It is truly an incredible time. Even as we witness the immense and rapid growth of our specialty and the dynamic evolution of medicine, we find ourselves asking critical questions about the clinicians we want to be, the components of practicing medicine that bring the greatest sense of joy and fulfillment, and the outcomes we want to realize for our patients. Being a clinician has never been easy, but the past few years have amplified challenges for all of us. As hospitalists, we operate within a large, often fragmented healthcare system that can feel at odds with our goals, sometimes minimizing our impact or complicating our efforts to provide seamless, continuous care. Many of the assumptions that we previously made are undercut and contested, and so we find ourselves on the frontlines seeking ways to innovate, anchor in the evidence base, and identify viable pathways forward. As witnesses to the full arc of hospitalization from admission through discharge, we ask our patients to place their trust in us, even as trust in science and institutions faces unprecedented strain. We find solidarity in our collective experiences as we seek autonomy to exercise greater agency over our clinical environments and to deliver the exceptional care our patients deserve.
Many of you may just be embarking on your career in hospital medicine, while others are mid-career, balancing demanding clinical roles with administrative responsibilities and searching for a greater connection with fellow hospitalists. And yet, like me, some of you have been practicing since hospital medicine’s earliest days, and are now mentoring younger physicians, leading teams, and evolving alongside the field itself with the same agility that has defined our specialty over the last 25 years.
As your chosen professional society, SHM is here to advocate for you—the individual hospitalist. We are focused on both your present needs and your future as the pace of change accelerates. The rapid growth places sharp demands on the individuals practicing hospital medicine, and so our priorities are rooted in what you need to achieve clinical excellence: support for teaching and training house staff, timely clinical education, and tools to enhance your day-to-day practice. In 2025, we focused on those priorities and developed Clinical Quick Talks, a go-to resource for practical learning. We published our State of Hospital Medicine Report, which is the most comprehensive national overview of practice trends, staffing, compensation, and operational models grounded in data from individuals and groups. Additionally, we continue to amplify your voices as researchers, storytellers, and changemakers in hospital medicine through our publications.
We have had an eventful year as a community. We gathered in Las Vegas at SHM Converge to celebrate our growing community, provided more than 12 educational tracks, welcomed students who represent the future of hospital medicine as part of our Pathways program, and awarded two very bright and worthy students with medical assistance scholarships in recognition of their contributions. We honored our esteemed Awards of Excellence recipients, who are the embodiment of greatness in hospital medicine. Additionally, we presented two inaugural grants to our SHM Global and Rural Health Foundation awardees. Our vast network of chapters continues to grow, providing great avenues of connection and community and serving as a bastion of SHM member enthusiasm and hospitalist pride. SHM continues to advocate for hospitalists and hospitalized patients—working on advancing our longstanding policy priorities like observation care, supporting the hospital medicine workforce, and physician payment reform, while responding to emergent policy issues like Medicaid reform and physician immigration barriers as they arose.
In the months ahead, we will continue to focus on championing the work and contributions of hospitalists. We will advocate for policies that underscore and elevate the value of hospitalists. SHM will also speak about the risks of policies that are detrimental to the health and well-being of the patients we serve. We will navigate the uncertainties ahead with resolve, commitment, and the knowledge that the progress in advancing and improving acute care has never come easily.
Dr. Howell, CEO of SHM
We are ALL part of a dynamic hospital medicine specialty. I am honored to find a sense of community among you.