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Registration is now open for TexMed 2021, the Texas Medical Association’s annual conference that attracts thousands of physicians of all specialties from around the state. This year’s conference will be held completely virtually on May 14 and 15.

As it has done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Texas Medical Association continues to stress the importance of wearing masks, practicing social distancing, washing hands frequently, and receiving a vaccine when eligible as the most effective ways to stop the disease.

Fast, smooth, relatively painless. That’s the way Texas Medical Association President Diana L. Fite, MD, described her experience as part of the state’s first batch of essential health care workers to receive initial doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

There are inherent risks when caring for people who are sick with communicable diseases – risks that physicians take on as part of their duty and calling.

The malaise in physician practice long known as burnout – a term doctors increasingly balk at – has been exacerbated by the pandemic, as an extensive survey by the Physicians Foundation recently showed.Although proposed solutions offer hope, doctors have toiled through everything from the day-to-day stress of overwork and the fear of contracting coronavirus themselves, to the lack of adequate PPE, and the politicization of the virus. It’s added up to members of the profession becoming exhausted, fearful, and sometimes despondent.

TMA physician experts created a chart to help Texans make informed choices about which activities are safest to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Physician members of the TMA COVID-19 Task Force and the TMA Committee on Infectious Diseases prepared the chart. The doctors rated the activities assuming that participants are wearing a mask when practical, staying at least 6 feet away from people who are not immediate family members, and washing their hands frequently.

Need PPE but have trouble meeting vendor minimums? Have you had difficulty accessing the state supply? Look no further. Now you can use TMA's new Texas-based PPE vendor guide, with information to help locate what you need from vendors that can supply small- to medium-sized practices with little or no minimum order quantities.

Physicians, public health officials, and many other health care professionals take their responsibilities seriously. They not only treat those who become sick, but they work hard to prevent illness before it begins.

As more reports come in on the spread of coronavirus COVID-19, TMA has convened a task force of public health experts to help Texas physicians prepare for the next phase. We’ve started by compiling all the news and information you need right now on our online resource center. Bookmark that page as we will update it continually.

COVID-19 Resource Center  

At the 2020 Texas Medical Association Advocacy Retreat on Saturday, Debra Patt, MD, chair of TMA’s Council on Legislation, laid out a preview of medicine’s top legislative priorities for the upcoming session.

Final tallies in federal races may still be pending, but Texas voters have spoken. Loudly. And their votes will help medicine maintain a strong voice in the Texas Legislature.

Americans should not be surprised that it took the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, under the knee of a white police officer to take the COVID-19 pandemic off the lead of every newscast, off the top of every mind, and off the tip of every tongue. Our great country was born with a big problem with racism. Today – 155 years after the end of the Civil War, 65 years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, 28 years after Rodney King implored us to “all get along” – our great country still has a big problem with racism.

Susan Rudd Bailey, MD, is American physicians’ new leader in the battles against COVID-19 and outside interference in patient care. The Fort Worth allergist took the oath of office as president of the American Medical Association on Sunday, becoming the sixth Texas physician to lead the organization.

Like most independent medical practice physicians struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin pediatrician Brian Temple, MD, had to make a critical choice: reduce salaries and work hours, or lose the staff and pediatric practice he and his partner had built over six years.

The Texas Medical Association (TMA) installed Houston emergency physician Diana L, MD, as its 155th president. She took office in a ceremony before a live and online gathering of the organization’s Board of Trustees and outgoing president David C. Fleeger, MD. The TMA House of Delegates policymaking body elected Dr. Fite last year to serve as president-elect for one year before assuming the presidency today. She will lead America’s largest state medical society for one year.

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.

Cyber criminals are working harder than ever during the COVID-19 public health emergency. This is no time to let down your cyber guard.

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.