heard his lectures are impressed with both his scholarship and his insight into human behavior. As we approach the new century, there is no better guide to the complex world that health care has become than Miles.