TMA elects first Beaumont physician to lead Board of Trustees

For the first time in its 158-year history, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) Board of Trustees has selected a Beaumont physician as its chair. The board of doctors selected Dr. G. Ray Callas of Anesthesia Associates in Beaumont to head the group whose goals include policy planning that puts patients first and nurtures the relationship between them and their physicians.

TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 56,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 110 component county medical societies around the state, the association reports. TMA’s key objective since 1853 is “to improve the health of all Texans.” They pursue that mission through a number of efforts, including advocacy initiatives and legislative lobbying to benefit both doctors and those seeking medical treatment.

The TMA Board of Trustees is made up of nine at-large members, six ex-officio members and three section-designated members. The team manages business and financial affairs of the association, implements policies of the House of Delegates, establishes interim policy of the association between meetings of the House of Delegates, and monitors program activities of association councils and committees.

Dr. Callas says he is honored to have been chosen as chairman of the board, and he is excited to represent Beaumont physicians and champion policy changes benefiting Texas patients and doctors.

“It was very moving,” Callas described. “I’ve been on TMA Board of Trustees for the last several years, and I was elected by my peers, which is a great honor. It’s a one-year term, during which I’m helping the CEO, helping with the rules or regulatory, the advocacy side, and helping the president so he or she can be on message. The president is the public speaker who goes out and shares what the Board of Trustees recommends.”

Callas is taking on the task of making sure the board represents the voices of the House of Delegates, made up of physicians “from every different caucus throughout the state” who speak for their regions during a general assembly.

“Once we make rules or resolutions or policies, then it goes to the Board of Trustees, and I have to assimilate it all with the rest of the board,” Callas explained. “Then, I set the agenda – I set the issues that we’re going to discuss. That’s why it’s such a big honor: Because there’s a lot of commitment, but also there’s a lot of stuff that during my year is very vital to the delivery of health care. The biggest thing I want to do is protect the physician-patient relationship and, more importantly, to continue to allow patients to have a voice and keep the attorneys, the health plans and everyone else out of the exam room. We need a better relationship between our patients and our physicians.”

Dr. Callas, who has been practicing for more than 20 years, has served on the Board of Trustees since 2017. He has been a delegate of the House of Delegates since 2004, and he is on the Texas delegation to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates, AMA’s policymaking body. Callas is also a past president of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists and the Jefferson County Medical Society, and is a member of its board of directors.

According to him, once he started medical school, he joined several organizations that benefit the medical community and patients so that he would be able to help create change in an ever-growing, ever-evolving industry.

“Once I started medical school, I started to get involved in associations like the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, the Texas Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Medical Association… Once you get involved, then you start to have a voice. That led me to continue to get involved, and if you stay involved, this is what it leads to.

“The nice thing about being from here is that I have my finger on the pulse of all health care delivery, and I would know it before it even goes into rules or legislation or law… I’m blessed to be from Beaumont; we have a great medical community. Most importantly, the physicians around here know that if they have a question, they can come to me or they can come to other TMA leaders in the community, and we make sure that we’re heard at the highest level.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to represent patients first and put physicians voices out in front to maintain the relationship between a patient and physician. That’s what my whole mantra has been from Day 1 since I’ve been part of TMA.”

At TexMed 2022, TMA’s annual conference, the Board of Trustees elected Callas as chair and chose two other 2022-23 board officers: Houston ophthalmologist Keith A. Bourgeois, MD, as vice chair; and Austin ophthalmologist Michelle A. Berger, MD, as secretary/treasurer.

For more information about the Board of Trustees and TMA, visit www.texmed.org.