AMA President Harris to Share Insights at Opening Session
Abstract
A long history of leadership in organized medicine gives AMA President Patrice Harris, M.D., M.A., special insight into how physicians can influence public health policy.
As chair of the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, Patrice Harris, M.D., M.A., has emphasized the need to reduce opioid prescribing by physicians while also advocating for treatment for substance use disorders and pain management.
“Truly a steel magnolia … and people best not forget it.”
That’s how Barbara McAneny, M.D., described psychiatrist Patrice Harris, M.D., M.A., who succeeded her as AMA president at Harris’ presidential inauguration in June last year.
The steel magnolia will be speaking at the Opening Session of this year’s APA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Also speaking are APA President Bruce Schwartz, M.D., and President-elect Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H.
A former member of the APA Board of Trustees and chair of the AMA Board, Harris was inaugurated as the 147th president of the AMA at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Chicago last June (Psychiatric News), vowing to make mental health a priority in her presidential year.
“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,” she said in her inauguration address.
Harris, the first African American woman president of the AMA, also vowed to focus on health equity and increasing the diversity of the physician workforce. “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 continues to serve as chair of the AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse. She was a 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 CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., said that throughout a career of advocacy and leadership in organized medicine, Harris has helped to raise the profile of psychiatry and APA.
“I urge everyone attending this year’s Annual Meeting to come hear what Patrice has to say. She has been a remarkably effective advocate for our profession and our patients.” ■
The Opening Session will be held Saturday, April 25, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Hall A, 200 Level, in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
