In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Dr. Steven J. Stack ’94, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), is “pushing an urgent message.”
According to the Tribune, “He believes doctors are overwhelmed by the demands of government regulators and insurance companies, and are losing job satisfaction and burning out.” As an emergency room physician, Stack works to stabilize patients and set them on the road to recovery, “now he is trying to do the same for the nation’s doctors.”
Stack is the youngest AMA president in 160 years at the age of 43 as well as the first emergency medicine physician. He graduated magna cum laude from Holy Cross, where he was a Henry Bean Scholar for classical studies. Stack spoke with the Tribune on the frustrations of today’s physicians, his own path in medicine, the diversity of the medical community, and how his undergraduate studies provided important learning experiences.
“I was someone who liked science and people and figured pragmatically that medicine was a good combination of the two,” Stack told the Tribune. “When I go to work in the ER, I make a difference, one patient at a time. But if I want to have an impact on a broader scale, then we have to come together and we’ve got to tackle some really big problems. Like how do we make sure that every American has access to high-quality, affordable health care?” Stack commented on the prevalence of outdated technology doctors work with every day and the decrease in patient choice in consolidated health care.
On the topic of “corporatization of medicine,” which Stack denounced in a speech to medical students at Ohio State, according the Tribune, Stack said, “The business side of medicine is on the upswing, and the humanism of medicine is challenged by it. There’s so much money and business in health care that it’s creating these frustrations for physicians and for patients. All these other variables are intruding and interfering. So it’s an uneven balance between the two.”
Stack spoke about the influences historical figures such as Socrates and Abraham Lincoln had on him during his studies, “I studied classics in high school and college…There’s countless people to draw learning experiences from.”
- Read the full interview on the Chicago Tribune’s website
Related Information
- The Classic Doctor: Steven J. Stack, M.D., ’94
- Holy Cross Alumnus Steven Stack Inaugurated as President of the American Medical Association
- President-elect of American Medical Association and Holy Cross Alumnus to Reflect on Liberal Arts Education
This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Emma Collins ‘16.
