Revised
REPORT OF BOARD OF COUNCILORS
BOC Report 3-A-06
Subject: Emeritus Nominations
Presented by: Ned Snyder, MD, Chair
Referred to: Reference Committee on Financial and Organizational Affairs
The House of Delegates, upon nomination by the Board of Councilors and approval of the county medical society in which the member belongs, may elect a member of the association who has rendered exceptional and distinguished service to scientific or organized medicine, or both, to the status of member emeritus.
The nominations of Gerald A. Beathard, MD, PhD; Charles B. Mullins, MD; Karen W. Teel, MD; William G. Gamel, MD; and James M. Graham, MD, for emeritus membership have been approved by the Board of Councilors and are recommended for election by the House of Delegates. Brief sketches of the nominees' careers follows:
Gerald A. Beathard, MD, PhD
Throughout his 44-year career, Dr. Beathard actively participated in organized medicine and made exceptional contributions to the science and practice of nephrology that are recognized in the literature nationally and internationally.
A prolific writer of papers on vascular access procedures, Dr. Beathard helped found the Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology - now recognized for its expertise in teaching and credentialing nephrologists who work on vascular access. The American Society of Nephrology and National Kidney Foundation recognize him as an authority on vascular access. He helped write the Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative guidelines for vascular access management, and serves on the Health Care Payment Committee of the Renal Physicians Association.
Dr. Beathard has held several academic positions at his alma mater, The University of Texas Medical Branch, and at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Louisiana State University Medical School. He also served in numerous positions with the Texas Medical Association, Travis County Medical Society, Texas Transplantation Society, American Society of Nephrology, National Kidney Foundation, the United Network for Organ Sharing, Brackenridge Hospital, Seton Medical Center, and the Austin Diagnostic Clinic. He served as the co-chair of the Governor's Committee to Facilitate Organ Transplantation in 1983-84.
Dr. Beathard has received many awards, including Physician of the Year in 1986 at Brackenridge Hospital and at the Austin Diagnostic Clinic in 1993.
Dr. Beathard's career has been marked by devotion to his profession and his patients. Emeritus membership in the Texas Medical Association is a fitting recognition for his service.
Charles B. Mullins, MD
Charles B. Mullins is well known to members of the TMA House of Delegates, having taught many of them during his career in academic medicine at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. A UT-Southwestern graduate, Dr. Mullins became a resident at Parkland Hospital in 1962 following three years of service as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon.
After completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at UT-Southwestern, he became chief resident in medicine in Parkland and an instructor in medicine at UT-Southwestern. He subsequently held numerous positions at UT-Southwestern and Parkland. They include Director of the Parkland Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory; Director of Clinical Cardiology, professor of medicine, Vice Chairman of Medicine, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, and Director of Medical Affairs at UT-Southwestern. He became Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for The University of Texas System in 1981 and served in that position for 20 years. Dr. Mullins was Special Projects Director for the UT System chancellor from 2001 to 2003. He currently is the Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus at UT-Southwestern.
Dr. Mullins has served on numerous boards, committees, and task forces, including trustee of the American College of Cardiology, Children's Oncology Services, and Baylor College of Dentistry; a member of governors' task forces on cancer, coordination of organ transplants, and health care in the Texas prison system.
Dr. Mullins has received many honors. They include the University of North Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award, the TMA Outstanding Senior Award, and an Honorary Doctor of Public Service from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Dr. Mullins' career has been marked by devotion to his profession and his patients. Emeritus membership in the Texas Medical Association is a fitting recognition for his service.
Karen W. Teel, MD
Dr. Teel has been devoted to the preservation and promotion of ethics. In 1974, the text of a speech she gave at a Baylor University symposium on euthanasia was printed in the Baylor Law Review and was later quoted in the Karen Quinlan decision. Her article influenced the New Jersey Supreme Court to recommend an ethics committee be formed at a New Jersey hospital to decide whether Ms. Quinlan's comatose condition was irreversible and whether the life support that she had been on for a year should be withdrawn.
Hospital-based ethics committees similar to the one Dr. Teel proposed more than 30 years ago have become a standard support tool in making difficult ethical choices near the end of life.
A graduate of Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Teel has received local and national honors from her peers, including the International Bioethics Institute's first Award of Distinction in Bioethics in 1992 for suggesting hospital ethics committees; the 1982 Physician of the Year Award at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin; and, the Austin Business Journal Health Care Hero Award in 2004. The Pediatric Physician Alliance of Central Texas established the Karen Teel Excellence Award in 2003 to recognize the outstanding Senior Resident at the Children's Hospital of Austin.
Dr. Teel helped establish the Children's Hospital of Austin in 1988 and served on the planning board for the new Children's Medical Center scheduled to be completed this year.
Dr. Teel's career has been marked by devotion to her profession and her patients. Emeritus membership in the Texas Medical Association is a fitting recognition for her service.
William G. Gamel, MD
For nearly two decades, Dr. Gamel represented Texas physicians at the national level. A past president of both Texas Medical Association and Travis County Medical Society, Dr. Gamel chaired the Texas delegation for nine years. He also served eight years on the AMA Council on Legislation, stepping down as its chair in June 2005. He recently retired as the chief executive officer of the TMF Health Quality Institute in Austin.
Dr. Gamel grew up in Lampasas and earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. After completing an internal medicine internship and gastroenterology fellowship, he practiced in Austin throughout his career.
He worked tirelessly to represent his colleagues and patients through volunteer involvement in the legislative and regulatory aspects of medicine at the local, state, and national levels. As a member of the TMA Council on Legislation for many years, he was a key player in tort reform and grassroots involvement in Texas.
Dr. Gamel held numerous positions within organized medicine. In addition to serving as TMA president from 1992-93 and AMA delegation chair, Dr. Gamel has been a member of the Texas Society of Internal Medicine Board of Directors, president of the Central Texas Regional Blood Center, member of the TMA Board of Trustees, chair of the TMA Council on Legislation, chair of the TMA Medical Directors Forum, president of the Travis County Medical Society, and chair of the AMA Council on Legislation. He received the county medical society's Gold Headed Cane award in 2003.
Emeritus membership in the Texas Medical Association is a fitting recognition for his service.
Recommendation : Election of Gerald A. Beathard, MD, PhD; Charles B. Mullins, MD; Karen W. Teel, MD; and William G. Gamel, MD, to emeritus membership in the Texas Medical Association.
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2007