Josie Williams, MD, was sworn in as TMA's 143rd president during TexMed 2008.
She pledged to lead TMA and Texas physicians in a movement to transform medicine. "There is no way to do it the way we've always done it," Dr. Williams said. "We cannot attempt to deliver 2009 medicine in a 1950 chassis. It's like trying to launch the space shuttle into orbit on the backs of the Kitty Hawk."
Dr. Williams is assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. She is director of the Rural and Community Health Institute and the Institute for Healthcare Evaluation at Texas A&M, where she specializes in quality and patient safety initiatives.
Also at TexMed, the TMA House of Delegates selected Houston neurologist and House of Delegates Speaker William H. Fleming III, MD, as president-elect. He will be sworn in at TexMed 2009 in Austin next May.
Before serving as speaker, Dr. Fleming was vice speaker of the house and a member of TMA's Board of Trustees. He also served on TMA's Council on Legislation. He is a TMA alternate delegate to the American Medical Association's House of Delegates. "I am proud that the members of our society entrust me to lead the best state medical society in the land," Dr. Fleming said.
As TMA president-elect, Dr. Fleming looks forward to the opportunity to tackle issues critical to patients across Texas. "I believe that the two most important issues facing medicine today are the uninsured and the looming Medicare crisis and the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate," he said.
Dr. Fleming is a clinical assistant professor of neurology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He has served in several leadership roles in other state and national medical societies. He was president of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, chair of the State Affairs Committee of the American Academy of Neurology, and president of the Texas Medical Board, the Texas Neurologic Society, and the Harris County Medical Society.
Delegates elected Vice Speaker Stephen Brotherton, MD, a Fort Worth orthopedic surgeon, to succeed Dr. Fleming as speaker, and elected Austin psychiatrist Clifford Moy, MD, as vice speaker.
The house reelected TMA Secretary-Treasurer Art Klawitter, MD, and Board of Trustees members Carolyn Evans, MD; Carlos Cardenas, MD; and Austin King, MD.
The Board of Trustees chose Nacogdoches ophthalmologist Lyle Thorstenson, MD, as its new chair. Michael Speer, MD, is the new vice chair; Dr. King remains as secretary; and Drs. Evans and Cardenas round out the members of the board's executive committee.
Action , May 6, 2008