In Black America; Dr. Patrice Harris, MD: President-Elect American Medical Association

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. I planned to be a pediatrician. That was my goal. I've always wanted to work with children. And so for those in the audience who may not know in medical school, of course you have to do your undergraduate, but once you get to medical school, although I have to say this is changing, but that's a story for another day. The first two years are mostly in the classroom and the last two years were in the hospital and in the clinic. I was a third year medical student at the time with customary to rotate through all the specialties. And I did, you know, 12 weeks of surgery and internal medicine and family medicine. But when I got to my psychiatry rehabilitation, I really felt at home. I have always been fascinated by the brain as an organ.

And I just felt at home and inspired on my psychiatry rotation and so I decided that I could also combine psychiatry with my love of children. Dr. Patrice A. Harris MD, a psychiatrist and president elect of the American Medical Association. Harris was serving one year as president elect and in 2019 she will become the first African American woman to lead the organization. Founded in 1847, the AMA has played a critical role in the development of medicine in this country. In July 2008, the American Medical Association itchered a formal apology for more than the censorship of the discriminatory policy that excluded African Americans from participating in the organization. It came more than 40 years after the AMA delegates denounced policies that stated local medical societies dating back to the 1800s that barred African Americans.

Harris was inspired to go into the health profession for a love of children and their community. And by TV family, Dr. Marcus Welby from the TV program Marcus Welby MD. I'm Johnny Johansson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America and beginning of our 48th season. On this week's program Dr. Patrice A. Harris president elect the American Medical Association in Black America. I've always believed again in change and of course as you serve on the board of the American Medical Association. Of course I've been a previous board member of the American Psychiatric Association. But you have an opportunity to affect change even more as you know board service oversight of our very hard working team, our executive vice president of all the wonderful staff who work so hard on behalf of physicians every day in the AMA. But I think it's important because the board sets strategic goals for the organization, highlights areas where the organization may need to do a little bit more work.

And so I always think it's important to aspire to leadership certainly as the first African American woman president. Dr. Patrice A. Harris the practicing psychiatrist in Atlanta, Georgia. She was recently elected to be the 174th president of the American Medical Association. She was served one year as president elect and in 2019 she will become the first African American woman to lead the organization. Born and raised in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1982 Harris earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from West Virginia University and a medical doctorate from West Virginia University School of Medicine. She completed a psychiatry residency and a child psychiatry fellowship at immigrant university School of Medicine. A memory of the AMA since 1995 Harris served in a number of leadership positions at the state level, including serving on the board and as president of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association and on the Medical Associates of Georgia's Council on legislation. Also, she was the founding president of the Georgia Psychiatry Political Action Committee. Recently in Black America, spoke with Dr. Patrice A. Harris president elect the American Medical Association.

Born and raised in Bluefield, West Virginia, a small town in southern West Virginia grew up there when the community was thriving. My father worked on the railroads and my mother taught school. She taught junior high school math, later middle school math. I was an only child but blessed to have a lot of cousins who lived in Bluefield. My father had nine siblings and seven of them stayed in Bluefield. We had a very large, close extended family. In fact, when people think of the movie Soul Food and remember how on Sundays the table was full of lots of great things to eat. That's how Sundays were at my grandmother's house, who of course also lived in Bluefield.

I really enjoyed growing up in Bluefield, West Virginia. What was some of your activities while you were in high school? Well, in high school, of course, I was very involved. I guess the policy was a love of mine even before I even recognized it. Of course, I was very involved in student government, lots of community groups that were service groups in our small town. I was in the band and was a major at, played clarinet and in both junior high and high school, I was a major at. What attracted you to West Virginia University? Well, I went to a football game actually when I was in high school with my family. I'm a big sports enthusiast, particularly football. I went up and I loved the campus candidly. It was close to my parents.

Certainly, although both of my parents were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination and so staying in state was also a consideration regarding the cost of my education. So that's what attracted me to West Virginia University. I did all of my training there and of course completed medical school there. But as you may know, it was not a straight line path for me and there were some detours and challenges. As I say to everyone, every detour and challenge presented a learning opportunity for me and ultimately I was able to achieve my goal of becoming a physician. What was some of those detours and challenges? Well, my parents and my family were always very supportive and I tell you it never dawned on me that I couldn't be anything that I wanted to be. When I got to, I did not have anyone in my family who had gone to medical school and so I didn't know what to major in.

I didn't know the process and when I got to the university, I wasn't always encouraged to continue to pursue that goal. I always felt the story that I was looking through a catalog and yes, it was a catalog at the time of potential majors and I was looking through and the only thing that even had anything remotely close to medicine was medical technology and I thought, well, this must be what you major in if you want to go into medical school. But, of course, that was more of the folks in the wonderful profession who are working our pathology lab and, again, noble profession, not what I wanted to do. At one point, one of my advisors suggested I go to nursing school, again, a wonderful noble profession, but not what I wanted to do. But, as I said, I was persistent and I persevered and ultimately went to medical school.

What sparked that initial interest in psychology? Well, so I planned to be a pediatrician. That was my goal. I always wanted to work with children. So, for those in the audience who may not know in medical school, of course, you have to do your undergraduate, but once you get to medical school, although I have to say this is changing, but that's a story for another day. The first two years are mostly in the classroom and the last two years were in the hospital and in the clinic. And as a third year medical student at the time was customary to rotate through all the specialties. And I did, you know, 12 months of surgery and not 12 months. I'm sorry, 12 weeks of surgery and internal medicine and family medicine. But when I got to my psychiatry rotation, I really felt at home. I have always been fascinated by the brain as an organ. And I just felt at home and inspired on my psychiatry rotation. And so I decided that I could also combine psychiatry with my love of female children and then ultimately pursue a career in child and adolescent psychiatry. And so that's how I decided to do psychiatry.

Hopefully progress has been made with the other African-Americans in your class at medical school? Well, at West Virginia, I was the only African-American in my class. But some progress has been made. I have to say in both the gender currently, about 50% of medical school class is made up of women. We still have ways to go when it comes to communities of color. And I have to tell you that we again have a long ways to go regarding African-American women. But we certainly again as a community, as a profession, as a society really need to look at the issues of African-American men in medical school. And not just medical school, certainly as a physician. I want everyone to aspire to my profession. It is a wonderful profession. But undergraduates, particularly in medical school, we need to certainly work on increasing both African-American women.

But there is a critical shortage of African-American men that are pursuing medicine as a career. I would assume setting up any medical practice is difficult. But is it more difficult for psychiatric practice? I don't think it's any more difficult than any of my other colleagues in their specialty. Certainly, we live in a world of some burdensome regulation. But I don't think the challenges are any more difficult. There are challenges. I always say to medical students or to anyone that has a desire to pursue medicine, do it. Because it allows you a platform in addition to the wonderful and remarkable honor of being able to care for your patients. That is a relationship that's hard to describe to folks that don't have the honor of doing that. But the doctor, patient relationship is sacred. We talk about that. And it's hard to appreciate. But it's so true. And even as a psychiatrist, my patients talk to me about issues that they may not even be comfortable with talking to other loved ones.

So I really can't underestimate the honor and the privilege of the opportunity to be a physician in any specialty, but particularly as a psychiatrist. And there are many ways to serve. You can set up a private practice if you'd like. You can work in a larger system. And what we work on at the American Medical Association and all of our advocacy and all of our policy is to make sure that every physician can practice in a location, in a setting, in a manner that best meets their needs and their family's needs. And so that is the ultimate goal. And the AMA works on that through our advocacy and our policy.

If you're just joining us, I'm Johnny on Hanson, Jr. And you're listening to In Black America from KUT radio. And we're speaking with Dr. Patrice Harris, Dr. Psychiatry and the president, the leg of the American Medical Association. How long have you been a member of the Medical Association? Oh, my goodness. It's over 20 years or more. You know, I always, and so when my colleagues tease me, I say, I'm a joiner because I do believe. And again, there's no one right way to affect change. But for me, I believe in changing and working from the inside. So, you know, I joined at my local level and my state association and the national association, both in the general area of medicine, but also in my specialty because I do believe that, you know, it's important. Again, there's no one right way to do it. But for me, it's important to work and work on change and work on policy and advocacy and improvement from the inside. Over the years, the AMA has become more inclusive. You will be the first African American woman to lead the organization. And it's 173 years. Why was it important for you to extend to the leadership?

Well, again, I've always believed again in change. And of course, as you serve on the board of the American Medical Association, of course, I've been a previous board member of the American Psychiatric Association. But you have an opportunity to affect change even more as you know, board service oversight of our very hard working team, our executive vice president, of all the wonderful staff who work so hard on behalf of physicians every day in the AMA. But I think it's important because the board sets the strategic goals for the organization highlights areas where the organization may need to do a little bit more work. And so I always think it's important to aspire to leadership. Certainly, as the first African American woman president, but I do want to acknowledge Dr. Lonnie Bristow, who is the first African American president of the AMA over 20 years or so ago.

But I also want to be able to serve as a role model and so that others see that not only can I become a physician, but I can also aspire to leadership in organized medicine and be there setting those strategic priorities and goals. So that was why it was important for me personally to aspire to leadership within the American Medical Association. Are there any shortcomings of the AMA that you want to address as president? Well, there's no shortcomings. You know, the AMA, like any other organization, hopefully, I would say other organizations, but I notice about the AMA, is that you have to continue to keep up with what's going on in your profession, the challenges of our profession. And that's what we have opportunity to do twice a year when our House of Delegates meet and set priorities.

You know, address and identify the areas. We know that there continues to be health disparities. We know that we need to make sure that the practice environment is sort of a level playing field for physicians. We know that we need to address issues of chronic diseases. The AMA has, as its priority, improving health under our goal of improving health outcomes are addressing the issues of pre-diabetes. We want everyone to assess their own numbers. Know their numbers when it comes to their risk for diabetes. We want to prevent folks from getting diabetes. The other area is hypertension. We know that there are a number of folks in this country who have hypertension, high blood pressure, and it's not under control. And of course, from high blood pressure and diabetes, which affect disproportionately the African-American community, untreated are significant health consequences.

So we are very proud of our work there. You also may know that I chair our AMA's opioid task force. We know that there are too many opioid overdoses and opioids are affecting our community, have affected our community actually for some time. And the goal today, we know that in the past, the goal has been or the strategy or the intervention was incarceration. The AMA is highlighting the importance of treatment for those who have substance use disorders, not incarceration. And finally, another strategic priority is to look. I alluded to this a little earlier to look at how we are educating the next generation of physicians and the AMAs leading on that. So those are just a few of our priorities, but we have a wide portfolio of policies all in the service of improving the health of our nation. And again, I just want to highlight just recently at the June meeting where I was elected president-elect, the House of Delegates passed a report regarding the next phase of our work, the AMAs work on health disparities and health equity.

And so I would ask everyone to stay tuned for our work and that we have a history of great work. We co-convene the commission to in health disparities early in the 2000s. And now we are embarking on the next phase of our work in that area to promote health equity. Dr. Harris, does the AMA advocate more African-Americans and people of color participating in clinical studies? We definitely want to make sure that the results of clinical studies reflect our country. If we want to make sure that we are addressing health equities, we think it is important for communities of color to participate in those studies so that we can make sure that treatment interventions are work across the diverse patient population of our country.

And so we know, and again, we know the past history of issues, but it's important now for patients to talk to their physicians about those opportunities. Again, it won't be for everyone, but it's important as treatment, medications, interventions are developed. We want to make sure that they are developed with some knowledge of how effective they are in diverse patient population. Dr. Harris, addressing your specialty, why does mental health matter? I am so glad you asked that in particular for this audience. You know, mental health for so long has been looked at as an aside in some areas, outside of the medical mainstream in some areas, or as a result of a character flaw or a more weakness, or you just didn't pray hard enough. But we now know that mental disorders, mental illnesses, including substance use disorders, are brain disorders. They are absolutely brain disorders.

We have the science and the evidence to show that. And so we have to make sure that that information is out there, and it's not about a moral weakness or a character flaw, or you just didn't pray hard enough. Brain disorders are chronic medical conditions, just like high-pretension, high blood pressure, just like diabetes are no cure, but there are treatment. And we have to make sure that that information is out there. I think we've come a long way, and we had so many people, as you know, in oftentimes the celebrities come forth with their struggles with bipolar, with their struggles with depression, with their struggles with substance use disorders. And that's important, because sometimes it is helpful to see that, hey, I'm not the only one. I do not want anyone to suffer in silence. For some patients I've treated in the African-American community, they said, you know, I thought that it was normal to go through life with a depressed suit or a decreased appetite or lack of interest or energy.

I thought, well, you know, I'm working hard, or this is happening, and that's just a normal state of being. And when they have been successfully treated, they realize that that is not a normal state of being. And so I definitely, again, don't want anyone to suffer in silence, but I know there's a particular challenge in our community regarding the stigma. And so, again, that will be something else that I have the opportunity to amplify as, while I'm in leaders in the importance of integrating mental health into overall health. There is no separation. I always like to say the brain is connected to the rest of the body, so there is no separation. And again, we're getting more and more data that if you are depressed, your outcomes for diabetes and heart disease are worse. And so we have got to make sure that everyone, but again, particularly those in our community, talk to their physicians about this and appreciate that this is a chronic medical disorder, just like any other disorder.

Are we coming to grips with some of the conditions in which African-American live upon particularly homelessness and exposure to violence? Well, we know it. We know that, and most people call those the social determinants of health. You know, we've heard, I think Robert Wood Johnson say, you know, where you live, your work and your play has an effect on your health as much as your ability to see your physician and as your ability to take your medications and your ability to exercise and eat right. And so we are, we've identified these as particular issues, but we have a long way to go in addressing those. And that's why when we look at health, it is more than about health care. The AMA has long standing policy in looking at these issues regarding the social determinants of health, making sure that it is highlighted

that we need to make sure that housing is important, and employment is important, and education is important, and food security is critical. And having access to healthy, nutritious, fresh food, all of those are issues that have been amplified, but we all have to work together to make sure there are solutions in place. And certainly, I believe you will, I'm certain you will see the AMA continue to highlight some of those issues. I've read in certain publications that someone may experience bias and inequality of care, and after American patients are treated different from the majority population patients. Is that something the AMA is looking at?

Well, certainly we know that there's been studies that show that that provider bias can impact health and health care, and certainly the AMA is committed to addressing that issue. I believe we have been working on this issue, it's been identified before, again, the work of the commission and health disparities identified that issue. But as you know, that, like many other issues, requires constant work. There is no, it's a journey and not a destination. We will have to be constantly vigilant, constantly educating everyone about that, teaching that in our medical schools, and in our residency training programs. Again, constantly looking at that issue, because we know that we do not want bias to impact health care. So we have looked at that, and we'll continue to look at that. And again, that problem, nor actually any problem, is not ours alone to solve. That's why, as we saw these issues and look at this issues, it requires an all-in approach. But certainly physicians in the AMA will take the lead on our issues and addressing these issues from the physician's standpoint.

Dr. Harris does primary care providers look at your specialty as part of this total health wellness scenario. Absolutely, absolutely. The entire physician community does. I would say just over the last year that I've been involved in the AMA House of Delegate, we are many policies looking at this issue. And there is, and has been, and a trajectory of increasing awareness of the importance of mental health, again, as regards overall health. Dr. Patrice A. Harris, MD, President-Elect of the American Medical Association. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, email us at inblackamerica at cut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Remember to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

If you're using the fingers expressed on this program, are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You're going to get previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Averis, I'm Daniel Hansen Jr. Thank you for joining us today as we begin our 48th season. And please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs. KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT radio.