Contents tagged with TMA
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Take part in history this legislative session
By Samantha White
With the 88th Texas Legislature underway this week, we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on some exciting opportunities for family docs to take part in this session. Whether you’re new to Texas politics or have spent time in the Capitol in sessions past, here are a few ways you can be a part of history and advocate for family medicine.
Serve as Physician of the Day
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Burnout a national problem; TMA Wellness Fund can help
By Tammy Wishard
In a recent advisory calling attention to health care worker burnout, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, highlighted the broad response the situation calls for: “We must ensure that every health worker has access to affordable, confidential, and convenient mental health care.”
If finances are keeping you or someone you know from seeking treatment for depression, anxiety, substance use, or other conditions, the Texas Medical Association’s PBF Wellness Fund is here to help overcome that barrier.
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TMA fund supports medical families in crisis
TMA fund supports medical families in crisis
By Tammy Wishard
A dedicated physician finds himself struggling with dementia in his later years, with his wife by his side caring for him. To provide needed income, the Johnsons (not their real name) sell their home and relocate to their smaller vacation residence in another part of the state, leaving behind lifelong friends.
Funds dwindle as the couple makes needed accessibility updates to the home and pays for health insurance. As the days and months pass, and with no support from family, the wife begins to wear down from her role as caretaker. She needs a break. Mrs. Johnson reaches out to TMA’s Physicians Benevolent Fund (PBF) for assistance, and PBF fills the need, providing funding for respite care so she can have a few hours each week to tend to her needs.
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Plan now for Hard Hats for Little Heads month
By TMA Staff
Like the Panhandle community of Perryton, you, too, can help ensure that kids in your community have helmets as TMA celebrates the 25th birthday of the Hard Hats for Little Heads program in October.
A hit-and-run accident in Perryton earlier this summer sent a 10-year-old bicyclist to the hospital and prompted the community to host a local bike safety workshop. TMA member Rex L. Mann, MD, a Perryton family physician, got busy to make sure the event featured a TMA helmet giveaway, a first for the community. These local family physicians, along with Dr. Mann, helped provide helmets for the event: Manon E. Childers, MD, Blake A. DeWitt, MD; Jennifer T. McGaughy, DO; and Rick A. Siewert, DO.
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Plan now for Hard Hats for Little Heads Month
Plan now for Hard Hats for Little Heads month
posted 09.04.19
Like the Panhandle community of Perryton, you, too, can help ensure that kids in your community have helmets as TMA celebrates the 25 … more
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Searching for balance and walking out the solution
By David Sabgir, MD
It was 11 years invested into medical training wasted. After doing my best for 11 years after college, I found myself totally ineffective at changing my patients’ behavior.
We’d had wonderful heart-to-heart talks. These conversations were real, full of great intention, and essentially worthless. As my patients came back for their six- and 12-month follow-ups, I realized I had not done my job. Their heart disease, which I knew to be 82 percent preventable, was not interrupted. It was a runaway locomotive. They were still sedentary and they hadn’t lost a pound. As a matter of fact, they were up 3 pounds. The weather had been too hot. The weather had been too cold. They knew they had to “get out.” This frustration didn’t repeat itself with one patient or a dozen patients, this was hundreds becoming thousands of patients. I was ineffective despite long, emotional conversations. One day, that was it. I refused to play this charade for what I hope to be a 30-plus-year career of trying to help others.
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June 2017 Member of the Month
Member of the Month: Douglas Curran, MD
Athens FP wins race to become TMA president-elect
By Perdita Henry
posted 6.14.17
Former TAFP President, Douglas Curran, MD, has been around awhile. … more
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Past president of TAFP elected president of TMA
By Perdita Henry
On May 6, 2017 Douglas W. Curran, MD, of Athens was elected president-elect of the Texas Medical Association at their annual conference, TexMed. Curran, a former president of TAFP and the 1999 Texas Family Physician of the Year Award recipient, will become the 153rd president of the organization on May 19, 2018.
“I feel very humbled by this opportunity to serve the patients of Texas physicians as well as protect and preserve the integrity of our profession,” Curran said in a TMA press release. “The opportunity to serve as president-elect and ultimately president of this great organization will allow me to speak from the heart about the profession I love and the commitment to improve the health care of all Texans.”
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Host a Shot Clinic with Help from TMA's Be Wise — Immunize
By Tammy Wishard
TMA has a way to help you boost local vaccination rates: Be Wise — Immunize Local Impact Grant. TMA is accepting applications until March 1 for grants of up to $2,500 to support local vaccination events. TMA member-physician practices/clinics, county medical societies, TMA Alliance chapters, and medical student chapters can apply.
The funds can be used for shot clinics to vaccinate children, adolescents, and/or adults. Applicants should apply for a grant at least four months before their event, and grantees have up to 12 months to use the funds. TMA will accept applications again on July 1 and Nov. 1 for shot clinics in late 2017 and early 2018.
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