TAFP members elected to TMA leadership posts

Curran, Bias join board of trustees, Ragain becomes AMA alternate delegate

posted 05.06.10

Family medicine fared well over the weekend as several TAFP members were elected to leadership positions in the Texas Medical Association during the TMA’s annual TexMed conference. Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens, was elected to the TMA Board of Trustees, and Michael Ragain, M.D., of Lubbock, was appointed to serve as alternate delegate to the American Medical Association.

Curran, a family physician from Athens and former TAFP president, was elected to a three-year term on TMA’s Board of Trustees. Travis Bias, D.O., a second-year resident from Houston, was elected this past winter to the one-year resident position on the board. They will join other TAFP members: Trustee Lewis Foxhall, M.D., of Houston, and Secretary/Treasurer Art Klawitter, M.D., of Needville.

The Board of Trustees manages business and financial affairs of the association, implements policies of the House of Delegates, establishes association policy between meetings of the House of Delegates, and monitors program activities of association councils and committees. It is made up of nine at-large members, six TMA officers, one resident, and one medical student.

Joining the board is a “real privilege” for Curran. “This is an opportunity to serve Texas medicine,” he says. “I’ve spent a lifetime practicing and I will use my experience to make a difference for our patients and my fellow physicians.”

Curran currently practices at East Texas Medical Center and Lakeland Medical Associates, Group Practice, and has been active in TMA, TAFP, and AAFP, serving on numerous committees and in various officer roles. He is a member of the TMA Council on Legislation and the Executive Committee for TEXPAC, the lobbying arm of TMA. He has served as a consultant to the TMA Committee on Professional Liability and was a member of the TMA Council on Member Services. Curran is a member of the Henderson County Medical Society and serves in the TMA House of Delegates for Henderson county. At TAFP, Curran has served as chair of the Commission on Membership and Member Services, chair of the Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs, and as an active member of TAFPPAC. He also served on the AAFP Commission for Governmental Advocacy.

Bias is a resident at the Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program in Sugar Land, Texas. In his third year, he will be one of three chief residents. He currently serves as Texas resident delegate to the AMA House of Delegates and is a member of the AMA Legislative Advocacy Committee. As a medical student, Bias served as a regional delegate to the AMA; member of the Regional Infrastructure Task Force; member of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Medical Ethics; and in leadership capacities with AMPAC, the political arm of the AMA. Within TMA, Bias recently completed terms on their Executive Committee and Foundation board. He also previously served on the TMA Council on Public Health, as an intern for TMA public affairs, as co-leader of the Texas delegation to the AMA, as alternate delegate to the TMA House of Delegates, and in leadership positions with TEXPAC. He was recently awarded TAFP’s James C. Martin, M.D. Resident Scholarship and will travel to Austin to research health care policy affecting family medicine and develop recommendations to carry into the next legislative session.

Ragain was elected to serve as an alternate delegate to the American Medical Association. He currently serves as the Braddock Chair of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Department of Family and Community Medicine in Lubbock. After completing his residency training at TTUHSC, he became associate residency director for the program, then residency director. He served various other posts before being appointed Braddock Chair in 2002. Ragain is a current member of the TAFP Commission on Academic Affairs, and also served on the Task Force on Credentialing and the TAFP Board of Directors. Within TMA, Ragain has been a delegate and seated alternate delegate for his county society, a member on the Continuing Medical Education Committee, and a member and chair of the Council on Medical Education.