Austin family physician sworn in as president of county medical society

posted 03.25.10

TAFP member C. Mark Chassay, M.D., of Austin, was installed as president of the Travis County Medical Society at a ceremony on March 9, 2010, at the Red McCombs Red Zone at Darrell K. Memorial Stadium in Austin. Chassay is co-founder of Texas Sports & Family Medicine, PLLC, where he practices. He also serves as head team physician for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Texas at Austin, coordinating multidiscipline sports health services for over 600 student athletes. In this role, he serves as medical director for the training room clinics, and supervises a team of physicians and athletic trainers.

Chassay has been involved in the Travis County Medical Society for many years as the chair of their Membership Committee. As president, he hopes to continue furthering collegiality among all the physicians through programs he enacted in his previous post that encourage interaction between hospital-based physicians and office-based physicians.

“In addition, I hope to inspire our members to not only be members of our medical society but to be equally, if not more, active in our Travis County community through a program I plan on branding Citizen Physician.” This involves strengthening connections between TCMS and non-medical organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, and promoting physicians’ involvement in the community outside of their practice.

Chassay has travelled extensively through his involvement with the U.S. Olympic Committee, which began in 2003 when he spent two weeks at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, Calif. He continued volunteering for other events, serving as a medical officer with USA Baseball and USA Karate at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; chief medical officer for the USOC at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, England; and, most recently, as a medical officer for the equestrian team at the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Speaking about leadership, Chassay says family physicians have a great role to play. “These opportunities afford us the ability to be a part of important decisions within the broader medicine organization that will ultimately lead to knowledge we can bring back to our offices.”