Steering Committee Member – Dr. James Hotz

Dr. Hotz is Clinical Services Director of Albany Area Primary Health Care (AAPHC) a Community Health Center with 13 clinical sites that serves 40,000 citizens in rural Southwest Georgia.  A graduate of Cornell University and the Ohio State University School of Medicine.He joined the U.S. Public Health Service after completing an Internal Medicine Residency at Emory University and helped found AAPHC in 1978.  Since then this Community Health Center has seen over 2.5 million patients the majority of whom are rural, African-American, and live in poverty.In addition to being a practicing internist, Dr. Hotz continues to be involved in health policy around issues of access and health disparity.  He was a board member of the Georgia Association of Primary Health Care and was the first physician to be President of the Association.  Dr. Hotz served 2 terms on the Board of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and is a member of the Clinical Services Committee and the Legislative Affairs Committee.  He worked on the Program Expectation Task Force that developed CHC quality and reporting standards.  Currently he represents NACHC on the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable.Since 2006 Dr. Hotz has been on the Steering Committee of the Georgia State Cancer Plan and is Co-Chairperson of the Early Detection and Screening Work Group.  He is Medical Director and serves on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Georgia Cancer Coalition.  In 2001, Dr. Hotz helped found this organization that coordinates comprehensive cancer control for a region of 34 counties with a population of over 700,000.  Dr. Hotz is a member of the Council of Regional Cancer Coalitions of Georgia and was Chairperson from 2004-2008.Dr. Hotz is involved in a wide array of research activities addressing CHC medical home redesign to reduce health disparities.  This research includes cardiovascular risk factor reduction; use of health care coaches to improve life styles; and multiple approaches to increase cancer screening including using patient navigators for colonoscopy.  His work on Colon Cancer Screening was featured on a CNN special hosted by Lance Armstrong and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  He is on the Community Advisory Board of the Emory Prevention Research Center and has collaborated with numerous other academic institutions.  He is active in medical education serving on the faculty of the Medical College of Georgia and the Admissions Committee of Mercer University School of Medicine.  He is on the board of directors of the Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center and was the founding President of the Board in 1990. He is Chair of the Primary Care Workforce Work Group of the Georgia Statewide AHEC Network..Click here to view other members