TAFP loses past president

Jim Randles, M.D., 59, of Vernon, Texas, died Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006, at his residence. Randles served as TAFP president from 1993 to 1994.

Randles was born Dec. 20, 1946, in Fort Worth, to Bobbie Marie Ross Randles Washmon and Troy Jim Randles. A 1965 graduate of Paschal High School in Fort Worth, and a 1969 graduate of Baylor University, he married Sarah Mason Smith on June 7, 1969, in Waco. Randles received his M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1973, and completed a three-year residency at USAF Medical Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He practiced medicine for 20 years in Waco with the Scott and White Clinic, before moving to Garland, where he taught at Garland Family Practice Residency for five years. He then practiced in a rural clinic in Columbia, La., before coming to Vernon in 2003.

In the Vernon community, Randles was a deacon of Calvary Baptist Church, a member of the Lions Club and the team physician for Vernon High School and Vernon College.

He is survived by his wife Sarah Randles of Vernon, mother Bobbie Marie Washmon and her husband Bruce of Fort Worth; mother-in-law Elizabeth Githens of Waco; daughter Alice Sauer, her husband Michael, and their children, Cory, Grace and Logan Sauer, all of Waco; daughter Cary Randles of Waco; son William Ross Randles of Osaka, Japan; sister Patti Markos, her husband Chris, and their children Christopher and Jenni of Bedford; and several nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins.

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Jarquin to hold office in HCMS

Armando J. Jarquin, M.D., has been installed as the 2006 secretary/treasurer for the Harris County Medical Society Southwest Branch. HCMS is divided into six branches to effectively represent the members, who number more than 9,000. This branch serves the areas of Alief, Sharpstown, Bellaire and southwest Houston.

Jarquin is also the 2004 past president of the Hispanic American Medical Association of Houston.

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Report from TAFP Interim Session

Busy weekend yields great results for family medicine

Over 250 physicians and 100 residents and students gathered at the Hilton Austin Airport to attend another successful C. Frank Webber Lectureship and Interim Session. The busy weekend was filled with CME lectures and committee/commission meetings with special events for all participants.

CME topics ranged from the treatment updates for an enlarged prostate, ADHD and eczema, as well as policy topics like the progress of the Future of Family Medicine project.

On Saturday, TAFP hosted the Texas Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Students where attendees listened to a set of lectures specifically tailored toward in-depth learning about starting a family medicine practice. A resident-led procedures fair, the highlight of the conference, allowed students to get valuable hands-on experience with interactive demonstrations and simulations of suturing, circumcisions, vasectomies, splinting and casting, ultrasounds, colonoscopies and other procedures.

The board of directors meeting wrapped up the weekend with many important reports and recommendations from TAFP’s committees, commissions and sections. Some of the measures that continue to enhance member practices were decisions to increase the Foundation-supported funding of research, support the Doctors in Motion program, continue to participate in TMA’s Hard Hats for Little Heads program and offer another leadership session at the 2006 Annual Session in Frisco. Other recommendations were made to enhance the voice of family medicine and boost TAFP’s advocacy efforts to AAFP and other organizations.

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Foxhall heads HAM

Lewis E. Foxhall, M.D., has begun his term as the 2006 president of the Houston Academy of Medicine. Within the Harris County Medical Society, the professional association for Harris County physicians, HAM supports community service, education, scientific and charitable programs. During Foxhall’s one-year term as HAM president, he will also serve as an at-large member for the HCMS.

Foxhall holds many leadership roles at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Among them are the positions of vice president for Health Policy, medical director of the Office of Physician Relations and associate professor in the Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention. Other roles in the community include an appointment by Gov. Rick Perry to serve on the State Health Services Council and a position as chair of the Harris County Public Health Care System Council.

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San Antonio physician brings WORTH to teens in need

Janet Realini, M.D., lives and works in Bexar County where birth rates to teen mothers are double those in the rest of the country. Because of concern for adolescents in her community, she spearheaded Project WORTH, or Working on Real Teen Health. Project WORTH educates teens about pregnancy prevention, peer pressure, self-esteem and media influence to aid them in making positive life choices. She uses her experience as a family physician to recognize the needs of her patients within the San Antonio Metro Health District and care for them, about half of whom are under 20 years old.

“Having a background in family medicine was very helpful in working with teen health and pregnancy prevention,” Realini says. “It led me to have a broad understanding of dealing with individuals and community issues, understanding the family and working with families.”

Although her first recommendation is to practice abstinence to lower the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, she also recommends the use of protection for sexually active teens. This middle-stance has garnered praise from each side of the sex education argument, from those who believe in teaching abstinence only to those who believe that information about contraceptives can help teens make smart decisions.

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TAFP member knighted by government of Belgium

Elvira Tolentino, M.D., and her husband, Tito Tolentino, were recently awarded the highest military order of Belgium from the Belgium government. The couple received the “Knight in the order of Leopold” for their involvement in a Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training “Country Sponsor” program. The program, coordinated by the Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, allows U.S. citizens to host newly assigned Belgium pilots from the 80th Flying Training Wing Belgians and help them feel more at ease in the United States.

In her acceptance speech, Elvira Tolentino called the honor “an extraordinary and pleasant surprise.”

“We just helped [the Belgian student pilots] the best we could so that they would not feel homesick and at a loss in a foreign country,” she said.

The Tolentinos have acted as a point of contact for Belgium and the local community since 1999, taking in 22 Belgian citizens over the course of their involvement.

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Jaén to serve as national health care advisor

Carlos Jaén, M.D., Ph.D., was recently appointed to the national advisory council of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. During his term on the council, which will extend through November 2008, he will act as an advisor to Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services, and Carolyn Clancy, M.D., the AHRQ director. AHRQ consists of 21 representatives from all areas of the health care industry and will tackle issues such as the cost of health care services and improving access to health care.

Jaén is a professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the current Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. His expertise in health behavioral counseling, Latino health issues, health care needs in poor urban communities, disease management and tobacco cessation efforts, make him a valuable resource for AHRQ.

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Maladies beware: TAFP Super Docs are watching out for Texans

Shortly after Texas Monthly published its annual special advertising section, “Texas Super Doctors,” in the December 2005 magazine, the TAFP communications team became aware that among its ranks fell our own president-elect, Douglas Curran, M.D. We were thrilled to congratulate Curran for his statewide recognition.

Further investigation into the list of physicians revealed that, low and behold, he wasn’t the only one. In fact, nearly 90 percent of the list, or 79 out of the 91 family physicians listed, are TAFP members.

To compile the elite listing for Texas Monthly’s special section, Key Professional Media took three steps. First, they polled more than 45,000 Texas doctors, nurse practitioners and nurse managers, asking them, “To whom would you refer a loved one or one of your patients for medical diagnosis and/or treatment?” After this tally, the researchers identified doctors who had achieved special recognition among peers or had demonstrated other indications of expertise in their specialty. The final step led them to verify that the physicians held proper licenses and had no history of disciplinary action.

The result was a listing of highly regarded physicians. The researchers note that no list is perfect and that there are many, many great physicians practicing in Texas under stringent licensing requirements. The TAFP staff agrees, of course, and is continually impressed with the contribution that each of our members makes to family medicine. Below are those recognized in Texas Monthly.

Tahirih Taj Baker, M.D., Houston

Leonard Michael Behr, M.D., Dallas

John Reagan Boyd, M.D., Pflugerville

William F. Brooke, M.D., Austin

Charles Ronald Byrd, Jr., M.D., Austin

Joseph Ward Cappel, III, M.D., Fort Worth

Patrick Michael Carter, M.D., Houston

Kevin Patrick Comfort, M.D., San Antonio

Jane Ellen Corboy, M.D., Houston

Carl Edward Couch, M.D., Garland

Christopher C. Crow, M.D., Plano

Guy L. Culpepper, M.D., Dallas

Douglas Warren Curran, M.D., Athens

Mark Richard Dambro, M.D., Fort Worth

Mark Drogin, M.D., San Antonio

Christopher Scott Ewin, M.D., Fort Worth

Clive Kevan Fields, M.D., Houston

Grant Carlton Fowler, M.D., Houston

James Stanley Garrett, M.D., San Marcos

Rogelio Gonzalez, Jr., M.D., El Paso

Victor M. Gonzalez, Jr., M.D., Brownsville

Sander Jay Gothard, M.D., Plano

Perry E. Gross, M.D., Dallas

James S. Hahn, M.D., Austin

John Joseph Hall, M.D., College Station

Robin Annette Hall, D.O., Colleyville

Raymond Paul Harle, M.D., San Antonio

Kimberly K. Heller, M.D., San Antonio

Christine K. Hernandez, M.D., El Paso

Gordon Travis Hill, Jr., M.D., San Antonio

Richard Albert Honaker, M.D., Carrollton

Kathryn Van Norman Horn, M.D., El Paso

George Walker Jackson, M.D., El Paso

Craig Michael Jefferies, M.D., Houston

David Curtis Jordan, M.D., Fort Worth

Craig William Kuebker, M.D., San Antonio

Jeffery Curtis Lambert, M.D., Houston

Alan Lane Lee, M.D., San Marcos

Wishard Speer Lorimer, III, M.D., Fort Worth

Charles Baker Mallett, III, M.D., Austin

Steven P. Margolin, M.D., Austin

James Charles Martin, M.D., San Antonio

Frank Stephen Mazza, Jr., M.D., Sugarland

Stefanie Joy McCann, M.D., Dallas

Neal Stuart Meritz, M.D., San Antonio

James Michael Merrill, D.O., Hurst

James Ray Merryman, D.O., Austin

Hillary Gwen Miller, M.D., Austin

John R. Morgan, M.D., Dallas

Cheryl Hacker Mueller, M.D., San Antonio

Francis William Mueller, M.D., San Antonio

Amy Corinne Murphy, M.D., Carrollton

James A. Murphy, Jr., M.D., Fort Worth

Leonard George Paul, M.D., San Antonio

Max Angel Peralta, M.D., El Paso

Horacio Rafael Ramirez, M.D., San Antonio

Stephen Andrew Redfern, M.D., Plano

George Merritt Richmond, Jr., M.D.,

San Antonio

Abe Rodriguez, M.D., San Antonio

Shannon Ray Schrader, M.D., Houston

Irwin Michael Segal, M.D., Plano

Karen Sue Shimotsu, M.D., San Antonio

Richard Alan Smith, M.D., Bryan

Nicholas Solomos, M.D., Houston

Stephen Jimmie Spann, M.D., Houston

David F. Sutter, M.D., Corpus Christi

Raymond Russell Thomas, Jr., M.D., Eagle Lake

Barbara L. Thompson, M.D., Galveston

Sara Eileen Tranchina, M.D., Dallas

Carla Underhill, M.D., Austin

Lloyd Pierce Van Winkle, M.D., Castroville

Robert Courtenay Vanzant, M.D., Houston

Judith Kay Werner, D.O., Dallas

Robert Menzies Wiprud, Jr., M.D., College Station

David Philip Wright, M.D., Austin

Eliot J. Young, M.D., San Antonio

Thomas Peter Zavaleta, M.D., Austin

Irvin Edwin Zeitler, Jr., D.O., San Angelo