Jose David Suarez: Seeking more primary care doctors for the underserved

As president of the Dade County Medical Association, Jose David Suarez, MD, is proud of being able to touch the lives of hundreds of patients, promote physician leadership, help educate patients and doctors, and advocate for that relationship. His goals for the association have been oriented toward that. 

During the pandemic, the association has been able to provide the medical community with personal protective equipment, promote testing and vaccination in partnership with state and local authorities, and inform the medical community about up-to-date treatments for the coronavirus and about government legislation that may affect the practice. 

Also, the Dade County Medical Association gets involved with the community with wellness fairs where residents and doctors in training would provide check-ups to patients and help the medical community and police officers with information and training on how to prevent burnout and deal with psychiatric patients in the community. 

As president of the association, Dr. Suarez is an advocate for increasing the numbers of primary care doctors in Florida, especially in areas of critical need. 

“There are areas of Florida where there are no doctors,” he said. “We just don’t have enough.” As a result, he has his own creative proposal to increase the number of primary care doctors across the state and says he will continue promoting it with legislators even after his presidency ends in June. 

Dr. Suarez is also chief medical officer of Clinical Care Medical Centers for the State of Florida and oversees almost 100 doctors, 25 clinics, and 50,000 patients. He is a practitioner physician and manages to make time to run the operations, see patients, work with the association, invent his own medical devices, and even keep involved at a personal level with non-profit organizations. 

Dr. Suarez spoke with Miami Today reporter Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow. 

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