It
is with tremendous sadness that we report the passing, on 6 November
2008, of Ronald M. Davis, MD, past President of the American Medical
Association (AMA) and a major supporter of the One Health Initiative.
Indeed, the AMA wouldn't have passed its historic One Health Resolution
without Ron's leadership. As the first preventive medicine physician
to be president of the AMA, he recognised the need for collaboration
between veterinarians and physicians. As he said, ‘I
was primed for the issue of One Health’.
Roger
Mahr, who was President of the AVMA at the same time, contacted
Ron to discuss bringing animal and human medicine together. They
met and had dinner together. After Roger educated Ron about the
issues, Ron told him that he would be happy to help. Ron not only
advocated One Health principles within AMA, but he personally represented
AMA on the AVMA One Health Initiative Task Force and contributed
materially to the development of the Task Force recommendations
(www.avma.org/onehealth/).
This
was a case where the right people were in the right place at the
right time. In our subsequent One Health collaborations regarding
drafting the AMA One Health Resolution and other related issues,
Ron always graciously and expeditiously supported and guided our
efforts with much wisdom.
Tragically,
not long after the AMA passed the One Health Resolution in June
2007, Ron was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
He
fought the disease with grace and dignity. The New York Times
reported on his battle. (www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/health/23voic.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss).
On
14 June 2008, at the AMA Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates,
Ron gave a very moving speech entitled Legacies in the circle of
life. The transcript can be read at www.ama-assn.org/ama/no-index/news-events/18670.shtml
and the video can be watched at www.webguild.com/TeamRon/.
The
world has lost a great man and we have lost an esteemed colleague,
friend, and One Health champion.
This
tribute was written by Laura Kahn, Bruce Kaplan and Tom Monath and
was published on the ‘One
Health Initiative’
website (www.onehealthinitiative.com)
on 8 November 2008. |