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On Thursday, the MSDC COVID-19 Task Force convened its first meeting to discuss how the physician community can address some of the largest issues facing the District during COVID-19.

On April 6, the MSDC Board passed a motion to create a task force that would examine the major questions around the COVID-19 emergency in the District, provide medically-sound guidance for the District, and give diverse perspectives to assist entities in making decisions during the emergency.

The COVID-19 Task Force is chaired by Raymond Scalettar, MD. Dr. Scalettar is a rheumatologist with a decades-long record of service to the House of Medicine, the residents of the District, and U.S. Air Force. He also served on the MSDC AMA Delegation and American Medical Association Board of Trustees.

In addition to Dr. Scalettar's outstanding expertise, the Medical Society of DC is proud to have the following individuals serve as Task Force members:

• Alan Cashell, MD
• Laurie Duncan, MBBS
• Alice Fuisz, MD
• Joseph Gutierrez, MD
• Tenesha Moody, MD
• Kirstiaan Nevin, MD
• Donald O'Kieffe, MD
• Ashesh Patel, MD
• Theresa Stone, MD
• J. Desiree Pineda, MD
• EW Emanuel, MD

On Thursday's Zoom call, the Task Force considered a number of issues and made some recommendations to the Society's leadership. The notes of the conversation can be found here but some recommendations made include:

• The District must create a COVID-19 testing site specifically for healthcare workers with rapid results
• The District must permit self-referrals for physicians seeking COVID-19 testing
• DC Health must liberalize requirements to permit International Medical Graduates (IMG) temporary medical licenses or permission to work in a supervised hospital setting during the public health emergency.

The next meeting of the Task Force is Thursday, April 23 at 5 PM. Members interested in observing or participating may request an invitation from Robert Hay at hay@msdc.org.