Physicians today need a powerful ally to support their practice goals, like safeguarding the patient-physician relationship, successfully navigating professional and regulatory burdens, and influencing the future of medicine for the better.
That’s what Manvel rheumatologist Nilanjana Bose, MD, learned in 2019, when she opened her private practice before COVID-19 began spreading in earnest. The then-new Texas Medical Association member turned to the association for help amid the pandemic – and was given “so much more,” she said, like free personal protective equipment to safeguard her patients and a network of support from other physicians.
Since then, the Brazoria County Medical Society (BCMS) president – who admits she was “unaware” of the association’s robust member benefits until speaking to a TMA-member colleague – has vowed to “always” remain a TMA member and to pay that forward.
After delving into all TMA has to offer, Dr. Bose discovered a passion for medical advocacy and for getting her peers to join the association. The latter came after she found many other physicians like her often don’t know about TMA’s many offerings, whether leadership development resources, free CME, the Physician Payment Resource Center, or other boons.
“TMA offers [physician members] so many resources that better their practices,” the new member of TMA’s Council on Member Experience said. “I have found the association’s help invaluable … and to think I didn’t even know what I was missing.”
TMA continuously adapts its involvement and membership strategies to keep pace with its 60,000 members and grow its ranks. Last year, the association formed a new Board of Trustees’ Membership Advisory Committee that has been instrumental in standing up multiple TMA recruitment programs, including new conferences in nonmetro areas of the state and a pilot program to encourage physicians to recruit their colleagues.
Nothing beats word-of-mouth recruitment between physicians, says Kimberly Monday, MD, chair of TMA’s Board of Trustees and Membership Advisory Committee.
“Sharing your knowledge and encouraging other physicians to get involved is the best way to recruit membership,” she said. “But that takes time, so if our physicians are going to spend the time doing that, then they should be recognized.”
During her BCMS presidency, Dr. Bose continues to seek opportunities to share the merit of TMA membership with fellow physicians.
“Physicians listen to what their colleagues say about TMA. That’s why word-of-mouth advertising is so important,” said Lena Banks, TMA’s vice president of member experience and business intelligence.
During this year’s annual TexMed conference, TMA’s House of Delegates approved a pathway to enable that promotion through “Impact Texas Medicine,” a new recruitment pilot program approved by TMA’s Board of Trustees. (See “Peer-to-Peer Power,” at bottom.)
While initiatives like TMA’s new pilot program lay the foundation to find new members, the association’s broader engagement efforts also play a vital role in recruiting physicians and accommodating their interests, says Sylvia Salazar, TMA’s associate vice president of membership development and strategy.
TMA’s membership strategy works on those two fronts, namely recruitment and retention. The association’s approach to both involves outreach efforts like:
• Conference and events management;
• Digital marketing and promotional tactics aimed at recruiting new members;
• Support to physicians, medical students, and residents to educate them about the ongoing efforts, via on-site meetings across Texas medical schools and residency programs every July and August;
• Work to heighten TMA members’ experience and engagement, and efforts to better align TMA’s offerings with what Texas physicians need from their state medical association;
• Data analysis to support the development and implementation of relevant and timely member benefits, programs, and services; and
• Staff support for TMA’s Council on Member Experience, the physician-led council which studies and develops association participation and engagement efforts.
Additionally, the association conducts email campaigns every year – sent to individual member physicians and their regional county groups – to share information on TMA advocacy and activities, offer membership renewal options electronically, and reach out to physicians about their membership.
One such campaign, an exit survey for physicians who drop their membership, is done every year to examine why members do not renew, what value physicians place on TMA membership, and what the association can do to grow.
Lena Loomis, TMA’s director of member experience, says every year the biggest piece of feedback from physicians who drop their membership is they aren’t aware of how the association’s advocacy aids their practices.
To fill that gap, TMA has implemented many initiatives to increase the visibility of the association’s advocacy efforts, such as the addition of Monday night virtual presentations before each of this year’s First Tuesdays at the Capitol. The online presentations provided timely updates on the legislative session and specific actions TMA took during the 2025 Texas Legislature session.
“We work to meet physicians where they are, with the understanding we can’t wait for them to come to us,” Ms. Salazar said. “However, the number one reason folks hear about TMA is through another physician.”
The council continues to consider and review new TMA benefits and events that aid each of the association’s physician members. For example, following the success of its highly attended “Ask-the-Expert: The Business of Personal Finance” panel at its 2024 Business of Medicine conference, TMA hosted another event centered on personal finance literacy at TexMed 2025.
The two-part panel, moderated by Dr. Monday and which ran alongside TexMed’s networking lunch hour, provided answers to member questions on debt management, educational planning, and investments at both the early and mid-and-established career levels.
Both personal finance panels were added to TMA’s event schedule after members expressed a desire for more economic information during the association’s inaugural Listening Tour, which brought TMA directly to physicians’ home counties. While each stop provided unique feedback from physicians on what they need from their association, many attendees across the tour called for more practical financial information – and more TMA conferences, meetings, and events at the state and local levels.
TMA, heeding its members, added a new convention to its evolving event schedule – Local Medicine Matters, the first of many forthcoming TMA conferences set to be held in nonmetro counties. The first conference will take place in Tyler Oct. 24-25, with future events to be held in other regions of the state. All iterations will provide attendees with high-quality CME and networking opportunities designed with input from regional medical societies.
TMA’s upcoming event schedule will also evolve by:
• Consolidating the former Fall and Winter Conferences into one seasonal conference, and focusing that event on an alternating theme, either Business of Medicine or Leadership Summit;
• Scheduling a Leadership Summit before every Texas legislative session, to better prepare and educate physician members on TMA advocacy; and
• Adding one to two regional conferences annually, depending on whether the Texas Legislature is in session that year.
“TMA is trying to meet ... physicians the best way it knows how: by listening to suggestions from its members, the most valuable folks to increasing membership that are on the ground who know what’s needed,” Ms. Banks said.
Peer-to-Peer Power
The power of organized medicine is in its relationships, whether in advocacy, leadership, or membership growth. This is the premise of a proposed new Texas Medical Association pilot program.
TMA’s policymaking House of Delegates on May 10 green-lit a process for TMA Board of Trustees approval of new pilot projects aimed at maintaining and increasing membership in the association.
“We want to make sure we have the ability to start pilot programs in ways that can really enhance membership,” said Immediate Past TMA Board Chair Joseph Valenti, MD. “As times change, the way we get members changes.”
Rolled out in August, “Impact Texas Medicine” is a project created under the guidance of the TMA Council on Member Experience and supported by the Board of Trustees to tap into TMA’s existing grassroots network. The pilot utilizes word of mouth to recruit potential members in all settings and career stages, including physicians newly licensed in Texas and/or trained outside of the state; young physicians; and/or those in employed practice settings.
As of publication, details of the pilot program were still in development as of this writing. Under certain conditions, TMA is planning to offer incentives to physicians who get a colleague to join.
To help members explain the benefits of TMA to their nonmember colleagues, “Impact Texas Medicine” participants will be supported with a marketing toolkit, including:
- Simple steps on how to participate in the program and recruit a new member;
- New membership benefits brochure, talking points, and a top 10 benefits card; and
- Helpful case studies and other tools to help physicians tell their unique membership stories within the peer-to-peer recruitment process.
Alisa Pierce
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1469