Nelson L. Adams III (born 1 February 1953) is an American physician. He is president of the National Medical Association and founder and president of Access Health Solutions, LLC.
Adams was born in Miami, Florida where he attended Miami Jackson Senior High School and received a Silver Knight Award nomination. After graduating in 1970, he earned a B.A. in zoology from Howard University in 1974, and his M.D. from Meharry Medical College in 1978. At Meharry, he was named Student of the Year in his freshman class and served as President of the Meharry Chapter of the Student National Medical Association.
Adams then went on to Emory University in Atlanta, where he completed his internship in 1979 and his residency in obstetrics and gynecology in 1982. He opened his first private practice in Mobile, Alabama in September, 1982.
Adams moved his OB-GYN practice to Miami Shores, Florida in 1986. He became vice president of network development for Sheridan Healthcorp in March 1995. From December 1999 to January 2004 he served as medical director for Greater Miami OB-GYN Associates at Sheridan Healthcorp.
He founded Access Health Solutions in February 2004 and currently serves as its president and chairman. He was sworn in as the 108th president of the 112-year-old National Medical Association during their annual convention and scientific assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 7, 2007. [1]
In 2008, he launched "Walk a Mile with a Child", an annual event designed to increase awareness and emphasize community health education. The inaugural walk was held in the Overtown section of Miami on April 19, 2008. The first official walk which was held in Atlanta, Georgia on July 31, 2008, during the NMA's annual convention. [2]
On June 24, 2008, Adams testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in support of the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2007, which sought to reduce ethnic disparities in health care, improve "cultural competency" among medical providers, and improve medical workplace diversity. [3] Adams was a panelist during a National Hispanic Medical Association Congressional Lunch Briefing for members of Congress and staff to discuss strategies to lower health care costs by addressing health disparities and to spotlight reform coalitions which include health disparities in their agenda.
On July 2, 2008, he was a panelist during a conference of the 37th Annual Conference of Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago, called "Closing the Health Gap: The Civil Right to Health Care", which examined the role of discrimination and other factors in explaining the health gap.
Adams is a member of the Board of Trustees of Meharry Medical College, Barry University, the Miami Art Museum, and St. John Community Development Organization. He sits on the board of directors of the Overtown Youth Center in Miami and other organizations.
Adams is married to Effie Jones with whom he has two children. He is the grandson of Nelson Leon Adams (1877–1971), for whom the Adams Middle School established 1967 in Saraland, Alabama. [4]
Obstetrics and gynaecology is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics and gynaecology. The specialization is an important part of care for women's health.
Gynaecology or gynecology is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area of obstetrics and gynaecology (OB-GYN).
Meharry Medical College is a private historically black medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South. While the majority of African Americans lived in the South, they were excluded from many public and private racially segregated institutions of higher education, particularly after the end of Reconstruction.
Dwight Tillery is an American politician and social justice activist with more than 50 years of service working towards equity for African Americans and other minorities in politics, business and public health. His leadership transformed the lives of Black residents in the city of Cincinnati in the areas of racial justice, education, civics, community health and politics. Tillery was the first popularly elected Black Mayor in Cincinnati, Ohio, serving from 1991-1993, and he served on the Cincinnati City Council for 8 years. Tillery co-founded the United Black Students Association at the University of Cincinnati, was the Founder, President and CEO of The Center for Closing the Health Gap, and co-founded The Black Agenda of Cincinnati. Tillery also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati and at Miami University.
David Satcher, is an American physician, and public health administrator. He was a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the 10th Assistant Secretary for Health, and the 16th Surgeon General of the United States.
The National Medical Association (NMA) is the largest and oldest organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the United States. As a 501(c)(3) national professional and scientific organization, the NMA represents the interests of over 30,000 African American physicians and their patients, with nearly 112 affiliated societies throughout the nation and U.S. territories. Through its membership, professional growth, community health education, advocacy, research, and collaborations with public and private organizations, the organization is dedicated to enhancing the quality of health among minorities and underprivileged people. Throughout its history, the NMA has primarily focused on health issues related to African Americans and medically underserved populations. However, its principles, goals, initiatives, and philosophy encompass all ethnic groups
Conceived in no spirit of racial exclusiveness, fostering no ethnic antagonism, but born of the exigencies of the American environment, the National Medical Association has for its object the banding together for mutual cooperation and helpfulness, the men and women of African descent who are legally and honorably engaged in the practice of the cognate professions of medicine, surgery, pharmacy and dentistry.
— C.V. Roman, M.D. NMA Founding Member and First Editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association (NMA) 1908
The Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved is an academic journal founded in 1990 by David Satcher, then President of Meharry Medical College who later became the 16th Surgeon General of the United States. JHCPU is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press for Meharry and is affiliated with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved.
The Brooklyn Hospital Center is a 464-licensed-bed, full-service community teaching hospital located in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. The hospital was founded in 1845. It is affiliated with the Mount Sinai Health System, and serves a diverse population from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds.
Carl Compton Bell was an American professor of psychiatry and public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Bell was a National Institute of Mental Health international researcher, an author of more than 575 books, chapters, and articles addressing issues of violence prevention, HIV prevention, isolated sleep paralysis, misdiagnosis of Manic depressive illness, and children exposed to violence.
Charles Howard Wright was a Detroit physician and founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Consuelo H. Wilkins is an American physician, biomedical researcher, and health equity expert. She is Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and has a joint appointment at Meharry Medical College. She additionally serves as one of the principal investigators of the Vanderbilt Clinical and Translational Science Award, Director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Core (CTSA) and as vice president for Health Equity at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
An obstetric hospitalist is an obstetrician and gynaecologist physician who is either employed by a hospital or a physician practice and whose duties include providing care for laboring patients and managing obstetric emergencies. Some obstetrics hospitalists also have responsibilities including resident and medical student teaching; providing backup support for family practitioners and nurse midwives, assisting private physicians with surgery, assuming care for ob-gyn patients unassigned to a physician and providing vacation coverage for the private practicing physician.
Lloyd Charles Elam was an American psychiatrist who established the psychiatry department and psychiatric residency program at Meharry Medical College, then served as interim dean before becoming president of the college from 1968 to 1981. Elam opened one of Nashville's first psychiatric day treatment programs.
The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology is a non-profit organization that provides board certification for practicing obstetricians and gynecologists in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1927, incorporated in 1930, and is based in Dallas, Texas. It is one of 24 medical boards recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. ABOG's mission is to define the standards, certify obstetricians and gynecologists, and facilitate continuous learning to advance knowledge, practice, and professionalism in women's health.
Valerie Montgomery Rice is an American obstetrician, gynecologist, and college administrator. She is the president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine.
Dr. Veronica Thierry Mallett, M.D., MMM, is a women's health physician in the United States known for her work in urogynecology, specifically with respect to genital organ prolapse and urinary incontinence, and for her efforts in reducing health disparities.
Camara Phyllis Jones is an American physician, epidemiologist, and anti-racism activist who specializes in the effects of racism and social inequalities on health. She is known for her work in defining institutional racism, personally mediated racism, and internalized racism in the context of modern U.S. race relations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones drew attention to why racism and not race is a risk factor and called for actions to address structural racism.
James Earl King Hildreth is an American immunologist and academic administrator. Hildreth is the 12th president and chief executive officer of Meharry Medical College. He is known for his work on HIV/AIDS and was the first African American to hold a full tenured professorship in basic research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Edward D. Miller calls Hildreth "one of the most influential HIV researchers in the world".
Chaniece Wallace, a black woman and physician, died at 30 years of age from complications of pregnancy two days after the birth of her daughter. Her death is seen as preventable and is viewed in the context of high rates of maternal mortality in the United States, particularly among the African American population. It is cited as an example in medical and scholarly publications to call for improved health outcomes in the black U.S. population. Wallace died despite several factors seen as protective: she was "highly educated, employed as a health care practitioner, had access to health care, and had a supportive family." Wallace was a fourth year pediatric chief resident at the Indiana University School of Medicine and was working at Riley Children's Health Hospital at the time of her death.
Ebony Carter is an obstetrician, reproductive health equity researcher and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Carter is the Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. As a physician-scientist, Carter is known for her research and implementation of community-based interventions to improve health equity among pregnant patients. Carter is the inaugural Associate Editor of Equity for the academic journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
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