APMA News - January/February 2024 - 7

thoughts from the ceo
Goodbye and Reflections
As most of you know by now, I will be retiring on March 31. I started with APMA in May
2005 as the director of Scientific Affairs. When I was in that position, APMA was able
to publish a paper on the value of care provided by podiatric physicians and surgeons
to people with diabetes using data from Thomson-Reuters. I am proud the paper has
been used in legislative, insurance, and licensing arenas. We also developed two quality
measures that were endorsed by the National Qualify Forum (NQF) and used first in
the Medicare Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and are still being used in the
Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
In 2015, with the retirement of longtime CEO Glenn Gastwirth, DPM, I was selected to
be the executive director and CEO of APMA. I am honored and proud to have had the
opportunity to serve the association in this position. I am extremely proud and grateful
to your APMA staff who have accomplished tremendous victories for our profession
during my tenure and the incredible value they bring to you, the members of APMA,
daily. To say that this is an incredibly talented, resolute, and professional staff is a severe
understatement. As the process of finding a new executive director/CEO moves forward,
APMA will be under the direction of Denis Russell, CPA, CAE, our current deputy
executive director/chief business officer, who will be the interim executive director. I can
think of no one better to fulfill this role.
I graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine (now Temple
University School of Podiatric Medicine) in 1983. I have seen an incredible maturation of
our profession over the past 40 years. Key to this evolution have been improvements in
our education and training, and these must continue. In my own time in private practice,
we had to fight to get changed from affiliate hospital staff to medical staff, change the
law in Maryland to include treatment of the ankle, and gain emergency room privileges,
to name a few of the challenges. Our colleagues today, while enjoying many of the
victories of the past, still face challenges, including full scope of practice commensurate
with our education and training, as well as reimbursement inequities. We must continue
to work together to resolve these issues and more. That means a strong, unified APMA.
As an APMA member, you should challenge non-members who enjoy the benefits of
legislative and regulatory victories that APMA has achieved to join the association to
make us stronger and do even greater things.
Acknowledging the challenges ahead, I am confident we will meet them head-on and
be successful. We are a small profession, but we have always accomplished remarkable
things, and it has been my honor to have been a part of our battles and our victories.
Thank you and goodbye.
James R. Christina, DPM
Executive Director and CEO
APMA.ORG
apmanews
7

http://www.APMA.ORG

APMA News - January/February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of APMA News - January/February 2024