Jack S. Resneck Jr., MD, was inaugurated this week as the 177th president of the American Medical Association (AMA). Resneck is a dermatologist, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Dermatology at UC San Francisco.
Resneck was sworn in during the 2022 Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates this week and spoke about the specific challenges of practicing medicine during COVID-19, including prior authorizations, physician burnout, and longstanding inequities in the U.S. health system. He also re-emphasized the importance of the AMA’s Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians, which was announced at the opening session of the meeting.
"You probably didn’t plan on insurers questioning every prescription, and every procedure you asked for," Resneck said during his inauguration address. "Or government criminalizing routine and vital healthcare, enshrining discrimination against our LGBTQ patients, or attacking a woman’s right to control healthcare decisions that should only be between her and her doctor."
Resneck pledged as AMA president to fight these an other injustices against patients and physicians.
“For more than two years, physicians have put everything on the line,” Resneck said. “Today, we are reminding policymakers that it’s time our nation renews its commitment to doctors and the patients we serve. We will work to elevate and prioritize the voices of physicians over purveyors of misinformation. We will fight in legislatures and in court to keep politicians from inserting themselves into our exam rooms, and dangerously criminalizing evidence-based care, including contraception, abortion, and gender-affirming care. We are intentionally and deeply committed to the work of health equity and racial justice. And today, for our nation’s physicians who have bravely responded to a historic call without hesitation, we are a focused, science-based, nimble, influential, and powerful ally. We will always have doctors’ and patients’ backs.”
First elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in 2014, Resneck held the office of board chair from 2018 to 2019. Prior to his election, Resneck served as chair of the AMA Council on Legislation and as a delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. Additionally, he has held several leadership positions in organized medicine, including president of the California Society for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, board member at the American Academy of Dermatology and active member at the California Medical Association.
Resneck holds a joint appointment as an affiliated faculty member at the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. He also serves as the medical director for the dermatology clinics at UCSF where he previously ran the dermatology residency training program.
UCSF issued a statement about Resneck moving into the top AMA position. UCSF said while his passion lies in caring for patients with a wide range of skin diseases at his California dermatology practice, Resneck continues to champion the modernization of medical education, innovation in digital health, and improved access to care in various roles. Resneck has testified in Congressional hearings on the topics of telemedicine, digital health, rising prescription drug prices, prior authorization, and other challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system.
UCSF said Resneck also remains engaged in health services research. He has published numerous studies in prominent journals on patient access to care, telemedicine, quality metrics, prior authorization, and public health that have attracted national media attention. In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD) and sits on the board of directors of the National Quality Forum.
A Louisiana native, Resneck received his undergraduate degree in public policy from Brown University and his medical degree from UCSF, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine, a residency training program in dermatology, and fellowship in health policy. Resneck and his wife, who is also a physician, live in San Rafael, California, with their two teenage children.
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Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com