Ronald Davis | Antitobacco activist, 52
Ronald Davis, 52, a longtime public health and antitobacco advocate who served as president of the American Medical Association, died Thursday at his home near East Lansing, Mich. He suffered from pancreatic cancer.
Ronald Davis, 52, a longtime public health and antitobacco advocate who served as president of the American Medical Association, died Thursday at his home near East Lansing, Mich. He suffered from pancreatic cancer.
During a speech at the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago in June, Dr. Davis urged his fellow doctors to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, which afflicts 37,000 Americans a year and kills 34,000.
A specialist in preventive medicine, Dr. Davis ended a one-year term as AMA president in June.
His leadership was key in the organization's July apology for more than a century of policies that excluded African Americans. 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 black doctors join.
- AP