AMA President-elect … and lots more

Bobby Mukkamala (M.D. 1995) was recently voted president-elect of the American Medical Association. His med school classmate, Louito Edje (M.D. 1995), was honored to nominate him for the position. In her speech, Edje, who is senior associate dean for medical education at Michigan Medicine and has been a delegate to AMA for two decades, cited Mukkamala’s “once-in-a-generation leadership,” an apt description considering his ambitious vision. He hopes his tenure at AMA will see two major changes: improving the reimbursement system for Medicare and making health care records interoperable.

Mukkamala is a leader in the Flint community, where he maintains a private otolaryngology practice and has spearheaded efforts to mitigate lead exposure following the Flint water crisis.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, he’s noted for his humor, a quality that has helped him connect with communities beyond the medical field. For example, when Mukkamala talks about the interoperability of health care records, he says, “We’re at a time in our evolution of medicine where we’re doing robotic surgery and then faxing the note of that surgery to the primary care physician. It’s like George Jetson and Fred Flintstone living at the same time.”

Mukkamala recently added Bollywood actor to his list of accomplishments. On a trip to India, he was hosting a group of AMA board members for an unofficial tour of the Indian health care system, when he was discovered by a movie producer. Ironically, Mukkamala’s first trip to India as a tourist (previous trips were to visit family) led to a starring role in a Bollywood film. “I played the bad guy,” he says. Although he enjoyed the experience, he’s not making a career switch. “I’m referring to myself as a no-hit wonder.”

Being voted president-elect of AMA is “exciting, empowering, and also a little scary,” he says. The scary part for Mukkamala is making sure his patients in Flint will be cared for while he takes on new responsibilities. But he says everyone in his community is supportive of this opportunity.