AMA names Carmel president-elect

Peter Carmel, M.D., a Newark, N.J.-based pediatric neurosurgeon, was chosen president-elect of the American Medical Association after a runoff election at the AMA's annual House of Delegates meeting in Chicago.

Carmel, 73, a member of the AMA board of trustees since 2002, defeated Joseph Heyman, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist and a former AMA board chairman from Amesbury, Mass., in a runoff after another trustee and former board chairman, Lafayette, Ind.-based family physician Edward Langston, M.D., was eliminated in a three-way contest held earlier in the day.

In a debate held June 12, Carmel pledged to push Washington to pass further healthcare reforms, including provisions left out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would have benefitted physicians. He also promised to achieve more transparency in board actions and to reach out to younger physicians by advocating for medical-school debt-relief measures and recognizing that younger doctors prefer Internet communication over face-to-face meetings.

In an eight-candidate race for four trustee seats, the winners were incumbent Joseph Annis, M.D., an anesthesiologist from Austin, Texas; Barbara McAneny, M.D., an Albuquerque-based oncologist-hematologist; Stephen Permut, M.D., a Philadelphia-based family physician; and Carl A. Sirio, M.D., a Pittsburgh-based internist.

McAneny is the chair of the AMA's Council on Medical Service, which studies the social and economic aspects of medical care, and her election to the board meant that she had to vacate her seat on that panel. Four candidates were nominated in a special election to replace her. Two candidates were eliminated and a runoff election is being held between St. Petersburg, Fla.-based neurosurgeon David McKalip, M.D., and Cottage Grove, Wis.-based family physician Paul Wertsch, M.D.

The AMA does not release vote totals. It did report earlier that 526 out of 534 delegates were in attendance.