Name: John Carlo, MD
Specialty: Public Health, General Preventive Medicine
City: Dallas
County Medical Society: Dallas CMS
John T. Carlo, MD, brought high aspirations when he was elected to the TMA Board of Trustees in 2022.
“I want to ensure that we protect all physician-patient relationships against government and business intrusion,” he said. “Every physician should be able to practice medicine at the highest standards, using the latest medical evidence without fear of being criminalized.”
The Dallas public health and general preventive medicine specialist has played a lead role in helping TMA respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as a member of the association’s COVID-19 Task Force. He also helped Dallas address the 2014 Ebola scare. Those are two very public examples of how he believes organized medicine should lead efforts to help humanity.
“I hope we remain the guiding force that improves the health of all Texans,” Dr. Carlo said. “The united voice of over 56,000 [TMA] physicians can accomplish so much more than what I can do in my individual examination room. The great network created by TMA members from all backgrounds and areas of medicine improves patient care through the sharing of information, best practices, and collective solutions.”
The 26-year TMA member has chaired the Councils on Science and Public Health, Legislation, and Socioeconomics. He also represents Texas doctors in the American Medical Association House of Delegates. In 2018-20, he chaired the Texas Public Health Coalition, which was instrumental in helping the state advance legislation that raised the minimum age for tobacco purchase to 21 in Texas. He also remains active in the Dallas County Medical Society, having served as president in 2017.
Dr. Carlo suggests TMA adapt to changes in health care to stay vital and viable.
“TMA must continue to reinvent itself to maintain its relevance for all physicians, including all practice types and specialties,” he said.
Dr. Carlo also urges young physicians to stay united in defense of the patient-physician relationship.
“Do not let the bureaucratic nightmares of today’s practice environment erase who you are and why you decided to become a doctor,” he said. “You decided to take this difficult journey for a reason.”
Dr. Carlo is chief executive officer of Prism Health North Texas, the area’s largest community-based health care organization providing HIV prevention and treatment, as well as specializing in LGBTQ primary care services.
Outside of organized medicine, Dr. Carlo serves in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national education training program, which advises elected officials around the country about emerging infectious diseases and public health responses to disasters. He previously was the medical director for Dallas County Health and Human Services and local health authority from 2006 to 2010.