APA Member Patrice Harris, M.D., Inaugurated AMA’s 174th President

“We are no longer at a place where those with mental illness and addiction are hidden and ignored, but we are not yet at a place where mental disorders are viewed without stigma and truly integrated into health care,” said long-time APA member Patrice A. Harris, M.D., M.A., in her address last night after her inauguration as the AMA’s 174th president.

Harris, a former member of the APA Board of Trustees, was sworn in during a ceremony at the AMA’s House of Delegates meeting in Chicago. Administering the oath of office was Jack Resnick, M.D., chair of the AMA Board of Trustees.

Harris, who is the first African American woman president of the AMA, said during her address that diversity and inclusion are critical to closing the gap in health disparities and that a focus of her presidency will be on health equity and increasing the diversity of the physician workforce.

“We face big challenges in health care today, and the decisions we make now will move us forward in a future we help create,” she said. “We are no longer at a place where we can tolerate the disparities that plague communities of color, women, and the LGBTQ community. But we are not yet at a place where health equity is achieved in those communities.”

Harris also vowed to elevate mental health as a part of overall health and to increase the understanding of the impact of childhood trauma on health.

During her presidential year, Harris will continue to chair the AMA’s Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, which she has chaired since its inception in 2014.

Harris served as director of health services in Fulton County, Ga., and head of the Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. As chief health officer for Fulton County, she spearheaded efforts to integrate public health, behavioral health, and primary care.

First elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in 2011, she has held the executive offices of AMA board secretary and AMA board chair. In addition to her leadership of the opioid task force, Harris has been active on AMA task forces and committees dealing with such issues as health information technology, payment and delivery reform, and private contracting. She also chaired the influential AMA Council on Legislation and co-chaired the Women Physicians Congress.

She served as trustee-at-large on the APA Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2004. In addition, she was president of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association and founding president of the Georgia Psychiatry Political Action Committee.

APA leaders hailed her election as an important indication of the strength of psychiatry within the House of Delegates. “We look forward to the opportunity to continuing to work with Dr. Harris on many issues, including further collaboration within the house of medicine to improve the quality of care for our patients,” said APA President Bruce Schwartz, M.D.

APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., said, “We are honored and delighted to have a psychiatrist and long-time APA member leading the house of medicine as president of the AMA. Her work over the years at APA and the AMA will add value to her new role as the face of the AMA.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “APA Member Patrice Harris Chosen AMA’s President-Elect.”

(Photo by Ted Grudzinski/AMA)

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AMA Calls for Ban on Direct-to-Consumer Ads, Citing Impact on Drug Costs

The American Medical Association this week called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees prescription drug advertising, to ban direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), citing its effect on rising pharmaceutical prices. 

At the Interim Meeting of the AMA’s House of Delegates in Atlanta, earlier this week, delegates who voted for the resolution said that although DTCA may increase awareness about diseases and drugs to treat them and thereby prompt some patients to visit a physician, the ultimate goal of DTCA is to drive demand for a product, which may affect the overall cost of drugs. A number of other resolutions and reports at the meeting were devoted to the issue of escalating drug prices.

Psychiatrist and AMA Board Chair-elect Patrice Harris, M.D., M.A. (pictured left), said the vote in support of a ban on DTCA reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially driven promotions. “Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate,” she said. “Patient care can be compromised and delayed when prescription drugs are unaffordable and subject to coverage limitations by the patient’s health plan. In a worst-case scenario, patients forego necessary treatments when drugs are too expensive.”

The United States and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow DCTA of prescription drugs.

The AMA, in a statement about the vote, cited market research by the firm Kantar Media showing that advertising dollars spent by drug makers have increased by 30 percent in the last two years to $4.5 billion.

For more information about the resolution, see an upcoming edition of Psychiatric News. For related information on DTCA, see the Psychiatric News article “Some Worry Drug Companies Will Exploit New Media.”

(Image: Ted Grudzinski/AMA)

AMA House Backs Ending Ban on Transgender Individuals Serving in Military

There is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from service in the U.S. military, and transgender service members should be provided care according to the same medical standards that apply to nontransgender personnel. So declared the AMA House of Delegates this afternoon during its 2015 annual policymaking meeting by approving a resolution introduced by the Section Council on Psychiatry in coordination with several other groups.

The resolution was widely supported during reference committee hearings and approved without debate during the meeting of the House today. “This resolution is about ending the blanket ban that prohibits transgender people from military service and transgender military service members from equal access to care,” said psychiatrist Brian Hurley, M.D. (pictured above), a delegate to the Section Council on Psychiatry from GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality. (The latter is the full name of the group formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.)


“There is a difference between having a transgender identity and having gender dysphoria, and there is no reason that transgender status alone should exclude anyone from military service or equal access to care,” Hurley said. “This resolution asks the AMA to state that there is no medical justification for this blanket ban, and in doing so, empower military physicians and commanders to assess readiness to serve on a case-by-case basis.

“We don't exclude gay people from military service or treat gay people and straight people according to different standards of care, so there is no justification for a continuing ban that treats transgender people different from cisgender people,” Hurley said. “There are over 15,000 transgender service members who remain closeted as a matter of policy, so it is urgent that the AMA weigh in now to affirm that there is no medical justification for this discriminatory policy.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Newest AMA Section Council Member Brings Focus on LGBT Health.”

(Image: Mark Moran)

AMA Leaders Debate Benefits, Harm of Solitary Confinement

Solitary confinement of juveniles in correctional settings is severely detrimental to adolescent health, with long-term consequences for development, and should be prohibited.

That’s what psychiatrists told delegates at the 2014 Interim Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. During reference committee hearings yesterday (where reports and resolutions are discussed before being sent to the House), delegates debated a resolution from the Medical Student Section to oppose the use of solitary confinement in all circumstances. Some emergency and other physicians testified that seclusion of adults is necessary and unavoidable in certain emergency hospital settings, and physicians working in correctional facilities argued the same for adults in jails and prisons.

But representatives from the AMA Section Council on Psychiatry insisted that there should be a separate policy for juveniles, especially in correctional facilities. “The potential psychiatric consequences of prolonged seclusion include depression, anxiety, and psychosis,” said David Fassler, M.D., alternate delegate from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. “Juveniles in particular are at risk for such consequences. We also know that the majority of suicides in juvenile correctional facilities occur when the person is isolated or in solitary confinement.”

Barry Wall, M.D., delegate from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (pictured above), acknowledged that confinement policies for adults in correctional and other settings are far more complex and offered to work with the Medical Student Section on a separate resolution about adults at next year’s House of Delegates meeting. “If the resolution were to focus on juvenile detention facilities only, we would certainly oppose the use of solitary confinement because of the developmental vulnerability of juveniles.”

The fate of the resolution on solitary confinement will be determined today when the full House of Delegates meets. For more on this subject, see the Psychiatric News article, “Drastic Reform Urged for Solitary Confinement.”

(photo: Mark Moran, Psychiatric News)

Scully Honored at AMA House of Delegates

Former APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., was one of three recipients of the AMA's Medical Executive Lifetime Achievement Awards yesterday during the opening session of the AMA’s 2014 Interim Meeting in Dallas.

Presenting the award, AMA Board Chair Barbara L. McAneny, M.D., told delegates that Scully, during his 11-year tenure at APA, revitalized staff functions, restored financial stability, and replenished reserves while leading APA’s advocacy efforts around parity coverage of mental illness, access to care, and reduction of stigma around mental disorders.

Scully, who is also a past chair of the AMA Section Council on Psychiatry and was active for years in the House of Delegates, told delegates in acceptance of the award that his work with other specialty society executives in the House revealed over and over again that “the problems we share in common and the solutions [we need] are much greater than the things that divide us.”

For more about Scully, see the Psychiatric News article “Scully to Retire After Whirlwind Decade.”

(Image: Mark Moran)