Member News

Texas medical students honor Fort Worth FP
Texas medical students recognized Fort Worth family physician Linda M. Siy, MD, with the 2019 C. Frank Webber, MD, Award, for her commitment to mentoring medical students. The Texas Medical Association Medical Student Section presented the award to the doctor during TexMed, TMA’s annual conference, in Dallas.

“To be recognized for doing what I truly enjoy is a gift, and I am extremely honored,” said Dr. Siy. “C. Frank Webber was a remarkable, very accomplished family physician, and that makes this award even more special to me as a family physician.”

Siy has cared for patients through the JPS Health Network since 1995 at the JPS Northeast Tarrant Medical Home and has been a TMA member for 26 years. She is a member of TMA’s Council on Legislation and represents the Tarrant County Medical Society as a delegate to the TMA House of Delegates, the association’s policymaking body.

Siy is immediate past president of TCMS. She is a member of the TAFP Board of Directors and has served as TAFP president. Currently, she is president of the TAFP Foundation. She also represents TAFP as a delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

Mentoring medical students is one of the things she enjoys most in her career. “To help shape our future leaders in medicine is critical to the success of the profession,” she said.

Steven Mai, immediate past president of the TMA Medical Student Chapter at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, nominated Siy for the award.

“Dr. Siy has been a great influence for the TCOM chapter,” Mai said. “She has gone out of her way to sit in on officer meetings, find event speakers, and help us create impactful events to engage our student members in TMA and our community health society.”

When she was president of TCMS, Siy increased networking opportunities between medical students and physician members of the county medical society. She also connected the students with physician speakers for a business in medicine lecture series.  

This has paid off locally and beyond. Siy said several TMA leaders have emerged from the “active and engaged” TCOM TMA Chapter. “The TCOM students are high achievers, very enthusiastic, and really understand the value of organized medicine,” she said.

Siy earned her bachelor of arts and medical degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine through a combined degree program. She completed her family medicine residency at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

Created in 1987, the C. Frank Webber, MD, Award is named after the late Texas family physician and educator C. Frank Webber, MD, former dean of The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Dr. Webber’s efforts prompted the development of the strong student organization within TMA.

Introducing the Behavioral Health Integration Innovators Competition
TAFP has launched a brand new initiative to highlight the best models for integrating mental and behavioral health into primary care practices: the Behavioral Health Integration Innovators Competition.

This is an opportunity for you to inspire and lead your colleagues, showing them the way to provide behavioral health services to their patients. We are seeking simple and effective models that can be employed by a variety of practices.

To emphasize the importance of this topic, TAFP will offer a $10,000 prize to the winning entries in three categories of practices: academic settings, integrated health systems, and small group and solo practices. Additionally, winning entries will be highlighted at the TAFP Annual Session and Primary Care Summit and featured in Texas Family Physician.

Entry is simple. You might call this an invitation to a game you’ve already been playing because you don’t need to create anything new to win. You just need to describe your successful model of behavioral health integration.

Register for the contest on TAFP’s website. You’ll receive instructions for your submission after registering. Project submissions will consist of three parts: a narrative, short answers to a set of questions, and a demonstration of your model. For the demonstration you’ll show us what you’re doing in a way that works for you. This may be in the form of a video, a PowerPoint presentation, a chart, a research poster, however you think you can show us what is special about your entry.

So consult your health care team, review the information on the TAFP Behavioral Health Integration Innovators Competition website and follow the simple steps to submit your integration model. The deadline for submissions is July 8, 2019.

Good luck!