News in brief - July 7, 2003

AMA elects new leaders - Foundation presents Dr. Davis awards - AMA wants no doctor harassment over pain medication - More briefs

AMA elects new leaders

John C. Nelson, MD, a Salt Lake City obstetrician-gynecologist, was chosen president-elect of the AMA during its Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Dr. Nelson is immediate past secretary-treasurer of the board. He has served as spokesperson for the AMA and chaired the AMA's Council on Legislation. He was president of the Utah Medical Assn., and he assisted the American College of Emergency Physicians in developing guidelines to evaluate sexual assault victims.

Also elected to the AMA's Board of Trustees were:

J. Edward Hill, MD, re-elected as board member. The Mississippi family physician has been a member of the board since 1996, serving most recently as its chair.
Edward L. Langston, MD, as member. He is a family physician and pharmacist in Indiana.
Rebecca J. Patchin, MD, as member. She is an anesthesiologist in Riverside, Calif.
Duane M. Cady, MD, re-elected as member. He is a surgeon in New York.
Cyril M. Hetsko, MD, as member. He is an internist in Madison, Wis.
Kevin C. Reilly Sr., MD, as a resident fellow physician on the board. He is a diagnostic radiology resident in Hawaii.

Buffalo, N.Y. internist Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, was elected speaker of the AMA House of Delegates and Colorado psychiatrist Jeremy A. Lazarus, MD, was elected vice speaker.

Foundation presents Dr. Davis awards

Peter Piot, MD, PhD, was honored with the AMA Foundation's Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine and Public Health for his work in the fight against AIDS.

The AMA Foundation also honored the Lions Clubs International Foundation with the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine and Public Health for its outstanding efforts to reduce and treat blindness.

Dr. Piot was given the award in the category of Outstanding International Physician. The Lions Clubs foundation was presented the award in the category of Outstanding Global Health Initiative.

Dr. Piot has been executive director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) since its creation in 1995 and is under-secretary-general of the United Nations. Under Dr. Piot's leadership, UNAIDS has become the chief advocate for worldwide action against AIDS. The Lions Clubs foundation's SightFirst Program has treated 46.8 million people for river blindness, performed 3.5 million cataract surgeries, expanded or built 154 eye hospitals and trained 54,000 village health care workers in eye care services.

The awards were announced at the AMA Annual Meeting in June.

AMA wants no doctor harassment over pain medication

The AMA will make it clear to President Bush, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Attorney General John Ashcroft that using federal laws to go after physicians who use opioid analgesics and other pain-reducing medications to treat patients with pain is wrong.

The AMA agreed to help state and specialty medical societies oppose harassment of doctors who appropriately prescribe pain medications. The AMA asks that state and specialty societies submit examples of physicians that Drug Enforcement Agency agents inappropriately harassed.