May 10, 2025
The Texas Medical Association (TMA) installed on Saturday Jayesh B. “Jay” Shah, MD, as its 160th president during TexMed, the association’s annual conference, held in San Antonio this year.
Dr. Shah is an internist, hyperbaric medicine, and wound care specialist in San Antonio. He is the first Indian American to serve as president in the association’s 172-year history.
“I am deeply honored to serve as the president of TMA,” said Dr. Shah. “This role is both a privilege and a responsibility, and I see it as an opportunity to amplify the voices of physicians across Texas.”
During his one-year term as president, Dr. Shah seeks to reduce challenges and barriers physicians face so they can focus on caring for patients.
“Doctors dedicate their lives to caring for others, yet too often, they face barriers that prevent them from practicing medicine the way they were trained,” he said. “Administrative burdens are driving physicians away from medicine,” he says, like receiving approvals from insurance companies – called prior authorization – for medications and medical procedures. Insurance companies often delay or deny providing approvals, leaving patients without the care they need.
He sees the harmful effects of such delays and denials with his own wound care patients. Dr. Shah says the delays can slow a patient’s healing and adversely affect outcomes.
Dr. Shah wants to “push for reforms that cut through bureaucratic red tape, fight for physician autonomy, and ensure that the health care system supports – not hinders – the doctor-patient relationship.”
That aligns with the theme of Dr. Shah’s presidency, “let doctors be doctors.” According to Dr. Shah, when physicians can practice without interference from insurance companies or administrative burdens, patients receive more timely, personalized, and effective care. “A health care system that prioritizes physician autonomy ultimately leads to better health outcomes for everyone,” he said.
Dr. Shah is also a champion of physician well-being. “If we want doctors to continue providing excellent care, we must address the root causes of burnout and create an environment where they can thrive,” he said.
As president, Dr. Shah is launching a podcast called “Let Doctors be Doctors,” where he will visit with fellow physicians about their methods for fighting burnout to provide the best care possible for patients.
Addressing this issue is one way he intends to show understanding and value to physicians. He hopes it will help increase TMA’s membership and encourage more medical students, residents, and young physicians to get involved in the association.
A TMA member for 25 years, Dr. Shah was drawn to the association and health care advocacy because he wanted to provide the best care, not only for his own patients but for any Texan who needs medical care.
“As physicians, we are used to making a difference in individual patients’ lives, but by getting involved in organized medicine we can help all Texas patients,” he said.
Dr. Shah has served on several TMA councils on committees over the years, and on TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee. He also chaired the TMA Educational Scholarship and Loan Committee, and the International Medical Graduate Section for both TMA and the American Medical Association (AMA). He has served as a delegate to the TMA House of Delegates policymaking body and the AMA house as well.
He also was president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, the Texas Indo-American Physicians Society, the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine, and the Bexar County Medical Society. Dr. Shah also chaired the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists.
Dr. Shah received a bachelor of medicine and surgery degree from Baroda Medical College in India. He then received his doctor of medicine degree and completed an internal medicine residency at Columbia University’s St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He also received a master of health care administration degree from Trinity University in San Antonio.
Outside of the Family of Medicine, Dr. Shah values his home life.
“In my personal life, my family is paramount,” said Dr. Shah. “I am grateful for the unwavering support of my wife Neha Shah, a lymphedema and cancer rehab therapist; my daughter, who is starting her family medicine residency at Christus Health/Texas A&M University College of Medicine in Corpus Christi, and my son, who works as a cybersecurity specialist in Washington, D.C.”
Dr. Shah enjoys hiking, biking, playing cricket and playing racquetball. He also teaches yoga and religion. He acknowledges his parents, the late Bipinchandra Shah and Jaivanti Shah, for instilling his religious values.
TMA is the state medical society in the nation, representing more than 59,000 physicians and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 110 component county medical societies around the state. TMA’s key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.
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Contact: Brent Annear (512) 370-1381; cell: (512) 656-7320
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