Focused on the presidency: Dr. Donald J. Palmisano

MD-JD brings a unique medicolegal perspective to the AMA presidency as physicians prepare to tackle tort reform, managed care and patient privacy in the coming year.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. May 26, 2003.

New Orleans -- Medical school taught Donald J. Palmisano, MD, the skills he needed to become a physician, but failing his first gross anatomy exam taught him the lesson that has guided him through life.

"I told my dad I thought I wasn't smart enough to be a doctor," Dr. Palmisano recalls more than 40 years later. "He said, 'Son, you are smart enough. Do your homework, have courage and don't give up.' "

So he didn't.

Dr. Palmisano graduated from Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans in 1963, winning the Psychiatry and Senior Thesis awards. He went on to become an accomplished general and vascular surgeon, spending two years in the U.S. Air Force as chief of surgery for the 821st Medical Group. He received the Air Force Commendation Medal before setting up private practice in New Orleans. He now teaches at Tulane and was named one of the area's top doctors by New Orleans Magazine in 2001.

In June, he'll be sworn in as the American Medical Association's 158th president.

Those are just a small fraction of Dr. Palmisano's accomplishments in medicine. And he's been busy outside the operating room as well.

He received his law degree from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in 1982, attending classes while still practicing medicine.

He founded Intrepid Resources, a company that helps physicians, hospital and clinical groups nationwide manage their risks.

He earned his pilot's license and practiced acrobatic flying in the 1970s when he was part owner of an airplane. Of all his pursuits outside of medicine, however, he is probably most well-known for taking pictures.