Past APA President Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., is succeeding another past APA president, John McIntyre, M.D., as chair of the AMA's Section Council on Psychiatry. McIntyre will continue as senior delegate from APA. At left they are shown at the AMA's Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates last month in Houston.

Under the leadership of the section council—which includes delegates from APA, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law—psychiatry has achieved a powerful presence within the AMA. For example, Jeremy Lazarus, M.D., a past speaker of the APA Assembly, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the AMA and speaker of the House of Delegates.

Also, psychiatrists hold positions on a number of important AMA councils. These include Stuart Gitlow, M.D., and Louis Kraus, M.D. (Council on Science and Public Health); McIntyre (Council on Medical Services); Patrice Harris, M.D. (vice chair of the Council on Legislation); Dudley Stewart, M.D. (chair of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs), and Clifford Moy, M.D. (Council on Long-Range Planning).

Robinowitz recently completed eight years on the Council on Science and Public Health, for which she was the 2008-2009 chair. Past APA President Joseph T. English, M.D., is a member of the AMA delegation to the Joint Commission (formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations).

Saul Levin, M.D., was previously on the Council on Long-Range Planning and is now vice president for science, medicine, and public health at the AMA. And more than 60 psychiatrists, serving as delegates from state medical societies, make up the AMA's psychiatric caucus.

“Over the past decade psychiatry's influence in the house has grown exponentially,” McIntyre told Psychiatric News. “Thanks to our delegation, our section council, our great staff, and numerous psychiatrists in the state delegations, we help drive the agenda of our AMA for the benefit of our profession and our patients.”