From: Joe!
To: Burrascano, Joseph MD
Cc: mmi@... ; ILADS@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 6:29 PM
Subject: mmi From Dr. B-VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear friends,

I have a major announcement to make.

After over twenty five years of medical practice, I have decided to
close my
office and retire from the clinical practice of medicine.

Last week I mailed out letters to my currently active patients to
make this
announcement, and I now wanted to share this news with my friends on-
line.

This has been a very difficult decision for me. The rewards of
medical
practice have been tremendous. I have met and helped many wonderful
people,
and have had great fun too! It will be very very hard to say good
bye. On
the other hand, there is so much more that I would like to see done,
on a
larger scale, for the benefit of more patients. By closing my office
I will
have more time to focus on these broader problems.

I have become more and more frustrated of late, because I have had
to turn
away up to ten prospective patients a day- clearly, more Lyme-
literate
physicians are desperately needed. I feel that my experience with
the
management of patients with tick-borne illnesses would be better
served by
my spending more of my time on physician education and on completing
my
current, very important, research project. I want, once and for all,
for the
ILADS point of view to be the recognized standard for all
professionals. I
also wish to remain active in the political realm, as political
reform and a
more realistic view of our illnesses have to be addressed at the
government
and public levels.

I realized that it is impossible for me to run a full time medical
office
and also pursue these other goals. In addition, because of the high
cost of
running an office, I cannot simply see patients part-time, because
many
fixed costs do not decrease simply because fewer patients are being
seen.

My decision comes at a good time for me personally. I feel well, my
prostate
cancer seems to be in a remission, and I have not had any bad news
from the
state Medical Board lately. In other words, this decision has not
resulted
from any secret problem that I am trying to hide. Of course, rumors
will
fly, but I say sincerely to all of you that there is no hidden
agenda.
PLEASE try to keep the gossip down, and also please don't call my
office to
talk about this, because I do not want the phone lines to become
clogged
such that important medically related calls cannot get through.

It has been an amazing 25 years! Together we have witnessed many
wonderful
developments, but some disappointing ones too. We have made many new
friends, but have lost too many to this disease.

I am grateful to all those who have stood behind me over the years,
and I
will always be thinking of you- that is the point behind my decision.

I hope that my future efforts on the behalf of the Lyme community
will
continue to be as fruitful and personally rewarding as they already
have
been. I wish all of you the very best!

With sincerity and great affection,

Joseph James Burrascano Jr., M.D.