About TMA

In 2019, the Texas Medical Association remained committed to Texas physicians and to the practice of medicine in the Lone Star State.

TMA presented its inaugural Laurance N. Nickey, MD, Lifetime Achievement Award to Robert W. Haley, MD, director of the Division of Epidemiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a TMA physician leader. Doctors presented the award Saturday at the 2020 TMA Winter Conference in Austin.

Photo: TMA/Matthew Lemke

On Jan. 1, 1997, just as Louis J. Goodman, PhD, took over as the Texas Medical Association’s chief executive, Michael J. Darrouzet started as CEO of the Dallas County Medical Society (DCMS).

A panel of medicine’s representatives in the Texas Legislature said Saturday that 2019 was a good year for medicine in Austin, but unfinished business remains for the next session in 2021.

Physicians checked off major accomplishments during the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature, including finally convincing lawmakers that raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21 was the right thing for the state's present and future. Medicine also scored improvements on the insurance front and vital funding increases.

The Texas Medical Association (TMA) installed Austin surgeon David C. Fleeger, MD, as its 154th president. He took office in a ceremony before TMA’s House of Delegates policymaking body at TexMed, TMA’s annual conference, in Dallas. He will lead America’s largest state medical society for one year.

Susan Rudd Bailey, MD, an allergist from Fort Worth, was unanimously elected today by the American Medical Association House of Delegates to be the next AMA president. “Challenging times remain for our health care system,” she told the delegates

The Texas Medical Association building in downtown Austin has been renamed in honor of Louis J. Goodman, PhD, who has served as TMA executive vice president and CEO for the past 22 years.

TMA's House of Delegates last week gave the association's highest award to the late Don Read, MD, a Dallas colon and rectal surgeon who had served as the organization's 151st president. Dr. Read died in March after a year-and-a-half-long battle with cancer, so the award was given posthumously.

The 2019 Texas Legislature is now in session — and TMA is ready to fight for medicine. See our plan to help Texas physicians put the health back into health care. 

According to a nationwide survey of health care professionals conducted last year, several specialties have burnout rates of 50 percent or more. Hospitalists led the survey, with 66 percent of respondents feeling burnt out.

TMA Physician Health and Wellness provides educational resources regarding well-being, dimensions of meaning in work, burnout, stress, work-life integrations, fatigue, mental/emotional quality of life, and physical quality of life.

MIPS and HIPAA require practices to conduct a security risk analysis at least once a year. Many physicians find out through these reports that their practices have a lot of work to do to keep patient records safe.

Thanks to a generous grant from Texas Medical Association Insurance Trust, dozens of CME courses in the TMA Education Center are now FREE for members.

You can keep up with federal and state requirements that affect your practice by regularly checking TMA's Deadlines for Doctors.