Name: Bradford Patt, MD
Specialty: Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery
City: Houston
County Medical Society: Harris CMS
Bradford Patt, MD, was elected to the TMA Board of Trustees in 2022.
As a TMA board member, Dr. Patt said he wants to increase TMA membership and strengthen the voice of organized medicine in Texas. He believes physicians have a stronger voice as a group and hopes that by actively engaging in organized medicine, they can “practice medicine in the manner that they were intended to by maintaining the patient-physician relationship without intrusion from bureaucracy and insurance companies trying to regulate medicine.”
With more than two decades of involvement in organized medicine under his belt, he believes physicians should advocate for patient care and the medical profession.
“Physicians must work hard to educate lawmakers at the state and federal level to make sure the patient-physician relationship will remain the mainstay in the practice of medicine," the otolaryngologist and facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon said.
Dr. Patt also aspires to encourage lawmakers to support medicine-friendly issues, including ensuring nonphysicians are not allowed to practice medicine without a medical license, and adopting health insurance reforms. He also advocates for increased funding for graduate medical education to train more young physicians in the state.
His fear: that “the corporate practice of medicine will continue to expand and interfere with the independence physicians should have to take care of patients.”
Dr. Patt chaired TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee, from 2019 to 2021. During this time, he also served as a consultant to the TMA Council on Legislation. For five years, until 2014, Dr. Patt also was a member of TMA’s Professional Liability Committee, which he said helped him inform newly elected state legislators about the importance of Texas’ medical liability laws. The past president of the Harris County Medical Society also chaired the county society’s delegation to the TMA House of Delegates in 2019.
To future physician leaders, Dr. Patt advises: “Become involved in advocacy for you and your patients. Put the care of your patients as the main priority in your practice.”
Last Updated On
March 13, 2023
Originally Published On
March 13, 2023