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The Medical Society of Virginia has named its first Black female president, Dr. Alice Coombs, an anesthesiologist and internist at Virginia Commonwealth University Health.
The society, founded in 1820 and headquartered in Richmond, advocates for more than 30,000 doctors, residents, students and physician assistants across the state.
Coombs is the chair of the department of anesthesiology, critical care and pain medicine at VCU Health, where she is also a member of the board of directors.
A doctor for more than 35 years, she completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She also served as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
A top priority, she said, will be the health and wellness of providers. For years, doctors have been discouraged from receiving mental health treatment, worried that doing so could threaten their licenses to practice. This year the society pushed for a new law that changes the questions the state asks on licensure applications. Instead of asking a doctor if he or she has received counseling or therapy, it asks if the doctor faces any mental health condition that affects his or her ability to do the job.
A Virginia doctor, Lorna Breen, died by suicide in 2020. A member of her family told Congress she was convinced she would lose her license or face ostracism from colleagues if she received mental health care.