When Fort Worth allergist, Dr. Susan Bailey, became president-elect of the American Medical Association last summer, there was no way to predict that we were months away from a global pandemic. But she found herself smack-dab in the middle of one by the time she was officially sworn in as the 175th president of AMA on June 7. While COVID-19 has changed the nature of her new position, Bailey remains steadfast in her mission: Help doctors be doctors.
FW: How has the pandemic changed your goals as president of AMA?
SB: Having been in private practice all of my career, I am passionate about the importance of the independent private practice physician and our health care system. My goals have been to work to relieve the many administrative burdens that physicians face now, to eliminate dysfunction in the system that comes between them and their patients. I wanted to work on physician burnout.
None of those goals have really changed since the pandemic began. If anything, they’ve become more focused and more important than ever because there are many things literally coming between physicians and their patients now. There are things that they’ve got to deal with that they’ve never had to deal with before. So, it’s still my goal to help doctors be doctors, which has always been my motto.
FW: There’s a constant flow of information about COVID-19. We’re learning new things every day. Sometimes it’s conflicting. Sometimes it’s politicized. What sources do you find most credible and reliable for people to look to surrounding the virus?
SB: It’s important to look to our public health authorities, academic medical centers, and medical research in journals like JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s important to look to the science.
The AMA has been an incredible source of information about COVID-19 to physicians and the public. I’m really proud of the work that the AMA has done to get that information out. For example, the AMA cautioned about how the new COVID-19 antibody test had some issues and shouldn’t be used as a guarantee that someone is immune even before the CDC came out with that information. So, looking to our medical society is also an important source of information.
FW: What is the best indicator of how Tarrant County is handling the virus?
SB: We knew that [case numbers] were going to go up when things started to reopen and also when we were able to do more testing. So, I don’t think that the number of new cases is necessarily an indicator of how dangerous the virus is right now. I think looking at hospitalizations and, of course, looking at deaths are much more reliable indicators. Even though hospitalizations and deaths nationwide are trending down, that’s not what’s happening in Texas. Hospitalizations are up, deaths are up, and that’s incredibly concerning. The only way that we know how to slow down this virus, since they don’t have treatment and we don’t have a vaccine yet, is by basic public health measures that we have advocated: Wear a mask, keep your distance, and clean your hands.
FW: Do you think if the majority of Texans follow those measures to their best ability, we can change the trajectory and keep from having to go back down on strict lockdown orders?
SB: Yes, we have the power to control the trajectory of this virus. But it’s going to take all of us … This is one of those situations where individual actions have a tremendous impact on the community at large.
FW: Is COVID-19 here to stay?
SB: I do believe COVID-19 is here to stay. Since we’re not seeing a decrease in cases during the summer, it’s not going to be a seasonal virus. Until we get a vaccine, it’s going to be with us for a while. I imagine that it’s going to be a long-term issue, and it may change the way we do some things forever.
