Mega Doctor News
The Texas Medical Association (TMA) today installed Gary W. Floyd, MD, a Keller pediatrician, as its 157th president. TMA’s House of Delegates policymaking body installed Dr. Floyd during TexMed, the association’s annual conference, in Houston this year. TMA elected him president-elect in May 2021.
“It’s an incredible privilege and responsibility – and very humbling – for the members of our TMA to entrust me to lead our great organization,” Dr. Floyd said.
Three tenets guide him: his work, faith, and family. He said the three principles have formed the internal value system by which he lives and works, serving as guardrails along his path from medical school to TMA president.
Dr. Floyd is the fourth president to serve America’s largest state medical society during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During his one-year presidency, he hopes to repair the mistrust of the medical profession that has grown as doctors and health care workers have battled COVID. He said to accomplish that, organized medicine should present a united front in the face of misinformation, while remaining professional and collegial.
“One of the biggest things we have to focus on … is finding areas of commonality,” Dr. Floyd said.
He explained those commonalities include “protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship; allowing physicians to practice medicine without … interference from insurance or other payers or the government; protecting our patients as they seek assistance for delicate issues; and protecting our physicians as they try to render care to the best of their abilities.”
Dr. Floyd has been involved in TMA throughout his 43-year medical career. He chaired the TMA Board of Trustees, the association’s governing body, in 2020-21, having served seven years on the board.
He also chaired the TMA Council on Legislation and served on the association’s Council on Constitution and Bylaws, and the Select Committee on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Uninsured. Dr. Floyd also was a district chair of TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee.
In addition to his TMA involvement, he previously served as president of the Texas Pediatric Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society, and he was active in the American College of Physician Executives and the Society for Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He is a fellow and board member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
After the pandemic hit, Dr. Floyd began seeing fewer patients although he continues to be involved in medical management and organized medicine. His passion for medicine makes him a strong advocate for patients and physicians. His recipe for successful advocacy involves teamwork. One example, he said, was the agreed-to bill he helped TMA broker with advanced practice nurses and physician assistants in 2013. The Texas Legislature passed the landmark compromise, which led to an improved model for a team-based approach to health care, with physicians leading the team.
Dr. Floyd believes successful advocacy does not happen overnight; it depends on unwavering, grassroots commitment. “It’s not that you have special abilities,” he said, “it’s just that you keep showing up.”
Dr. Floyd is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. He has practiced in various settings in Texas and Oklahoma including general pediatrics, academic pediatrics, and pediatric emergency and urgent care. He was the medical director for pediatric emergency services at Cook Children’s Medical Center for 15 years. Dr. Floyd later became John Peter Smith Health Network’s chief medical officer and executive vice president of medical affairs, and then executive vice president of government and alumni affairs.
A graduate of The University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine at Galveston, Dr. Floyd completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. He pursued his undergraduate studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Floyd has been married 47 years to Karen Floyd, whom he met when they were in high school. She introduced him to Christianity – a faith that he said kept him calm when he found himself in chaotic pediatric emergency departments and intensive care units, with patients sometimes on the brink of death.
The couple has two married daughters, Holly Peterson, married to Ben Peterson; and Neely Pedersen, married to Craig Pedersen, DO; and three grandsons.
TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 56,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 110 component county medical societies around the state. TMA’s key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.
