Dr. Marie-Elizabeth Ramas: Making ‘Herstory’ in Health Care this Women’s History Month

March 27, 2023

We celebrate all women at both Aledade and Aledade Care Solutions every day of the year. And in honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we’re taking some time to spotlight three trailblazing Aledaders who are truly making “herstory” in health care. Get to know our third amazing woman below. (And be sure to meet Jo Green and Catherine Olexa-Meadors.)

Dr. Marie-Elizabeth Ramas

Dr. Marie-Elizabeth Ramas is a practicing family physician who also serves as Aledade’s Regional Medical Director for New Jersey, New York and New England. Dr. Ramas serves as the clinical strategist for these markets and works with Aledade to improve patient health and wellness, improve physician well-being by helping them optimize their practice structure and reduce the overall cost of care.

“As a woman of color, I also promote and elevate the voices of historically excluded leadership in my market – both in the community and in the practices we get to work with,” Dr. Ramas adds.

“I have been gifted the opportunity to not only help grow markets in Aledade that have historically been under-resourced but to also identify emerging leaders within each of those markets. In New York, we’ve had a complete shift of demographics among our practices within the last two years. I’m most proud of identifying new local medical directors who have shared Aledade’s values and are energized, willing and able to share that model of excellence with their peers across the state. Within the last year, we’ve made large shifts in the New York market. As of last year, it was one of the largest health center ACOs at Aledade. But last year, we almost completely shifted to independent practices across the state. To pivot, we had to turn our whole approach to engaging practices upside down. Last year, we were only an MSSP market, and now, we’re including commercial contracts and MA contracts…we became a market of hyper-localized and even micro practices. It’s exciting!”

Dr. Ramas noted that progress is happening beyond New York in her other two markets. “In New Jersey, we’re building up fellowship and peer-to-peer accountability, and in New England, we’re taking on an entirely new market. We went from basically zero lives under management to nearly 20,000 – and we’re looking to build on that number substantially in 2024.”

Reflecting on that progress, Dr. Ramas says that she is coming to believe and accept that we cannot have healthy communities without embracing equity, wellness and health. “I realize that is a unique perspective and posture that I bring as a leader within this space,” she says. “So my goal, particularly in the northeast, is to spread the gospel of possibility that doctors can own their own practices and thrive – they can practice medicine in a way that reflects their medical school essays. I’m also working to grow my voice from a policy standpoint both locally and nationally. We need more physicians who can speak the language of legislatures, and that’s something I’m excited to develop in the next couple of years.”

What do International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month mean to Dr. Ramas? One word sums it up: legacy. “I think International Women’s Day is a way to celebrate the tribe that women create and the power women have through numbers and creative thinking. It’s about being part of a legacy and knowing we are but a stepping stone within our history – so we need to take advantage of that to improve our health care system and world at-large.”