Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD

Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD, is a board-certified physician of internal medicine who was first elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees (BOT) in June 2018. Having served as chair of the AMA-BOT in 2022–2023, she was elected president-elect of the AMA in June 2026. A graduate of Emory University School of Medicine, where she holds an adjunct associate professorship of medicine, Dr. Fryhofer maintains a full-time general internal medicine practice in Atlanta.

As a member of the AMA House of Delegates since 1999, Dr. Fryhofer has been active in the AMA for nearly three decades, acquiring a depth of knowledge and experience along the way that informs her leadership and commitment to improving medicine to this day. Twice elected to the AMA Council on Science and Public Health, including serving as its chair in 2012–2013, Dr. Fryhofer served as the council’s representative to the Commission to End Health Care Disparities and to the National Influenza Summit. She also served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, whose work resulted in the landmark study “Unequal Treatment.” For many years she has been the AMA’s liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, including on work groups for COVID-19, flu, zoster, HPV, cholera, pneumococcal, Tdap and polio vaccines, and the adult schedule.

Dr. Fryhofer has chaired the AMA Convention Committee on Rules and Credentials, served on the AMA Select Committee and been appointed to the Scope of Practice Partnership. As trustee, she served as board liaison to 10 of 21 different AMA sections and councils. These include the LGBTQ+ Section, the AMA Women Physicians Section, the AMA Integrated Physicians Practice Section, the AMA Organized Medical Staff Section, the AMA Council on Medical Service and the AMA Council on Legislation. In 2023 she became the first chair of the AMA’s Gun Violence Task Force and as board chair stood up and made all the appointments for AMA’s Committee on Truth, Reconciliation, Healing and Transformation.

In addition to leadership roles at the AMA, Dr. Fryhofer served as president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the world’s largest medical specialty society. When elected in 2000, she was the youngest person and only the second woman to hold that office in the ACP’s history. She has served on the ACP Board of Regents and chaired its Committee on Women’s Health. Her work on behalf of internal medicine was rewarded with a mastership in the ACP and a fellowship in Great Britain’s Royal College of Physicians.

Dr. Fryhofer has extensive experience in medical communications. She has testified before Congress and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on multiple occasions for the AMA and the ACP. A regular contributor to the AMA’s COVID Update/AMA Update video and podcast series, she has also served as national spokesperson for the ACP’s “Doctors for Adults” public education campaign, medical correspondent for CNN Headline News, host of “Your Health Matters” on Georgia’s PBS affiliate, and host of a video podcast series called “Medicine Matters” on WebMD’s Medscape.

Dr. Fryhofer, who received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with high honors from Georgia Tech, resides in Atlanta with her spouse, George, who is a retired attorney. They have twins. Their son is an orthopedic spine surgeon in practice in Atlanta. Their daughter is a graduate of the Yale JD/MBA program and works in technology investing in Atlanta.

2026–2027

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