“Our voice matters.”
That main tenet of advocacy still rings true for Rick Ngo, MD. It’s also the key lesson the Houston surgeon took away from his experience at the Texas Medical Association’s Leadership College (TMALC) from which he graduated in 2011.
For Dr. Ngo, graduation gave him the gift of being able to be a strong health care champion in every sense.
“I learned to be a patient advocate, a physician advocate, a health care professional advocate, and an advocate for the profession,” he told Texas Medicine Today.
TMALC, the association’s professional development program available to early-career physicians within their first eight years of practice, is now accepting applications for the class of 2026 through June 13.
Since graduating from the inaugural Leadership College class, Dr. Ngo served a four-year term as the president of the Vietnamese American Medical Association of Greater Houston. His time on the national advocacy board for the American Cancer Society (ACS) and a multi-year stint as board chair for the Greater Houston ACS led him to advocate on the organization’s behalf shortly after TMALC graduation.
Fueled with newfound skills, Dr. Ngo helped lead a group of Greater Houston ACS members to push for a smoke-free Texas initiative in 2013.
As ACS had just accomplished an initiative for a smoke-free Houston, Dr. Ngo made his pitch to a state senator’s aide for similar statewide legislation. The staffer rebuffed the thought, but Dr. Ngo wasn’t dissuaded from future lobbying attempts. He realized the work that needed to be done to inform lawmakers.
“I told my colleagues at the time, ‘That rejection is the thing that’s going to motivate me to come back,’” he said. “If we don’t speak up, then who will? Look at the amount of education we need to provide.”
Local focus
Dr. Ngo now focuses his time on surgical supply-chain issues, as a co-founder of three entrepreneurial startups.
“A big passion of mine is ensuring patient safety,” Dr. Ngo said. “I’m a champion for surgical quality and efficiency. We need to get the right equipment in the operating room.”
A past district chair of TEXPAC and a TMA Young Physician Section Delegate to the American Medical Association, Dr. Ngo now directs most of his energy close to home. Through the Harris County Medical Society, he is involved in its board of medical legislation and the independent practice subcommittee.
None of that would have happened without the skills he learned during his time in Leadership College, he says. It’s why he encourages physician members to apply.
“[Enrollees] will get exposed to a lot of the tools that physician leaders need to be equipped with – that will be presented in a way that will enhance their understanding [of advocacy] and how to do it,” he said.
Find out more about the 2026 Leadership College application process, which is accepting submissions until June 13.