Stack is the first board-certified emergency physician elected to the post
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 11, 2014) — Dr. Steven J. Stack, an emergency physician in Lexington, is the new president-elect of the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization for physicians.
Stack, at 43, is the youngest president of the organization in a century, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. He is the first board-certified emergency physician elected to the post, which he will fill in June 2015.
“It’s an immense honor and a total joy and a thrill,” Stack told Ungar.
Stack will be the second consecutive Lexington doctor to hold the office of president of the American Medical Association. He was preceded by Ardis Dee Hoven, an infectious disease specialist.
“We’ll have a president and an immediate past president from the same zip code. It’s a fluke of history,” Stack told Ungar.
Stack is a practicing physician and former medical director for emergency departments at St. Joseph East in Lexington and St. Joseph Mt. Sterling.
Stack’s experience as the chair of the American Medical Association’s Health Information Technology Advisory Group from 2007 to 2013 and also as a member of the federal advisory groups for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology puts him in a position to help further one of the many goals of the Affordable Care Act—to expand information technology.
Stack told Ungar he also plans “to work on improving medical education, reducing diabetes and pre-diabetes in the population and helping ensure doctors are satisfied with their jobs so they can better help patients.”
Stack came to Lexington with his wife Tracie, a pediatric allergist, and their 9-year-old daughter in 2006, Ungar writes. He has been active in the American Medical Association for years and has held several offices. He has also been a legislative voice for local Kentucky issues, such as prescription drug abuse and medical liability reform.
Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
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