TAFP's newly inducted officers, from left: Douglas Currant, M.D., parliamentarian; Erica W. Swegler, M.D., president-elect; David Schneider, M.D., president; Linda M. Siy, M.D., vice president; and Samuel T. Coleridge, D.O., treasurer

Gold Headed Cane Award goes to Family Doc

 

The Tarrant County Medical Society presented Charles Rush, M.D., a lifetime member and 2003 Physician Emeritus of TAFP, with the coveted Gold Headed Cane Award. Over the years, Rush has accumulated invaluable experience, qualifying him for the prestigious award from his colleagues. He has not only served in the Marine Corps, but he has practiced as a family physician and an allergist, fathered three children and been an active leader in his community.

 

Originally from Waco, Rush fought in WWII before entering college. When he returned, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled at Texas Christian University in 1946. He met his future partners there, David Pillow, M.D, and Bruce Johnson, M.D., as well as his wife, Helen. Rush graduated from medical school in 1953, joined TCMS, and opened a clinic with Pillow in 1955. After an extended run in family practice, he opened the Rush Allergy Clinic with the Texas Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists in North Richland Hills.

 

Rush has volunteered at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo since 1965. He is active with his church, St. Andrews Episcopal Church, and holds a number of positions. With the TCMS, Rush has served as President, a member of the board of directors, the Public Grievance Committee and the Physicians Benevolent Fund Committee. He is also the past president of the Pan American Allergy Society.

 

The Gold Headed Cane Award originated in 1951 in Tarrant County when Porter Brown, M.D., established the honor to recognize physicians as true friends in the medical community. The award recognizes the esteem and respect for fellow physicians, and solidifies physicians’ relationships. The concept stemmed from a book called “The Gold-Headed Cane” about the lives of London doctors during the 16th and 17th centuries. The very first recipient was C.O. Terrell, M.D., who died a few months before the award was even conceived.

 

Center FP appointed to State Medical Board

 

Gov. Rick Perry appointed six people, including one family physician, to serve on the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners for terms to expire April 13, 2009. The board regulates licensed health care professionals in Texas and educates consumers regarding their rights in seeking quality health care. TAFP member Keith E. Miller, M.D. of Center, Texas was among the appointees.

 

Miller is a family physician in private practice and a physician reviewer for the Texas Medical Foundation. He is president of the Shelby-Sabine County Medical Society, a member of the Texas Medical Association and a fellow of the AAFP. Miller serves on the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Medical Advisory Committee for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and on the Development Council of Baylor University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and his medical degree from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine.

 

Miller says the fact that he was appointed demonstrates a great deal about today’s Texas leadership. “Gov. Perry’s foresight and wisdom is evident by his inclusion of family physicians and rural physicians as well as physicians of all specialties and localities into discussion that will take place as we all come together to meet the health care challenges that face Texas in the future,” Miller says. “Physicians in Texas want to do what’s necessary to maintain the public’s trust and confidence in the healthcare given to them and their families.”

AAFP honors Texas student group

 

UTHSC San Antonio’s Family Practice Student Association was among the 11 nationwide to be recognized as 2003 Programs of Excellence. The awards are given annually by the AAFP to recognize groups for their efforts to stimulate interest in family medicine. They are presented to groups who exhibit exemplary efforts in infrastructure, student involvement and retention, family practice advocacy, community outreach and patient care. In their nine-page application, FPSA leaders Patricia Santistevan, Peter Ruiz and Dimple Patel outlined the structure of their group and detailed their activities designed to generate interest in family medicine. The UTHSC San Antonio FPSA also engages in community outreach including involvement in community health fairs and work at the Old Pearsall Road Multi-Service Center.

Schneider recognized for service to Tar Wars

 

TAFP President, F. David Schneider, M.D., of San Antonio was honored this summer by Tar Wars for his service as program advisor. As a member of the AAFP Commission on Public Health, Schneider has served as an advisor for the last two years. The Tar Wars program, developed in 1988, has reached over 2.5 million children worldwide with the tobacco-free message. The program includes classroom presentations to fourth- and fifth-grade students by health care professionals and educators and a poster contest. Tar Wars is a program by the AAFP and overseen by a panel of advisors that includes two members from the AAFP Commission on Public Health. Funding for the program was in jeopardy last year and there was a great outcry from the membership to save the program. “We felt that was really a message that we need to spend more resources on the program and make it a more visible part of the Academy’s activities. To do that, we are increasing the participation of the advisors,” Schneider says. Schneider’s term as advisor will end Dec. 31, 2003

 

Mabry announces candidacy

 

Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., TAFP Past President and Delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates, announced her intention to run for AAFP Vice Speaker. Her candidacy was officially announced at the Congress of Delegates in New Orleans, Oct. 2. Mabry is Associate Director of the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Family Practice Residency Program in San Antonio. She has served as Delegate to the Congress of Delegates since 1998 and was Alternate Delegate from 1996-98. She has served on numerous TAFP committees and commissions, the AAFP Commission on Public Health and currently serves on the AAFP Commission on Finance and Insurance. Quoting The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, Mabry says that parliamentary procedure gives us “the right of free and fair debate, the right of the majority to decide, and the right of the minority to protest and be protected.” 

 

“The Speaker has the unique position to represent the voice of the members of the AAFP through their delegate to the governing board. Through my study and practice of Parliamentary Procedure and my profession as a family physician, I feel I can do this,” said Mabry. Two delegates from each state chapter of the academy will vote for vice speaker at the next Congress, Oct. 11-13, 2004, in Orlando, Fla.

Family physicians convene in Dallas

Report from TAFP’s 54th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly

 

TAFP members enjoyed another successful meeting at the Academy’s 54th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly. This year’s meeting was held in Dallas at the Hyatt Regency at Reunion, July 24-27. More than 400 physicians attended the conference.

 

TAFP’s Annual Session and Scientific Assembly has been billed as the premier family medicine conference in the state, and this year’s meeting definitely lived up to that description. “Credit should go to the TAFP Commission on Annual Session and CME for producing an exceptionally fine symposium featuring nationally known speakers on a wide variety of topics,” says TAFP Executive Director, Jim White.

 

Attendees had the opportunity to earn up to 29.5 hours of top-quality CME. Among the most notable speakers were Sidney Braman, M.D., chief of Pulmonary and Critical Medicine at Brown University; Louis Kuritzky, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at the University of Florida; and Thomas Rennie, M.D., chief of the Rheumatology Division of the Brooke Army Medical Center. The Academy was thrilled to have two outstanding keynote speakers for the conference as well: Texas Commissioner of Health Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., and AAFP President James Martin, M.D.

 

More than 100 TAFP members participated in Academy commission and committee meetings to develop health care policy to benefit the patients of Texas and the physicians who serve them. Topics of discussion ranged from public health to managed care issues, legislative initiatives and medical ethics. Among the many decisions made by the TAFP Board of Directors was the appointment of a task force to study credentialing procedures hospitals use to assign admitting privileges. The Board also decided to give financial support to the Physicians Caring for Texas Political Action Committee, which is dedicated to the passage of Proposition 12. This is the constitutional amendment that gives the Legislature the ability to cap non-economic damages in liability lawsuits.

 

Amid the business, learning and fellowship, the Academy took the opportunity to honor some of its outstanding members. Louis B. Hughes, M.D., of Baytown was on hand to accept one of the Academy’s highest honors, the Family Physician of the Year Award. Watch for a profile of Dr. Hughes in the next edition of TFP.

 

The Physician Emeritus award was given to two deserving physicians: Charles A. Rush, M.D., of Hurst, and Robert Rakel, M.D., of Houston. Each year, physicians who have led lives of distinguished service are nominated by their patients, peers and colleagues to receive the title of Physician Emeritus. The criteria for the award requires that candidates be committed to and involved in organized medicine and have contributed long and meritorious service.

 

Rush served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and earned a degree in chemistry from TCU. After graduating from Baylor University College of Medicine in 1953, he went to Fort Worth to practice. He has been in practice since 1955 and has also been involved with the Southwestern Exposition Livestock Show and Rodeo as the Official Rodeo Doctor for the past 35 years. Rush served as president of the Tarrant County Medical Society and past president of the Tarrant County Academy of Medicine. In fact, he is this year’s recipient of the Tarrant County Medical Society’s coveted Gold-Headed Cane Award.

 

“He is conscientious, knowledgeable, caring physician who exemplifies all the outstanding qualities desirable in a family physician,” says on of his colleagues, M. Dwain McDonald, M.D.

 

Robert Rakel, M.D., is a respected name in family practice education. He received the Thomas W. Johnson Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians in 1973. He was also the chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Associate Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston for 12 years before he retired in 1997. In addition, Rakel edited some of the essential textbooks in family practice education including the “Textbook of Family Practice” and the “Saunders Manual of Medical Practice.”

The TAFP Political Action Committee recognized Roland Goertz, M.D., of Waco, with the annual TAFPPAC Award for going beyond the call of duty to advocate for family practice and the patients. Goertz has often represented the Academy before members of the Legislature, and legislative and regulatory committees. “Dr. Goertz’s commitment to the advancement of our legislative agenda through the election and legislative cycle helped pave the way for our success this session,” says outgoing TAFP President Robert Hogue, M.D.

 

Goertz serves as the executive director for the Waco Family Practice Residency Program, where he has practiced since 1997. During the 78th Legislature, he worked toward the passage of comprehensive medical liability reform, sweeping prompt pay legislation, and he fought to protect state funding for Medicaid and CHIP programs. “Dr. Goertz’s work to protect the patients of Texas and to reform Texas’ fragile health care system has been immeasurable. He is a problem solver, an advocate and a leader,” Hogue says.

The Foundation’s Philanthropist of the Year for 2003 is Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., R.Ph., of Pleasanton, for encouraging medical students and residents in the pursuit of family practice. The Philanthropist of the Year Award was first given in 1995 to recognize physicians whose contributions have made a significant impact on the TAFP Foundation and its mission.  

Mabry has received the award in the past, but her “contributions, both of finances and leadership continue to grow,” Hogue says. In addition to caring for her patients, she has served as a preceptor to medical students, a member of the Foundation Board of Trustees, and as a champion of the S. Perry Post, M.D., Scholarship and the James C. Martin, M.D., Scholarship. She has also completely funded a Foundation scholarship to encourage young female physicians to become involved with the TAFP. Mabry serves as associate director of the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Family Practice Resident Program in San Antonio.

The TAFP leadership passed the torch to the next class of officers at the conference’s most anticipated event, the Installation Banquet and Ball. This year’s gala was held in the great hall at historic Union Station. As the outgoing president, Dr. Hogue, presided over the event, passing the gavel to San Antonio’s F. David Schneider, M.D., after AAFP President James Martin, M.D., swore in the Academy’s new officers. The officers for 2003-04 are: F. David Schneider, M.D., president; Erica W. Swegler, M.D., president-elect; Linda M. Siy, M.D., vice president; Samuel T. Coleridge, D.O., treasurer; and Douglas Curran, M.D., parliamentarian.

 

Louis B. Hughes, M.D., 2003 Family Physician of the Year

Louis B. Hughes, M.D., honored as 2003 Family Physician of the Year

 

This year, the prestigious Family Physician of the Year Award went to Louis B. Hughes, M.D., of Baytown, Texas. A graduate of Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans, La., he has been active in the Baytown medical community for 35 years.

 

He has served as the Baytown City Health Officer, as Team Physician for Lee High School for 41 years and as president of the East Harris County Medical Society. He also volunteers with the Baytown Lions Club and with the Catholic Church. He has been affiliated with the San Jacinto Methodist Hospital Family Practice Residency Program for many years.

 

“I feel the best compliment paid to anyone is when peers hold one of their group with the high esteem and respect as a person and as a professional,” says Leon Rochen, executive director of the Harris County Chapter. “Dr. Hughes was elected as HCC Physician of the Year by those who know him best, his peers in Harris County.”

 

Hughes is a native of Austin, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin before entering medical school. In his time as a doctor he has delivered more than 5,000 babies. Hughes told the Baytown Sun that he recalls delivering one baby, whose mother he delivered 32 years earlier. In a letter of recommendation, one of Hughes’ patients wrote, “He opens his office, his home and his heart to his patients, and has impacted countless families over the years.”

 

Each year, extraordinary family physicians throughout Texas are nominated by their peers and colleagues to be distinguished as the Texas Family Physician of the Year. “[He] is a great doctor, but he is also a family man, a respected instructor, a leader, a man of God, a man of integrity, and a good friend,” wrote another of Hughes’ patients.

 

Still, Hughes maintains his modesty and says he places little importance on winning. He told the Baytown Sun, “I’m not much for all this stuff. It means more to my wife and kids. I guess they picked the only one still practicing.”

 

The Family Physician of the Year Award is one of TAFP’s highest honors. To qualify, a physician must be compassionately dedicated to their patients, active in their communities and provide a credible, invaluable role model as a professional in the science and art of medicine.

  

 

Attention TAFP local chapters: to have news from your chapter printed here, please contact Jonathan Nelson at jnelson@tafp.org