May 4, 2024
The Texas Medical Association (TMA) elected San Antonio internist and hyperbaric medicine specialist Jayesh B. “Jay” Shah, MD, president-elect during TexMed, the association’s annual conference, held in Dallas this year.
Dr. Shah is the first Indian American TMA president-elect, which he calls “an immense honor, not just for me but for the entire Indian American physician community.” He will serve in this role for one year before becoming TMA’s 160th president in 2025.
“Being elected as the president-elect of TMA is the highest honor I have received as a physician in my lifetime. I am truly humbled by this opportunity,” said Dr. Shah.
As president-elect, Dr. Shah says his goal is to unite all physicians – whether they are in private practice, work in hospitals, teach at universities, or serve in the military – so they can advocate for medicine with one voice. “We need this unity to protect our profession, and most importantly protect our patients during the legislative session.”
He also wants to help increase TMA’s membership and encourage medical students, residents, and young physicians to get involved in the association.
Dr. Shah says he was drawn to organized medicine because he wanted to provide the best care, not only for his own patients but for any Texan who needs medical care.
“I have witnessed the positive impact of organized medicine, when physicians came together and successfully advocated for medical liability reforms in 2003,” he said, referring to the TMA-backed law the Texas Legislature passed in 2003 to set caps on noneconomic damages awarded in medical liability lawsuits. “As physicians, we are used to making a difference in individual patients’ lives, but by getting involved in organized medicine we can help all Texas patients,” he said.
Dr. Shah has been an active TMA member for 24 years.
He has served on TMA’s Council on Health Service Organizations; Council on Health Promotion; Committee on Membership; Select Committee on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Uninsured; and TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee. He also chaired the International Medical Graduate Section for TMA and for the American Medical Association (AMA). He has served as a delegate to the TMA House of Delegates and the AMA house as well. He also chaired TMA’s educational scholarship and loan committee, which provides scholarships to medical students from certain underrepresented minority groups, encouraging the students to become doctors.
He also was president of both the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. Shah also chaired the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists. He is past president of the Bexar County Medical Society and the Texas Indo-American Physicians Society.
Dr. Shah received a bachelor of medicine and surgery degree from Baroda Medical College in India. He then received his doctor of medicine degree and completed an internal medicine residency at Columbia University’s St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He also received a master of health care administration degree from Trinity University in San Antonio.
Outside of the Family of Medicine, Dr. Shah values his home life.
“In my personal life, my family is paramount,” said Dr. Shah. “I am grateful for the unwavering support of my wife Neha Shah, a lymphedema and cancer rehab therapist; my daughter, a third-year medical student, and my son, who works as a cybersecurity specialist in Washington, D.C.”
When he is not practicing medicine, Dr. Shah enjoys hiking, biking, playing cricket and playing racquetball. He also teaches yoga and religion. He acknowledges his parents, the late Bipinchandra Shah and Jaivanti Shah, for instilling his religious values.
“I am trying to stay on my P’s: prayer, priorities, peace, positivity, and patience,” he said.
TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 57,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 110 component county medical societies around the state. TMA’s key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.
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Contact: Brent Annear (512) 370-1381; cell: (512) 656-7320
Swathi Narayanan (512) 370-1382; cell: (408) 987-1318
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