By Vanessa Orr
On June 14, 2025, Dr. Adriana Bonansea-Frances became the seventh female president of the Dade County Medical Association, which has recently changed its name to the Miami-Dade County Medical Association (MDCMA). As the incoming leader of the 122-year-old organization, her goals include championing physician advocacy, fostering collaboration across specialties, and promoting access to quality care for patients.
Dr. Bonansea-Frances was first introduced to the organization while working at the Florida Center For Allergy & Asthma Care, which she joined in 2007. A native of Argentina, she attended medical school at the National University of Rosario in Argentina and performed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Schneider Children’s Hospital and Tufts University in Boston, MA. She did her fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at KUMC in Kansas City, MO.
“I was not very involved with the MDCMA at the beginning, because I spent long hours working,” she explained. “But then I started working with Dr. Barbara Montford, who had previously served as president of the organization and we began going to meetings—that was seven or eight years ago.”
She has since served as a MDCMA board member, secretary, vice-president, president-elect and chair of its Women in Medicine committee.
Following Her Calling
As a young medical student in Argentina, Dr. Bonansea-Frances chose to follow in the footsteps of her father, who was a physician in the small town where she grew up.
“I had originally decided to go into psychology, but after my pediatrics rotation at medical school residency, I knew that that was where I wanted to stay,” she explained, noting that she choose to concentrate in Allergy/Immunology as genetics and immunology play a part in roughly 90 percent of diseases.
After finishing her Ph.D., she decided to emigrate to the U.S. as the country had made major strides in immunology, in part as a result of research into the HIV virus. “There was more information here than in Argentina in the 1990s, which presented more opportunities,” she said.
Presidential Goals
A strong proponent of both physicians and patients, Dr. Bonansea-Frances hopes to use her platform to advocate for doctors while ensuring that patients receive accurate medical information.
“Every year, we go to Tallahassee to talk to Florida’s representatives and senators about the challenges facing the medical field and to share information about things that affect our ability to practice and to push for changes on certain laws,” she explained. “I want to continue this advocacy.”
She also plans to team up with other medical associations, such as the Florida Medical Association, as well as other Florida counties to expand the reach of the organization.
“My second goal, which I believe is even more important at this time, is prevention—that includes trying to overcome the misinformation that the public has received about things like basic science and vaccines,” she added. “I want to encourage medical students and residents to work with us in that area by providing proper information to the public and physicians.
“With all of the misinformation going on in the past few years, the public doesn’t trust us,” she added. “We have to work to regain that trust, and assure that accurate medical information is given to the public.”
To this end, Dr. Bonansea-Frances hopes to increase public outreach by having the MDCMA participate in health fairs and travel to underserved areas to try to reach a wider audience.
“We have already been working with commissioners and mayors in different areas to find ways to meet with people; we start by taking participants’ blood pressure and checking their glucose levels, but we also talk to them about issues like diabetes, hypertension and obesity,” she said.
Dr. Bonansea-Frances also hopes to launch a YouTube channel featuring talks on these topics, and to recruit more members to the MDCMA in order to reach more people.
“When you look at the number of physicians in Miami-Dade County, it’s surprising that there are not more members,” she said, noting that membership includes free access to attorney services as well as a journal that publishes members’ academic and research work.
MDCMA also offers members free access to continuing education through specific CME courses that are required for license renewal, such as medical error, domestic violence and human trafficking training.
While she has big goals, the MDCMA’s new president believes that small steps forward can make a difference.
“In terms of being able to communicate with the public, one year is not a lot of time to make these changes, but we can at least start these prevention programs and start reaching out to the community,” she said. “Our most recent president, Dr. Patricia-Ares Romero, started mental health programs and while all of those issues haven’t been solved in one year, I plan to continue those programs in the future. If I can make small but good changes, that can help the next president to continue to do the same thing.”
To learn more about the Miami-Dade County Medical Association, visit https://miamimed.com or call (305) 324-8717.
