In my year as President of SHM, I will continue to develop our organization’s founding mission and to serve hospitalists in their goal of providing the best quality of care to their patients and having satisfying, sustainable, and rewarding jobs. SHM will continue to lead and define the field of hospital medicine in education, leadership, quality, patient safety, and teamwork. In addition, I hope to use my unique skills and insights to focus our members on the central role of research in defining our field and the need for SHM to help direct that research. I will also highlight the importance of hospitalists in providing palliative care and in improving the care of patients with serious and terminal illness. I encourage each hospitalist to embrace these critical issues and invite you to join me in implementing this vision to advance research in hospital medicine and to improve palliative care in hospitals. The research committee has already completed a report on the potential role of SHM in research in hospital medicine that the Board of Directors will discuss at our meeting in May, and I am planning an initiative in palliative care. If you would like to participate in either initiative or simply want to share your thoughts and ideas about these or other important issues in hospital medicine, please contact me by email ([email protected]). My closing wish is that Terri Schiavo’s family will find comfort and closure, out of the media spotlight, and that the memory of the Pope is honored by the ongoing lessons of tolerance and peace that he taught.