Report from the June 2025 AMA Annual Meeting

Rachelle Klammer, MD 

Your elected delegation of Colorado physicians traveled to Chicago in June to represent you at the American Medical Association House of Delegates meeting and conduct other business on your behalf. We are grateful to these volunteer physician leaders for their time and dedication to organized medicine.  

Coloradans are active in national leadership 

• Jan Kief, MD, became chair of the Council on Long Range Planning & Development after a term as the council’s vice chair. 

• Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD, was elected chair-elect of the Council on Science and Public Health. 

• Carolynn Francavilla-Brown, MD, completed her term as chair of the AMA Private Practice Section. 

• Jeremy Lazarus, MD, a past president of CMS and the AMA, completed his term as chair of the AMA Council of Ethical & Judicial Affairs.  

• Dr. Lazarus and I serve on the AMA Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Lazarus has been elected president-elect of the Foundation Board and I have been elected Secretary. 

• Jacob Altholz, MD, completed his term as Speaker of the Resident and Fellow Section (RFS) and was newly appointed to the AMA Council on Legislation. 

• A. Lee Morgan, MD, completed her term as District Councilor for PacWest, our region within the AMA, and I was elected to the position. 

• Two new residents joined our Delegation this year, Joshua Bilello, MD, and Lavanya Easwaran, MD, MPH. 

• Medical student Pritika Parmar attended the AMA House of Delegates as a regional delegate for the Medical Student Section. 

Colorado is changing national policy

Three resolutions brought by Colorado physicians were passed by the AMA House of Delegates  

• Resolution 503, “Safeguarding Neural Data Collected by Neurotechnologies,” codifies physicians’ strong support for legislative and regulatory efforts to protect neurotechnology users from potential harm, and it formalizes a specific definition of neural data as “information obtained by measuring the activity of a person’s central or peripheral nervous system through the use of neurotechnologies,” not including “data inferred from non-neural information.” Read more about this policy in the sidebar. 

• Resolution 411, “Protecting Access to mRNA Vaccines,” directs the AMA to actively lobby for protections for the use, research and development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer treatment; and to develop state-level model legislation to promote state-level protections for use, research and development of mRNA vaccines, with a report back at the AMA Interim Meeting in November.  

• Emergency Resolution 1001, “Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,” brought by the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Physicians, directs the AMA to advocate in support of the ACIP, immediately calling for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reverse the dismissal of the former ACIP representatives; calling for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) to investigate the actions of the Secretary regarding his administration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ACIP; and identifying and evaluating alternative evidence-based vaccine advisory structures to invest resources in such initiatives.  

AMA leadership updates 

• Bobby Mukkamala, MD, an otolaryngologist from Flint, Mich. was sworn in as the 180th President of the AMA. He will be the keynote speaker at the 2025 CMS Annual Meeting in Keystone Sept. 19-20.

• John Whyte, MD, MPH, is the AMA’s new CEO/EVP, taking over for James Madara, MD, as of July 1. A board-certified internal medicine physician for nearly 30 years, Dr. Whyte served as chief medical officer of WebMD and in various roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

• Outgoing AMA President Bruce Scott, MD, an otolaryngologist from Kentucky, gave a fiery speech during which he listed his frustrations with a health care system that is failing physicians and, more importantly, patients. The recording of his speech can be viewed on the AMA’s website.

Colorado’s Delegation is highly respected within our district and region of the PacWest. We have very good leadership in the Councils and our early career physicians, residents, fellows and medical students are very active and engaged. We may not be the largest Delegation with six Delegates and six Alternate Delegates, but we continue to make an impact. 

Truly, everyone has a voice at the AMA. There is a misconception that the organization serves only retired physicians, or only physicians who lean left or right politically. Decisions are made by those who show up. So please, if you’re not an AMA member, I urge you to join. Not convinced? Reach out to any of us on the Delegation about why your membership matters. View the list of your Colorado Delegation on page 2 of this issue and be sure to vote to affirm your elected representatives during the CMS leadership election in August. 

There is much more coverage of the AMA Annual Meeting, including recordings of inspirational speeches, on the AMA’s website, www.ama-assn.org.