Our impact
What King County physicians have changed
King County Medical Society empowers physicians and citizens to improve health in our community. Every result on this page started with a physician who saw a problem in practice and brought it to the Society.
100+
Resolutions written by Society physicians since 2018
8,000+
Physicians and clinicians reached with every newsletter
12
Medical students funded by our Community Foundation
COVID
A statewide response: PPE, vaccine access, and telehealth for frontline healthcare workers
Now Washington law
Laws that started in this room
Society resolutions don't stay on paper. A few that changed how physicians practice and how patients get care:
Also passed with the Society behind it: lead testing in schools, glucose monitor access, audio-only telehealth payment, firearm injury prevention education, lower-emission anesthetic gases, and reproductive medication access.
Spotlight
Fixing how Washington investigates death
In the smallest counties, the official deciding whether a death needs an autopsy was the local prosecutor, with no science training required. The Society wrote the law to change it, and the governor signed it.
Roles separated
Prosecutors no longer double as coroners in Washington's smallest counties.
Training required
Statewide training and certification for coroners and medical examiners.
Enforcement
Counties that don't comply lose a quarter of their state autopsy funding.
Pipeline
A state study of the forensic pathologist shortage, including new fellowships at UW and WSU.
As covered by
KFF Health News · CBS News · Chicago Tribune · The Seattle Times · KNKX Public Radio
Read the KFF Health News storyBeyond King County
A voice at the national table
White House
Ahead on gun violence
The Society called for a national firearm injury prevention office three years before the White House created one.
AMA
Pulse oximeter bias
The AMA adopted the Society's resolution on oximeters that misread oxygen levels in patients with darker skin, and pressed the FDA for better testing.
Next up
AI and corporate medicine
Protections for high-risk AI in clinical care and limits on corporate control of medical practice.
Clinical education
Research-based tools clinicians actually use
78%
of clinicians more confident after our hemophilia training
9 in 10
said our tools fit easily into practice
40+
free toolkits and videos, with results published in the peer-reviewed journal Cureus
When COVID hit
Physicians couldn't get PPE. So we made it.
While supply chains collapsed, the Society manufactured protective gear and delivered it to clinics and hospitals across the state. When vaccines arrived, the Washington State Department of Health named us the official Phase Finder for King County, and we got frontline physicians, dentists, and their staff to the front of the line.
150,000+
Units of PPE manufactured and delivered
5,000+
COVID vaccine appointments scheduled for frontline healthcare workers
1,000
Telehealth devices so physicians could keep seeing patients
"You are the only agency who has made such an organized effort on our behalf."
A King County healthcare provider
The next generation
"As someone raised in a single-parent, low-income household in South King County, this grant means more than words can express."
Waleed Gharib, one of a dozen medical students funded by the King County Medical Society Community Foundation
Your voice, championed.
All of this runs on membership. $275 a year, roughly half what the state association charges. $65 for retired physicians. If your employer doesn't cover your dues, ask.