TAFP members appointed to Texas Institute
for Health Care Quality and Efficiency

Texas Governor Rick Perry has appointed 13 members to the board of directors of the Texas Institute for Health Care Quality and Efficiency, including three TAFP members. They are Kelsey-Seybold medical director Patrick Carter, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.F.P., New Braunfels family physician Beverly B. Nuckols, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., and St. Luke’s chief medical information officer John C. Joe, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.F.P. Pediatrician Ben Raimer, M.D., of Galveston, will chair the board.

The 82nd Legislature created the Texas Institute for Health Care Quality and Efficiency as part of Senate Bill 7. The institute is charged with improving health care quality, accountability, education, and cost to the state by encouraging health care provider collaboration, effective health care delivery models, and coordination of health care services.

Carter is medical director of care coordination and quality improvement at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic in Houston. He is a member of AAFP, TAFP, the Harris County Medical Society, and the Harris County Academy of Family Physicians. He served in the U.S. Army. Carter received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, a medical degree from Rush Medical College, and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is appointed for a term to expire Jan. 31, 2015.

Nuckols is a board-certified family physician in private practice. She is a member of the Texas Medical Association, AAFP, TAFP, and the Comal County Medical Association. She serves on the board of directors for Texas Alliance for Life, New Braunfels Options for Women, and is chair of the family medicine section of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. She has served as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women and the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, and as a board member of the Comal County Women’s Shelter and New Braunfels Hospice.

She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Tyler, and received a medical degree from and completed a family medicine residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She received a master’s in bioethics in 2007 from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill. She is appointed for a term to expire Jan. 31, 2013.

Joe is a physician and chief medical information officer at St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston. He is a past president of the Harris County AFP, and a member of AAFP, TAFP, the American Medical Informatics Association, the Federal Health Architecture Leadership Council, the Health Information and Management Systems Society, the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, and the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons. He is also a volunteer physician for the Houston Healthcare for the Homeless clinic, and a member of the Harris County Medical Society’s Health Information Technology Committee. Joe was a National Merit Scholar at Rice University, and received a medical degree from Texas A&M University Health Science Center and a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He is appointed for a term to expire Jan. 31, 2013.