This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Jeremy Lazarus MD sworn in as AMA president

Jeremy A. Lazarus, MD, a Denver psychiatrist in private practice, was inaugurated Tuesday June 19 as the 167th president of the American Medical Association.

“I am excited to be your president,” Lazarus told those assembled at the AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago. “Now is the time to rise up. Rise to the occasion. Be persistent. And keep going no matter how tiring it may get.”

According to an AMA press release, Lazarus is a dedicated athlete, completing 13 marathons and 13 triathlons. He was elected president in June 2011, after serving as speaker of the AMA House of Delegates — the AMA’s primary policymaking body — from 2007 to 2011, and vice speaker from 2003 to 2007. He was president of the Colorado Medical Society, the Colorado Psychiatric Society and the Arapahoe County Medical Society. Lazarus earned a medical degree with honors in psychiatry from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and a voluntary professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

As AMA president, Lazarus said he would assist the mental health needs of combat troops, veterans and their families, and victims of violence and abuse.

“My focus will include the need to better integrate mental health care into other aspects of medical care, to provide more resources to treat more people,” he said.

Lazarus is the author of Entering Private Practice: A Handbook for Psychiatrists.