Member of the Month: Jason Ramm, MD, FAAFP

Jason Ramm, MD, FAAFP, began his career as an employed family physician in Sulphur, Louisiana, before transitioning to private practice, where he spent more than a decade providing full-spectrum family medicine. His work spanned outpatient, inpatient, intensive care, nursing home, and endoscopy services, alongside leadership roles in hospital governance, including serving a term as medical staff president. This introduction to physician leadership paved the way for the future of his career.

In 2014, Ramm joined Baylor Scott & White Health, where his passion for physician leadership expanded. He served as a clinic medical director in both Temple and Killeen, then vice chair of the Department of Family medicine at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, where he became chair in 2023. He is also currently an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the Temple campus of Baylor College of Medicine.

Throughout his career, Ramm has remained committed to the values that first drew him to family medicine including relationships, continuity, service, and comprehensive care. His leadership experience has expanded that commitment to developing clinical teams, improving health care systems, and advancing the future of primary care.

Who or what inspired you to become a family physician?
As the son of a coach, then school superintendent of small towns across East Texas, my model of a doctor was the local family physician. I was always intrigued with medical care and how people viewed and responded to the local physician. There were several physicians who were instrumental in my interest in family medicine over the years. Sometime in about the eighth grade, I began to feel the call to be a physician. I entered medical school and as I went through the rotations of third year, I realized that I liked many different aspects of medicine. I spent six weeks with a general practitioner in the south of England during my training. The ability to not only treat chronic disease, but to help prevent illness spoke to me. This really solidified my decision to enter family medicine.

What ultimately drew you to being a physician executive?
I never had the ambition to become a leader or executive. I entered medicine to serve people and reduce suffering. I believe that this has been a calling, as well as my love for family medicine. I have always been interested in problem solving (likely the main reason for medicine), and when I have been in clinics or in the hospital, I am constantly looking for better ways to serve patients and those who serve patients. I was very reluctant to accept the ask to serve as interim chair as I did not want to give up any of my practice. A wise person told me that by serving in a leadership role I could impact many more lives than I could by just practicing family medicine. I jumped in with both feet and have not looked back.

What unique challenges are represented in your patient community?
Being in the “new Golden Triangle of Texas,” we are in a rapidly growing population. Access to great primary care has become our biggest challenge. Although this is not unique to us in central Texas, it is problem that must be addressed for the good of our patients across the country. We have worked on ways to be able to utilize space, manpower, and resources in the most efficient ways. 

I am proud that we at Baylor Scott & White are leading the way for utilizing AI for documentation, response to patient messages, and interpretation of lab results, which relieves burnout on our physicians, improves turnaround time for patient messages, and increases access for patient care. We are also working on expanding virtual care such as video visits, phone visits, and asynchronous care to better serve more patients without expanding physical space. 

Changing payment, including the reduction in the exchange programs and the increase in self-pay patients, is the other great challenge. Moving from a fee-for-service to a value-based care system has required new thinking on how to work within a system where specialty and inpatient care have driven finances in the past.

Why do you choose to be a TAFP member?
TAFP brings the family physicians of the state together, allowing us to have a unified voice and share in finding solutions to an ever-evolving medical landscape. I love working with family physicians across the state to improve care for our patients. I believe that if we truly work together, we can figure out the best ways to give the best care to the most people.

What do you enjoy doing outside of medicine?
I love to spend time with my family and friends, fish, and serve in my church. Now that my children are grown, I look forward to traveling with my wife, Naomi.

TAFP’s Member of the Month program highlights Texas family physicians in TAFP News Now and on the TAFP website. We feature a biography and a Q&A with a different TAFP member each month and his or her unique approach to family medicine. If you know an outstanding family physician colleague who you think should be featured as a Member of the Month or if you’d like to tell your own story, nominate yourself or your colleague by contacting TAFP by email at tafp@tafp.org or by phone at (512) 329-8666.