One week after Gov. Mitt Romney signed the most ambitious statewide health care bill on record, a record amount of more than 600 members of the medical profession met at the Boston Marriot Copley Place Thursday at the 94th annual meeting of the Federation of State Medical Boards to discuss the future of the state’s health care.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey said she was particularly excited for the meeting in the wake of Massachusetts’s legislation requiring all state residents to have health care by July 1, 2007.

Healey explained that when Romney first took office, more than 45 percent of the state budget was dedicated to funding healthcare. She said the Massachusetts health care industry maintained double-digit inflation rates because of the 7 percent of the state’s population that did not have health insurance.

Healey said Massachusetts residents below the poverty line were previously eligible for federal health coverage under Medicaid, but many individuals above the poverty line still cannot afford health insurance and may not receive benefits from their employers. She added that the universal health care system – which will offer subsidized, tax-free health care – in cooperation with state and insurance providers, be available to Massachusetts’s poorest residents for as low as $160 a month.

Keynote speaker Dr. Michael Johns addressed the main concerns of the meeting, discussing the need to reform the training medical students receive as well as the licensing and accreditation procedures for doctors.

Johns said the system of state licensing for doctors is becoming increasingly antiquated as technology improves. Johns and other members from the Federation of State Medical Boards are advocating a nationwide system that would no longer require doctors to receive accreditation for each individual state in which they practice.

Saying “we are no longer living in the 19th century of horse and buggy,” Johns called the accredited system outdated, comparing the current system to one in which airline pilots would have to be reaccredited in each state they flew through.

Johns said increasing globalization presents “unprecedented opportunities and risks,” calling global disease, such as SARS, bird flu, terrorism and natural disasters as legitimate risks to the medical community.

In regards to globalization, Johns said the medical community must think in “bigger and bolder terms” to keep up with improving technology, stressing the need to make use of available technology and recommending curriculums for medical students that would provide a strong background in computation, physics and mathematics.

Drew Carlson, FSMB director of communications, said annual FSMB meeting allows medical professionals to “gather together and discuss common issues and changes each year.”

Carlson added the issues are relevant not only to medical professionals but to the public as well, especially for college students who may be pursuing careers in medicine.

“It’s good to be aware of what will be asked of students professionally and ethically,” Carlson said.

Commenting on globalization concerns, Johns said the future of medicine ultimately lies in how the medical profession “chooses to define ourselves … in the flat, seamless, portable world.”