Texas Medicine

Texas has taken some big steps to combat maternal death and illness in recent years. That was highlighted by one of the Texas Medical Association's biggest wins in the 2021 regular session of the Texas Legislature, when medicine's longtime advocacy resulted in an extension of Medicaid coverage for postpartum maternal care from two to six months under House Bill 133. This partial victory is just one of many that shows promise in addressing a major public health priority for TMA and the state.

A decade ago, the Texas Legislature made a funding decision that devasted low-income women's access to health care and the physicians and community clinics that care for them. After 10 years, with the help of TMA advocacy and the formation of the Texas Women's Healthcare Coalition, funding for family planning and overall women's health is in significantly better shape.

On May 27, 1936, May Owen, MD, answered a scientific riddle in a speech before the Texas Medical Association, explaining research that would soon make her a statewide celebrity. Dr. Owen's pioneering work continued in the decades to come, making her the first female president of the Texas Society of Pathologists in 1946, the first female president of the Tarrant County Medical Society in 1947, and the first female president of TMA in 1960.

The rise of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a change in state law that will not only help make certain telemedicine services permanent but also give out-of-state physicians an easier pathway to join the Texas workforce.

After growing up on a South Alabama cattle farm in the 1940s and '50s, Martha Pugh, MD, went on to have a 51-year career in a different male-dominated field: medicine. Often one of few women in the building, whether at medical school or in hospitals, Dr. Pugh - now 82 and retired - found common ground with her male peers and went on to become one of the Texas Medical Association's longest-serving members for 42 years.

PHYSICIAN WELL-BEING, which was at a crisis point heading into the COVID-19 pandemic, has only deteriorated since early 2020. But the Texas Medical Association and county medical societies are on the front lines, working together to support physicians as they contend with burnout, financial stress, and administrative burdens exacerbated by the public health emergency.

Uncertainty over the waiver's future has thrown confusion into many of the state's biggest behavioral health efforts.

There are few issues in medicine and health care that are the subject of more controversy than the semantics of what wounds physicians. Are we suffering from "moral injury" or "burnout" or "compassion fatigue" or "vicarious trauma" or "depression?"

Pushback from patients on medical advice and course of treatment is nothing new. But physicians say the degree of it - a lack of trust in science, medicine, and expertise - has never been as pronounced as it is now, in the era of the highly contagious delta variant, widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines, and millions of people who simply refuse to avail themselves of them. And it's piling onto the already-existing assaults on physician mental well-being - now increasingly framed as physician "moral injury...

Dr. Atkisson found that telemedicine addressed one of the most pressing issues facing her profession: a dire shortage of psychiatrists that predates the pandemic.

In addition to the devastating COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant, pediatricians like Valerie Smith, MD, and other specialists caring for children point to a shadow pandemic among young patients. The proportion of mental health-related visits for children is on the rise.

IN THE 19 MONTHS since the Texas Child Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN) has been up and running, it's kept any number of minor problems from becoming major ones.

COVID-19 dramatically changed the way Texas' students and residents learn medicine.

U.S. lawmakers may be ready to boost federal funding for residencies.

The Texas Legislature's investment in medical education includes a full commitment to GME.

Although medicine wasn't his initial choice, Dr. Billings' passion for his work is palpable and extends far beyond the exam room, especially when he's training future rural physicians.

Texas grapples with a medical staffing shortage amid a renewed COVID-19 surge.

COVID-19 prompted a partnership among North Texas medical societies to serve their communities.

The new mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective at giving people immunity against the disease. But as with all other vaccines, that immunity is not 100% for everyone who receives them.

Medical students win grants to promote vaccines, education across Texas.