CMS president honored as one of Denver’s “40 under 40”

Sunday, March 01, 2015 11:22 AM

by Kate Alfano, CMS communications coordinator

Colorado Medical Society President Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD, has been selected as one of the Denver Business Journal’s “40 under 40.” This honor recognizes 40 extraordinary metro Denver men and women for their commitment to community and business leadership. In the award’s 19th year, the journal received 550 nominations for 375 individuals. Osbourne-Roberts will be recognized at the annual awards luncheon on March 16 and profiled in a special report on March 20.

In an interview for the profile, he was asked about his proudest professional accomplishment. He named his election to the Colorado Medical Society. He was installed as president of the Colorado Medical Society at the 144th Annual Meeting in Vail on Sept. 20, 2014. At age 37, he is the youngest president in CMS history as well as the first black CMS president.

“Helping patients individually, every day in the clinic or hospital, is the root of what I do as a doctor. But being given the opportunity by my colleagues to represent them and to potentially change the lives of millions of patients at once through effective policy and advocacy at such an early point in my career is an opportunity that still leaves me wondering if I’m soon going to wake up from what seems like a wonderful dream.”

In 2007, Osbourne-Roberts started his mission to deliver high-quality health care to Colorado’s most vulnerable as a family medicine resident at the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency Program where he was selected to participate in the inaugural class of the Future of Family Medicine national demonstration curriculum, designed to prepare physician leaders with exceptional clinical, managerial and practice transformation skills.

He rose to become one of the designated residency program experts on the Patient-Centered Medical Home, which would serve him well in his next position as a board-certified family physician at Salud Family Health Centers from August 2010 to November 2014. In this role, Osbourne-Roberts practiced full-spectrum outpatient care for primarily Spanish-speaking, low-income patients throughout the nine-clinic Federally Qualified Health Center system; his main practice location was in Commerce City, Colo.

He also concurrently practiced inpatient newborn care at Platte Valley Medical Center hospital in Brighton, Colo., while teaching medical students and residents in both clinical settings as volunteer faculty through the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.

In late 2014 he transitioned to work as a founding member of the hospitalist service at Mount San Rafael Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Trinidad, Colo., through Innova Emergency Medical Associates.

He named empathy as the personality trait that has served him best in his work life. “While this might be unsurprising as an important trait in a physician, it has also helped me in the business and policy world, where figuratively ‘walking a mile in another’s shoes’ becomes essential in the compromise and teamwork that is critical to getting things done.”

Osbourne-Roberts attributes his success to the support of his immigrant family, finding the right path that meshed with his talents, and being born into this “incredible country at such an amazing time in history.”

“However, if I had to pick something that is perhaps a bit more particular to me, I would say my openness to opportunity has helped a lot. I’ve long lived under what I’ve come to call the ‘Charmed Life Principle’: that if I continue to keep my eyes open for opportunities that come along and accept them as they declare themselves, good things will continue to happen to me. It hasn’t failed me yet.”