Page 43 - Delaware Medical Journal - July/August 2019

AMA ANNUAL MEETING
Inaugural Address: “Working Together to ‘Transform 1 Million Realities’” Delivered at AMA Annual Meeting, Hyatt Regency, Chicago, Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, President, American Medical Association
Good evening.
Tonight is very special for me and I am honored that each of you is here to share it.
The poet Maya Angelou once said, “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy” ... and I would add, dream ... “can totally transform 1 million realities.”
You didn’t think you’d sit through an address from a psychiatrist and not hear something about fantasies and dreams, did you?
But the great thing about psychiatrists is we can talk about dreams and fantasies ... as well as the hippocampus and the cytochrome P450 system.
It’s truly a dream come true to stand before you tonight.
A dream my ancestors, parents, my extended family, and my friends supported before it even entered my imagination.
A dream my West Virginia, Georgia, psychiatry, and AMA families helped me achieve.
And, I know in my heart that tonight, “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams!”
Tonight, I would like to thank:
I. My parents,
II. Anthony,
III. Harris/Smith family,
IV. Barron/Singley and Williams family, V. Clark/Broddie family,
VI. My sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha,
VII. My WVU and West Virginia friends,
VIII. My ATLiens and Georgians who are here tonight,
IX. And AMA management and staff.
I’d also like to recognize two others who broke barriers in our organization ... Dr. to lead the AMA, and Dr. Nancy Dickey, the
Please join me in thanking them for their
Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, President, American Medical Association
contributions to the growth of our profession.
I have chosen as the theme of my inauguration, “From Many Families: One.”
Each of our families — whether composed of relatives, friends, or colleagues — has something to teach us, and mine are no different.
A common thread of my lessons learned is the importance of standing together:
• From my Aunt Betty, who, when confronted with a challenging situation, would remind me, “We Harrises stick together.”
• From my Georgia family, who taught me that physicians are at our best in advocacy when we work together.
• And you, my AMA family, remind me daily that there is strength in our collective voice.
My personal journey has also taught me many valuable lessons:
First, medicine involves a community.
I learned this from Marcus Welby, MD, a

actually inspired me to become a physician.
Dr. Welby not only cared for his patients inside the exam room, but he cared about their lives, their families, and their communities.
Medicine relies on teamwork.
I learned this as a medical student in the emergency department, holding a woman’s heart in my hand as a member of the on-call trauma team who worked to keep her heart
beating after a motor vehicle accident. Medicine needs a broad perspective.
From my work with patients who’ve been abused, neglected, diagnosed with a mental illness, subjected to childhood trauma, who are homeless or unemployed ... I learned that often-overlooked health determinants have an effect on one’s health over a lifetime.
Medicine needs allies.
I have learned the critical importance of creating partnerships with legislators, community-based organizations, and the business community, and the impact of those partnerships on patient health.

leadership.
It needs US, the AMA, to lead the way.
Last month, I gave the commencement address at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
There, I saw the future:
I saw our brilliant and highly motivated future colleagues, who cannot wait to stand where we are, and who are counting on us to lead before we pass the baton.
Our personal journeys inform the people we become.
JustasIamthesumofmyparts...
An African American woman, a psychiatrist, and a child from the heart of coal country... so each of you is the sum of your parts ...where you came from, your specialty, and your experiences.
Our diversity is the source of our strength as we face medicine’s most daunting challenges.
From geography to specialty to age and gender ... our uniquely lived experiences shape who we are as people ... and as physicians.
While we have many differences, at the AMA, we have this common goal:
Through this great organization, we BELIEVE WE CAN uplift our entire
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