As the space epic’s sci-fi theme song boomed out of the IMAX-like speakers, the Star Wars themed opening movie crawl trumpeted the arrival of 2024 TexMed.
The words on the conference hall’s 100-foot-wide screen indicated this year’s annual Texas Medical Association event would be a blockbuster. A celebration of TMA’s force. An event that pushes the envelope for physician advocacy.
Kimberly Monday, MD, a board member and neurologist from Houston, agreed it was all of those things. She has seen her fair share of TexMeds in 35 years of membership. This year, she had exceptionally high praise for the high-tech, “high-class” feel of the event.
“I felt like my entire membership dues were worth that meeting,” she said.
Donning high-tech himself, ChatGPT adviser and Dallas emergency physician Harvey Castro, MD, kicked off this year’s general session by demonstrating artificial intelligence tools and how they can be used, and feared, in patient care. Social media sensation Dr. Glaucomflecken capped off the event with a dose of the medical-themed comedy he uses to advocate for physician and patients to more than 4 million followers.
After years of input and work, this May, more than 1,200 TMA members transformed the Omni Dallas into a bustling hub of networking, advocacy, and learning, as the association’s annual conference, TexMed, reached new heights. Nearly 500 members in attendance had never experienced the annual event; close to 400 had never experienced a TMA event at all.
This year’s conference served up more than 30 hours of CME credit; hosted nearly 500 members at its Welcome Reception; packed the house for the two riveting general sessions; and provided 200 members with appointments to get fingerprinted on-site to meet a new license renewal requirement.
The revitalized TexMed also reflects a bevy of changes – such as more effective scheduling and more topical education – the association has been curating over several events, including its Business of Medicine Conference and Leadership Summit.
“The caliber of speakers that [TMA is] bringing in are the caliber that are nationally renowned,” said Janeana White, MD. After seeking education at TMA’s inaugural Business of Medicine conference in fall 2023, the deputy local health authority for the Houston Health Department. will soon roll on to the Committee on Infectious Disease. “It’s not just somebody you’re putting in the space just because. These are very, very vibrant, fruitful, intelligent, informed speakers. And they’re coming with topics that are relevant to us.”
For years, the sheer volume of activities to balance at TMA events meant physicians often had to make sacrifices: racking up CME credits at the expense of peer-to-peer connections or missing out on valuable insights from session speakers for important business and advocacy work.
“It has seemed like in the past we’ve had two different meetings [in one],” said TMA House of Delegate Vice Speaker John Flores, MD, an internist in Little Elm, describing the split of physicians between activities. “It’s not that people didn’t want to attend – there’s other things going on at the same time.”
So, at the direction of the house, the TMA Board of Trustees took to the task.
“We are, as a board, specifically trying to listen and adjust, in some ways, to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of the membership and what they’ve asked of us,” said Samuel Mathis, MD, a Galveston family physician. As changes were being planned for TexMed 2023, he served as Young Physicians Section representative to the board and on the TexMed planning committee.
The notable success stems from the TMA Board of Trustees and association staff, who recognize the unique opportunity for meetings to be a one-stop shop for member value and subsequently have made a concerted effort to raise the bar on events and tailor them to member needs.
TMA members attend association events for free as a benefit of membership, but dues alone don’t keep the conferences thriving. Free attendance is a result of generous sponsorships and paying exhibitors, part of a perpetual cycle: Non-dues income drives quality conferences that draw more attendees, in turn bringing in more non-dues revenue to continue improvements.
TMA events have been in a new chapter of revisions since 2023 at first with small additions and changes to what was then Winter Conference, then with bigger scheduling changes to TexMed 2023, and later, with the rollout of the newly minted Business of Medicine conference and Leadership Summit.
“All of this was in direct response to the needs that have been expressed by the membership,” said Dr. Mathis.
Timing is everything
Those adjustments have occurred at every level, including fine-tuning conference offerings, rethinking TMA’s approach to in-person events to home in on physicians’ needs and reviewing geographic distribution of TMA events.
Among the subtler changes have been the addition of Small Talks Coffee Breaks, which connect physicians to TMA staff and resources; restructuring event welcome receptions to bring together larger swaths of membership; and finding new fun ways to network.
One primary, consistent change has been a more mindful approach to in-conference scheduling. All TMA meetings now generally relegate business to certain windows, keeping other time frames open for all members to enjoy the robust CME and networking only available at conferences. And it’s not just that business and CME no longer overlap: Event organizers have also intentionally built time into events to let physicians develop and bolster the peer-to-peer relationships that make TMA’s grassroots efforts so successful.
For instance, the association now advertises its conferences as starting on Thursdays, not just for the business meetings that may take place then, but for the valuable networking events that occur – activities like a pickleball pick-up game, line dancing, and a murder mystery dinner party.
The time savings have been augmented by virtual meetings of boards, councils, and committees, as well as online testimony, which free up valuable time on-site.
While TMA staff is not planning on making the jump to fully virtual conferences, incorporating some remote tools has stepped up quality. For instance, the introduction of virtual elements has brought new speakers to business meetings through teleconferencing and allowed for improved participation for members unable to attend.
Other changes include replacing Fall Conference’s Dawn Duster – aptly named for its early morning start – with a more amenable opening session lunch at last year’s Business of Medicine and moving TexMed’s opening session to coincide with the opening of the House of Delegates.
“We want members to get the most out of our meeting – not only the business conducted on the house floor, but also to give everyone the chance to hear our very popular and informative speakers,” Dr. Flores said.
The changes also cut down on interruptions to House of Delegates business, align with TexMed attendance trends, and create a cohesive beginning, middle, and end structure to the conference, with the goal of uniting all member physicians in attendance under the TMA umbrella.
Seasonal conferences
Improved cohesion was also the motivation behind debuting the Business of Medicine conference in October 2023 and Leadership Summit in January 2024. Members directly requested TMA take a greater focus on providing business knowledge and leadership training, which coincide neatly with the association-wide goals set by the board.
With TMA zeroing in on its goals through the board’s strategic plan, event organizers have a new frame of reference to build programming that strengthens physician leadership, practice viability, and advocacy efforts, while growing the association’s reach.
And taking a closer look at focused, relevant, and current programming also ups the quality of content members can expect at conferences.
Dialing in even further, TMA conferences now sort CME offerings into four tracks, in addition to tracks offered by specialties:
- Leadership and Professional Development;
- Physician Health and Wellness;
- Population Health and Public Health; and
- Business of Medicine, which includes practice and career management along with quality improvement.
While CME has been organized into tracks in the past, the focused number of tracks this year makes it easier for physicians to choose the education that serves them best, and efficiently plan their conference experience ahead of time.
Now that Business of Medicine, Leadership Summit, and the revitalized TexMed have been rolled out to resounding success, TMA takes on its next steps to bring members a more effective conference experience. In conjunction with the ongoing listening tour TMA leaders are making around the state, 2025 will see the introduction of new regional conferences set to replace the former Winter Conference offerings.
“The Council on Member Experience and the TMA board will be working with local county medical societies and their leaders to create meaningful agendas that address the specific needs of each region, in part using the results of our 2024 TMA Listening Tour to identify locations and topics,” said Lena Banks, TMA’s vice president of member experience and business intelligence.
Members can expect these regional meetings to provide strong educational opportunities, including CME, advocacy updates, and plenty of fellowship and networking.
“Though all physicians will be welcome, these meetings will allow members in the immediate area to experience less travel time, reduced cost of being away from their offices, and more focus on unique issues facing their practice,” Ms. Banks added.
TMA will continue to host TexMed and one seasonal conference in the fall. Event organizers are also examining other host cities for these conferences outside the Austin area to reduce expenses, maximizing the effectiveness of the dues increase passed at this year’s TexMed and increasing the association’s reach across the state.
See the changes in action at Business of Medicine this fall in San Antonio, Oct. 10-12. Again listening to members’ needs, event organizers are curating programming on business and personal finances in addition to practice management education. Texas Medicine and Texas Medicine Today will have updates in coming months on the event, which promises to provide the newest and most relevant programming on the market and regulatory landscape physicians must navigate.
TMA staff is already at work building on the success of last year’s Business of Medicine debut, with heavy emphasis first and foremost on member input.
“The team, you can tell, was tremendously engaged. The topics were engaging,” Dr. White said. “They kept engaging us and saying, ‘If you’re looking for something more, anything different, any ideas, please share.’ From my experience in my career, I know that doesn’t happen by accident.”