In the 22 years since the Texas Medical Association first started meeting with legislators during First Tuesdays at the Capitol, the aim has remained the same: “making a relationship on behalf of medicine,” according to TMA Alliance President and First Tuesdays Chair Jenny Shepherd.
“You don't have to know the detailed statistics of anything. You just have to know the issues and how they affect medicine,” she told Texas Medicine Today. “You just have to tell your story.”
The continued success of TMA’s signature advocacy event is reflected in its robust attendance numbers, with nearly 250 allies of medicine taking to the state capitol March 4.
“I'm encouraged to see we've had large numbers with the first two this year, and that's important with some of the turnover that we've had in the legislature over the past two election cycles,” said Jimmy Widmer, MD, who has been attending First Tuesdays since he was a medical student in 2011.
“There are a lot of new [legislative] members,” the Temple internist said. “There's a lot of opportunity to educate those new members, and so that's one of the reasons that I think it's important that we go to Austin and advocate for our patients.”
Empowering new attendees
Alex Yudovich, MD, who attended his first-ever First Tuesdays event in March at the urging of a physician friend, was so energized by the experience that he plans to attend the April and May events – continuing the work of educating legislators on what matters most to physicians.
“I don't have a loud megaphone,” the Houston pediatrician said, drawing parallels to “the conversations that we have in our patient rooms [which are] … so important to dispel myths and to keep people engaged in their own health.”
“Just having those conversations with [legislators], becoming a reliable source of good information, is key,” he said, noting that both physicians and legislators are committed to the greater good. “That's what my goal was, to be there and speak to the talking points that protect the family of medicine.”
Shepherd is encouraged when she hears stories like that coming out of First Tuesdays.
“Almost all of those first-time members walked in, and they were initially a little nervous about how would it go, and what would they do, and what would it be like,” she said. “Almost everyone has walked away and said to me after, ‘Wow, I feel really empowered to do the work of medicine. I felt like my conversations were meaningful, and I want to come back.’”
Long-term relationships
While those new to First Tuesdays bring energy and fresh perspective, physicians with extensive history talking to legislators anchor the effort, sometimes leading groups of less seasoned participants.
“I’ve been going to First Tuesdays since before there were First Tuesdays,” said John E. Bishop, MD, a retired ophthalmologist who first started meeting with legislators in Austin in 1997 – and currently has the good fortune to run into his representative, Rep. Todd Hunter, while out on weekend dog walks in his Corpus Christi neighborhood.
For this latest installment, Dr. Bishop experienced a first – he attended alongside his son, Clayton M. Bishop, MD, a Corpus Christi otolaryngologist who told legislators of medicine’s prior authorization challenges, such as those he faces over a routine ear tube insertion procedure.
“If you build relationships with these people, then they really respect you,” said Keely Hunsaker, MD, TMA Alliance member and Corpus Christi dentist who has been attending First Tuesdays with her husband, Jerry Hunsaker, MD, since the event’s inception.
Katherine Billingsley, MD, who began attending First Tuesdays as an outgrowth of her Leadership College experience in 2023, finds the experience of walking from the TMA Building to the Capitol with colleagues to be “magical.”
In addition to making connections with peers through First Tuesdays, she’s gotten to talk to her legislators about issues important to her – including how she utilized the Texas Physician Education Loan Repayment Program, initially practicing in Brazoria County to fulfill those requirements. That experience still shapes her access-to-care concerns, as some patients drive more than an hour to see her.
“I currently practice solo; it’s just me in my little office all day, every day,” the Lumberton family physician said. “To get to be in a big group of other physicians who care about what I care about … that kind of community is energizing.”
Register for the next First Tuesdays at the Capitol event on April 1, and review TMA’s legislative priorities for the 2025 session.
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.