From Dr Joe Burrascano, Jr., M. D. VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

[Guest guest]

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,

ph Burrascano Jr., M.D.