Transformative Leadership: Emergency Physicians Lead AOA and AMA.

This was a historic summer in Chicago for emergency medicine. On July 18, 2015, John W. Becher, DO, became the 119th president of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), while a month earlier, on June 9, 2015, Steven J. Stack, MD, became the 170th president of the American Medical Association (AMA). This is the first time that emergency physicians have led the two largest professional physician organizations in the United States, and the first time that an emergency physician has led the AMA. Together, these two groups represent more than 330,000 medical students, residents, and practicing physicians, with the AMA representing nearly 232,000 members1 and the AOA representing almost 110,000 osteopathic physicians and physicians-in-training.2 The election of emergency physicians to guide the AMA and AOA for the coming year is historic in the context of our specialty’s evolution in organized medicine and, more broadly, as a leader in population health. The biographies of Dr. Becher and Dr. Stack reflect this evolution. For several decades, Dr. Becher has been the chair of emergency medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), one of the oldest academic departments of emergency medicine. While he has been involved in organized medicine and emergency medicine leadership positions throughout his career, Dr. Stack is the youngest AMA president in 160 years.3 In the early days of our specialty, when a fledgling department of emergency medicine was being established at PCOM and a few other medical schools around the country and both MD and DO emergency physicians were working to establish specialty recognition and board certification, it would have been almost unimaginable that in a few short decades an emergency physician would become one of the youngest presidents in the history of the AMA. It is a testament to the growth and strength of our specialty and to the accomplishments of emergency physician leaders in the house of medicine. The impact of emergency medicine on the leadership University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia, Missouri