Dear Friends,

     Happy New Year! I hope you all had a blessed holiday season and were able to spend time with your families. My wife, Cathy, cooked for all our family here and then we spent the following few days in New Orleans visiting her family. I love the restaurants in New Orleans. If I lived there no doubt I would be 300 pounds.

    One of the common occurrences this time of year is to reflect on the past year and plan for the next one. Most folks make "New Year's Resolutions". The trouble is these are usually broken by February. I have always found it better to write down goals and keep those goals where I can see them every day. It's a proven fact that we will move towards the things that we focus and concentrate on.

My goals for our dental society in this year would include:

1. Becoming more involved in volunteering our time to those in need. I would challenge all our members to volunteer at least 4 days in the upcoming year.
2. Our membership would grow in number and we would truly be the representative face of our profession in Upper Pinellas County.
3. We would embrace young dentists in our society and get them involved in organized dentistry quickly.
4. As a society, we would continue to represent the interests of Dentists in the political and legal arenas.
5. We would continue to uphold the standards of patient care to our community.

By now I hope most of you have scheduled to volunteer your time at one of our local dental clinics for 2014. I also encourage you to volunteer for the Florida Mission of Mercy on March 28-29th.  It will be an amazing experience. If you haven't signed up yet, do so under "Team Upper Pinellas" on www.flamom.floridadental.org.

     Our first meeting of the year is January 15th. Dr. Annalise Driscoll will be speaking that evening at East Lake Woodlands Country Club. You do not want to miss this. She has an incredible knowledge of dentistry and dental practices. You will leave knowing more than you do now. Invite a friend and I will see you there

         May this new year be happy, healthy and prosperous for you and your family.

     "We will open the book. Its' pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunities and its' first chapter is New Year's Day."    Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Sincerely,

James R. Pitts II DMD

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Dr. Driscoll is an accomplished Educator, Administrator, Researcher and Consultant with approximately 30 years experience in Health Care. As the founding Director of the Executive Practice Management Certificate Program for Dentists at the University of Florida, College of Dentistry, Dr. Driscoll has taught Practice Management Courses to dentists at UF for 9 years.          

In addition to teaching and developing the Executive Practice Management curriculum at the University of Florida, College of Dentistry, Dr. Driscoll taught at the University of Central Florida, College of Health and Public Affairs in the Health Professions/Health Informatics Management Department.   

She also works collaboratively as an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Research at the University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Community and Family Health Department, collaborating on research on Oral HPV, Medical/Dental Provider Disconnects and the Oral/System Health Connection.
Practice Management Systems, Dr. Driscoll's personalized consulting firm, specializes in both large-scale dental facility design, build out and operational projects, as well as, one-on-one consulting for dentists on Practice Legal Compliance, Operating Systems Development, and Dental Financial Systems Overhaul for Profit Maximization.     

Two of her largest consultative projects include the design, build out, and dental systems implementation for the UCF Dental Center and the Florida State University Dental Center.  

Message from UPCDA: Please help UPCDA keep cost down by referring vendors to sponsor our local meetings. Exhibit cost is $350.00. Exhibitor form

Plenty of notice to get your team ready for the 5th annual UPCDA bowling Tournament!

Community Dental Clinic

Healthy Teeth Clinic, Department of Health, Largo 

(click here for more clinic brochure)

Dentist Volunteers Needed! Want to be part of something great that will really make a difference? Volunteer your time and talents to the Healthy Teeth Clinic. Work with awesome assistants and grateful patients in a beautiful office. We work hard to make sure you have a great experience. Tell us the hours and dates that will work for you and the services you're happy to provide and we will take care of the rest. Currently we are in desperate need of volunteer dentists for January, February and March. Call  or E-Mail Christina Vongsyprasom at 727-824-6966 and Christina_Vongsyprasom@doh.state.fl.us for more information or to set up a volunteer date.