CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) announced today that John H. Armstrong, M.D., a trauma surgeon, medical educator, and Army veteran from Ocala, Fla., was elected as the new vice speaker of the AMA House of Delegates. In this position, Dr. Armstrong will assist in presiding over the policy-making body of the nation’s largest and most influential physician organization.
“I am grateful for this honor and privilege to represent the views of the nation’s physicians and help guide them in their policy-making decisions,” said Dr. Armstrong. “As the policy-making body of the AMA, the House of Delegates holds a unique position to blend the many views of the nation’s physicians into one strong, unified and effective voice for physicians and the patients we serve. As we pursue the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians, this work has never been more important.”
Dr. Armstrong has been active in the leadership and policy-making process of the AMA, having been elected as the Young Physician Trustee and serving as the AMA Secretary in 2004-2005. He was a member of an AMA advisory council on planning and development, and since 1989, has participated regularly in the AMA House of Delegates as a member of several delegations representing the voices of surgeons, physicians-in-training, hospital-based physicians, and Army physicians.
A practicing trauma surgeon with a career in military hospitals and civilian trauma centers, Dr. Armstrong is professor of surgery and distinguished educator at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, Fla, and adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Committed to public health, Dr. Armstrong served as Florida’s Surgeon General and Secretary of Health from 2012 to 2016 and helped achieve the lowest infant mortality rate in the state’s history.
After graduation from Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Dr. Armstrong performed his surgical residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and his trauma/surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Media Contact:
About the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
