Name: Lisa L. Ehrlich, MD
Specialty: Internal Medicine
City: Houston
County Medical Society: Harris CMS
With about a year and a half of service on the TMA Board of Trustees behind her, Lisa L. Ehrlich, MD, sees herself as the governing body’s “stabilizer,” as they deliberate complex, even controversial issues.
“At a time when you can almost get whiplash watching the issues thrown our way, I feel staying true to our mission as physicians by protecting our sacred profession for the good of our patients should be our most important goal,” the Houston internist said. “We need to stand strong and steady and resist the many things that distract us from our core mission. I hope to use my [board] time to help protect TMA and this profession that I love, as well as to advocate for our patients who have very little voice.”
Driven to uplift patient care by participating in organized medicine, she has served on TMA’s Committee on Patient-Physician Advocacy, Council on Health Care Quality, and Council on Socioeconomics, as well as on the board of TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee.
She believes it is essential for TMA to be strong and unified with clarity of mission to advance the association’s goals.
Concerned that “grievance and resentment define the current cultural moment,” Dr. Ehrlich’s solution is to feel gratitude for the privilege of positively affecting patients’ lives “while simultaneously being fulfilled by such a wonderful purpose.” She suggests “the way back to gratitude is to return to our core mission as physicians.”
And TMA’s accomplishments, she says, are the result of the association’s focus on its mission.
“What I love about the mission of TMA and our physicians is that it is very simple and pure,” said Dr. Ehrlich. “Organizing around such a wholesome goal just feels good.”
Dr. Ehrlich is a board member of the TMF Health Quality Institute and has worked on the credentialing arm of the Physician Quality Network, an independent practice association, for more than 20 years. She also is a member and past president of the Harris County Medical Society.
She reminds herself and others that regardless of the challenges before physicians – bureaucratic, political, or otherwise – doctors can succeed if they disregard the clutter and focus on the patient.
And always stay positive.
“Don’t be consumed with things you are against; be always for something and keep your mission for the individual patient at the center of your vision, as you would in the exam room.”