AMA chief, advocate for public health
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Dr. Ronald Davis, 52, a longtime advocate for public health and against tobacco who served as president of the American Medical Assn., died Thursday at his home near East Lansing, Mich., the AMA said. He had pancreatic cancer.
In a speech at the AMA’s annual meeting in June, Davis urged doctors to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, which afflicts 37,000 Americans a year and kills 34,000. Diagnosed with an advanced case earlier this year, he documented his treatment on a website.
Davis was a specialist in preventive medicine. His one-year term as AMA president ended in June.
His leadership was key in the organization’s July apology for more than a century of policies that excluded blacks. The AMA didn’t have a formal policy barring black doctors, but physicians were required to be members of local groups to participate, and some state and local medical societies wouldn’t let blacks join.
The Chicago native received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and his medical degree and a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago.
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