A Medical Device Daily

The American Medical Association (AMA; Chicago) said that Immediate past president and public health leader Ronald Davis, MD, 52, died Thursday at his home outside East Lansing, Michigan. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last February.

Davis, a preventive medicine physician, served as the 162nd president of the AMA from June 2007 to June 2008. He led the AMA's focus on preventive medicine and had been a longtime public health and anti-tobacco advocate.

The AMA said Davis also pushed the organization to focus more on its "healthy lifestyles" platform, doing so with presentations around the nation that included informative and even humorous observations about a general lack of fitness, unhealthy eating, and tobacco use in this country.

"The healthcare community has lost an extraordinary leader. To his fellow physicians and the patients they serve, Ron's legacy as a public health advocate will not be forgotten," said AMA President Nancy Nielsen, MD, who succeeded Davis at the end of his presidential term this past June.

Davis is survived by his wife, Nadine, and three sons, Jared, Evan and Connor.