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The AMA selected a new executive vice president on May 13, E. Ratcliffe "Andy" Anderson Jr., M.D., former U.S. Air Force surgeon general and now a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine.
Anderson, a dermatologist, also serves as the chief executive officer of Truman Health Systems in Kansas City.
Anderson is a decorated combat veteran and former medical school dean. He was named AMA executive vice president, the chief AMA staff officer and equivalent of the APA position of medical director, after a review of more than 100 candidates.
Anderson will assume his AMA post this summer, although no specific date has been announced yet. He comes to the helm in the wake of the June 1997 Sunbeam scandal that led to the firing later that year of two marketing executives and several top AMA officials and the resignation of Executive Vice President P. John Seward, M.D. Controversy erupted after the AMA announced it had struck a deal with Sunbeam Corporation in which Sunbeam would pay royalties to the AMA in return for use of the AMA logo in marketing Sunbeam's home health care products. When the AMA backed out of the contract following the criticism, Sunbeam filed a $20 million lawsuit, which was still unresolved at press time.
A veteran AMA staffer, E. Lynn Jensen, Ph.D., has served as interim executive vice president since Seward's dismissal. Jensen remains chief operating officer.
"Dr. Anderson has devoted his entire career to caring for patients and improving the professionalism of medical practice," said Thomas R. Reardon, M.D., chair of the AMA Board of Trustees in a statement released by the AMA. "He is a distinguished leader and a forceful administrator, widely acclaimed for his high ethical standards."