Alberta Medical Association Installs 2012-13 President and Welcomes New Canadian Medical Association President

EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Sept. 20, 2012) - The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) will install its president for 2012-13 on Saturday, September 22, during its Annual General Meeting and Representative Forum at the Westin Hotel in Edmonton. The AMA president serves a one-year term, in addition to one year each as president-elect and immediate past president.

Dr. R. Michael Giuffre will officially assume the role of AMA president at the end of the Representative Forum meeting on Saturday afternoon. Dr. Giuffre, a pediatric cardiologist, practices at the Providence Pediatric Clinic in Calgary and is a clinical professor of cardiac sciences and pediatrics at the University of Calgary (U of C). He has received Gold Star Teacher Awards from the Faculty of Medicine at the U of C, was selected as Physician of the Year by the Calgary Medical Society, and was named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Academy of Cardiology.

Dr. Guiffre has been actively involved with the AMA for many years. He has been a Representative Forum delegate since 2003 and is presently a member of the Board of Directors and various committees. He has published extensively and volunteers his time and expertise to local, national and international organizations, and is a member of both private and public boards of directors including UNICEF Canada.

During the Annual General Meeting, current AMA President Dr. Linda M. Slocombe will deliver her valedictory, in which she will review the past year and comment on the events and issues that have defined her term.

Dr. Slocombe will also officially welcome the Canadian Medical Association's (CMA's) 145th president, Dr. Anna Reid. Dr. Reid became CMA president in August at the CMA's Annual General Meeting, held this year in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Dr. Reid was a rural and community family practice locum from 1988-95 in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia. Thereafter she practiced in Nelson, British Columbia, and in 2008 was recruited to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where she practiced emergency medicine and hospitalist work.

Early in her career, Dr. Reid volunteered with the Himalayan Rescue Association in Nepal, where she became interested in health care delivery and the importance of advocating for the disadvantaged: the homeless, the mentally ill and addicted patients who face inequities in access to care. Interest in these system issues led her to becoming president of the Northwest Territories Medical Association in 2009.

Dr. Reid has taught for years with the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada and was one of the physician developers of the British Columbia Rural Sepsis Outreach Project and a co-developer of critical care workshops for rural physicians.

At the Lunch with the CMA President on Saturday, Dr. Reid will officially install Dr. Giuffre as the AMA president, address Representative Forum delegates and present the CMA Honorary Membership awards to Alberta physicians.

The Representative Forum is the 126-member governing body of the AMA. It includes representatives of all sectors of the profession - specialty sections, regions, students, residents, past-presidents and deans of medicine. The forum meets at least twice a year to establish policy and set direction.