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"If you want something done, give it to a busy person." We often hear that phrase, and when we learn what the particular person is involved in, we usually find it to be true. Such is the case with Dr. Rudolph Moise, who is a primary care physician and founder of the Comprehensive Health Center; and he’s going to get even busier.
Dr. Moise was inducted as president of the Dade County Medical Association at the end of June, and he is already mapping out plans for his year of service. "I’m Haitian American, the first Haitian American in the 117 years who is president of the Dade County Medical Association. I’m very proud of that, and I’m going to take this opportunity to increase membership with more minorities."
He said Dade County has approximately over 7,000 licensed physicians, and we represent over 1,500 of them who are part of our Medical Association. "We need to increase membership in all different aspects – we need to increase African American, Haitian physicians, and Hispanic physicians – so we can be more inclusive. This is one of the priorities I will be working on."
Dr. Moise’s plan will start with making phone calls. He ran for U.S. Congress twice, first in 2010 when nine candidates vied for an open seat and he came in second. After being so close he tried again in 2012 but lost for the second time. However, during both campaigns he raised more money than any other candidate by spending time making fundraising calls to family and friends. "So I’m going to use my skills as a fundraiser to call the doctors and explain to them the importance of being a member of the DCMA. I might go knocking on doors, too, to personally visit and meet with them."
In addition, Dr. Moise will be continuing work on three goals started by the immediate past president, Dr. Antonio Mesa. One is to develop a quality rating system for physicians. "We have some physicians who are doing an outstanding job, and we like to recognize them based on what they do. I think that’s important."
Another goal is to make Miami Medicine magazine into a journal that physicians can use as a reference. "We don’t want it to be something they just throw into a corner. We want them to be able to get good information from it." The third involves the fact that every three years, physicians are required to have 120 hours of continuing medical education to maintain their licenses. "We want to offer that to them so they can meet their licensing requirements."
Dr. Moise will also continue to serve on the community outreach committee Dr. Barbara Montford started last year for the DCMA. "She had appointed me chair of that committee, and we’ve been doing a wonderful job in the community. Some of the police brutality that happened in the past was because the police did not recognize that somebody had a mental illness; they thought the person was dangerous, but it was because they had a mental illness. We’ve been teaching police departments and training officers how to recognize mental illness, so I’d like to continue doing this. The police departments have been great."
Dr. Moise is accustomed to being approached to accept high-ranking board positions. "All the positions I’ve held in the past, except for the congressional seat, I never actively looked for them. One was national president of the University of Miami Alumni Association for two years, and at that time there were 136,000 alumni all over the world. I was happy because I made a big difference and met a lot of wonderful people. The next position was chairman of the Jackson Memorial Hospital Foundation, raising money for the hospital. It was very challenging, but we did that and were successful. Now this one. They came to me and said, would you like to do it. I never say yes right away, I always say let me think about it. So here we go again. It’s nice that colleagues see that you can make a difference and ask you to serve."
Along with his other service, Dr. Moise is a retired United States Air Force Colonel and flight surgeon, having served for 21 years in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. "It was a great experience, so I have a history of serving. Now I am using all of my expertise to serve the community the best that I can."
