Section Council on Psychiatry Welcomes Young AMA Physicians

At the Interim Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates meeting last month in Orlando, Fla., the AMA Section Council on Psychiatry hosted a gathering for young members of the AMA, including psychiatrists and physicians from other disciplines. In the past decade or two, the demographic makeup of the House of Delegates has changed markedly, with more young physicians, more physicians of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and more women.

Pictured at the gathering (from left to right) are Ron Lee, M.D., the Young Physician Section (YPS) delegate for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Tobias Wasser, M.D., YPS Delegate for the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law; Alex Ding, M.D., a radiologist and alternate delegate to the AMA from California (and a former AMA trustee and a current member of the AMA Council on Science and Public Health); and Ray Hsaio, M.D., delegate to the APA Section Council on Psychiatry and immediate past president of the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA).

Hsaio was the first psychiatrist, first Asian-American, and first young physician to serve as president of WSMA in its 125-year history. During the AMA meeting last month, Hsaio was honored by the AMA’s Pacific Rim delegation for his leadership as president of WSMA.

(The Pacific Rim and Western Mountain caucuses merged before the Interim Meeting. The combined caucus includes delegations from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.) ■