Beena NagappalaBeena Nagappala, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Dr. Beena Nagappala, a family physician of 20 years, presently works part-time in a busy family medicine group practice where she is involved with quality and compliance initiatives for the group and her practice. She also serves as medical director of community health for Ascension Southeast Michigan, overseeing medical care provided through the organization’s 24 school-based clinics in and around Metro Detroit, and volunteers at HUDA clinic and MAPI Charitable clinic where she was the clinic director. Both are free clinics providing care to the underinsured and uninsured patients of metro Detroit.

Equally fulfilling for Dr. Nagappala is advocating for her profession and patients and having a say in the policies that impact them. That’s why she was compelled to join the Academy more than 20 years ago, when she was in residency at Bon Secours Family Medicine Residency (now Beaumont Family Medicine Residency in Grosse Pointe), and why she serves on the MAFP Board of Directors and on its Advocacy Committee, where she was the 2020-2022 chair.

Her personal vision for the future of family medicine aligns with that of the Academy: achieving the best patient outcomes. This, she said, requires increasing physicians time with patients, which means decreasing administrative burden.

Reducing the administrative tasks that take away from patient care is among MAFP’s advocacy priorities. This entails reforming the prior authorization process, standardizing performance measures and reporting requirements across payers and, overarchingly, preserving the physician-patient relationship by opposing legislative interference in the practice of medicine, among other things.

To aspiring, new, and seasoned family physicians alike, Dr. Nagappala encourages “not getting discouraged by the administrative burdens that come from being a physician, but be encouraged by the small day-to-day interactions you have with your patients and know that even minor changes will make a significant difference in their lives.”