On behalf of the Department of Health and Senior Services, Commissioner Dr. Poonam Alaigh today thanked physicians throughout New Jersey for their commitment to their patients and for the work they do serving their communities.

Today is National Doctors’ Day, which was first observed on March 30, 1933—the anniversary of the day that anesthesia was first administered to a patient in 1842. In 1990, former President George H. W. Bush signed a law designating March 30 each year as National Doctors’ Day.

Approximately 33,000 physicians are licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey. They work as primary care physicians, surgeons, specialists, hospitalists, epidemiologists, public health specialists, pediatricians, obstetricians, radiologists, internists, family practice physicians, policymakers, researchers, administrators and educators. They are involved in medical breakthroughs that result in advances in medical innovation.

In addition to recognizing practicing physicians, today offers an opportunity to recognize the next generation of physicians—the students who are training in medical schools and hospitals throughout our state.

“As the state’s leading public health agency, the Department recognizes the important partnership we have with the state’s physicians who are on the front lines of not only providing medical care but reporting and investigating disease outbreaks and advising patients on how to manage chronic disease and adopt a more healthy lifestyle,” said Dr. Alaigh, a board certified internist with a specialty in vascular diseases.

Before Gov. Chris Christie nominated Dr. Alaigh as Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, she was executive medical director for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. She also served as national medical director for GlaxoSmithKline, worked in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Lyons and implemented one of the first hospitalist programs in Long Island in the mid-1990s.  

“As a physician, the words of poet and author Maya Angeliou always resonate with me: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,’ ” Dr. Alaigh said. “Physicians have the ability to touch one patient at a time and truly change a patient’s quality of life. With those words we at the Department wanted to take time today to recognize New Jersey’s physicians.’’