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Archive for the ‘About Ron Davis’ Category

Remembering Ron Davis

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Ronald Davis, MD, age 52, passed away November 6, 2008 after a courageous 10-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Ron’s star shone very brightly, albeit too briefly in the medical community. He graduated medical school from the University of Chicago, where he also received a Master of Arts in Public Policy Studies. He trained at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) both as a field epidemiologist and as a Preventive Medicine Resident. Following his training, he served as the first Director of the Office on Smoking and Health when CDC assumed responsibility for OSH in 1987. During his tenure, he worked closely with Surgeon-General C Everett Koop and oversaw publication of three landmark Surgeon-General’s reports: Nicotine Addiction, 25 years of Progress, and Smoking Cessation. Subsequently, he served as Chief Medical Officer for the Michigan Department of Public Health, until assuming his most recent position as Director, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.

At the world conference in Perth in April 1990, Ron convened a meeting of 25 leaders in tobacco control, from a variety of countries, where the concept for a new scientific journal devoted solely to tobacco control was hatched [1]. Ron and others helped pitch the idea to the British Medical Journal Publishing Group which accepted the concept idea and later appointed Ron as the founding editor of Tobacco Control: an International Journal. Ron served as the editor of Tobacco Control between 1992 and 1998. From the journal’s inception it was his vision to ensure that it served an international audience. International organizations dedicated to tobacco control were invited to appoint representatives to the editorial board, and most did so. From the beginning, Tobacco Control was unique among scientific journals with its colorful covers, news analyses which featured stories about new developments in tobacco and health throughout the world, and anti-tobacco political cartoons that helped illustrate issues relevant to the field in ways that were both humorous and biting. Anti-smoking postage stamps from around the world were reproduced on the covers of the first six issues, emphasized the international focus of the tobacco problem and efforts to combat it. In a relatively brief four year period Ron managed to get Tobacco Control accepted by the National Library of Medicine for inclusion in its bibliographic database Index Medicus. This ensured that articles published in the journal would be disseminated well beyond the journal’s subscribers and its online counterpart.

Under Ron’s leadership Tobacco Control gained recognition from a diversity of sources. According to a review of Tobacco Control published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) after its first two years of publication, “Tobacco Control is a unique journal providing a synthesis of issues relevant to all who are interested in the political, economic, clinical, and epidemiologic aspects of tobacco control.” [2] The tobacco industry also recognized the brilliance of the journal calling it, “…a one-stop shopping guide for anti-smoking literature and other resources.” [3]

After retiring from the editorship in 1998, Ron took on the position of North American Editor of the British Medical Journal, a position he held until 2001. A prolific author, Ron wrote or co-wrote hundreds of articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as an equal number of editorials and contributions in the lay press. Most recently, Ron served as the senior scientific editor for Monograph 19, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, published by the National Cancer Institute in August 2008.

During his career, Ron served as an expert witness to Congress on public health issues and in litigation against the tobacco industry. His encyclopedic mind made him a perfect editor and spokesperson on medical and public health issues. Ron had the ability to recall virtually everything in tobacco control, often producing obscure forgotten facts and papers that would perfectly frame an issue. As just one example of Ron’s uncanny ability to illuminate the obvious before the rest of us had seen it, he conducted a study to test whether people could read the warnings on tobacco advertisements shown on billboards littering the highway [4]. Of course, they couldn’t as they were speeding by, which only helped to illustrate the stupidity of the government policy that permitted tobacco companies to advertise on billboards. We will surely miss his insight and vision.

Ron reached the pinnacle of American medicine, being elected as the 162nd President of the American Medical Association in June of 2007. In his position as AMA President Ron helped advocate for improved access to health care and the importance of prevention and sound public policy. He was the first preventive medicine specialist ever elected to the highest office in the nation’s major medical association. A gifted educator, Ron gave countless lectures and educational seminars, dedicating his career to the service of the public and his colleagues in public health and medicine. In his moving speech to the delegates of the AMA last June he used this platform to offer hope to those with cancer, urged all to do what we could to help others, and to take the time to remember to love those around us. Ron had a way with words and delivered his speech in a way that served to educate and inspire. Ron Davis Addresses the AMA.

During his career, Ron received numerous awards and honors, including the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal and the Surgeon General’s Medallion, The American College of Preventive Medicine’s Distinguished Service Award, the American Thoracic Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the John Slade Award from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and the American Public Health Association’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award for his career-long fight against alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. No doubt more awards will be coming to recognize his many extraordinary contributions to public health and medicine.

However, Ron’s legacy is much deeper than can ever be expressed in the many prestigious awards that chronicle his career accomplishments. As one of his many friends noted, Ron in Buddhist terminology was a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who sacrificed his own ultimate nirvana for the benefits of others. Ron’s legacy is the example he set for all of us to follow through the strength of his character, impeccable integrity, graciousness, and style and his dedication to serve his fellow man.

On behalf all whose lives you’ve touched, Ron, all we can say is we love you, and we thank you for allowing us to share your life’s journey. It’s been a privilege. You graced this Earth.

Select Ron Davis Tobacco Control Papers

The slow growth of a movement, 1992;1;1-2

The language of nicotine addiction: purging the word “habit” from our lexicon, 1992;1;163-164

Tobacco Control: reflections on the first seven years, 1999;8;1-9

Clearing the airways: advocacy and regulation for smoke-free airlines, 2004;13;30-36

References

Davis RM. Tobacco Control: reflection on the first seven years. Tob Control 1999; 8:1-9.
Corsello P, Dudden RF. Tobacco control. JAMA 1994;271:636.
Philip Morris memorandum from Gerard A Wirz, dated 13 April 1992, Bates No. 2501234659/4660.
Davis RM, Kendrick JS. The Surgeon General’s warnings in outdoor cigarette advertising. Are they readable? JAMA 1989;261:90-4

Post-script

For those interested in donation’s Ron’s memory may be made to the following organizations:
The American Medical Association Foundation
Ronald M. Davis, M.D. Legacy Honor Fund
515 North State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
(312) 464-4200

The endowment fund in Dr. Davis’ name will live in perpetuity, supporting the AMA Foundation’s mission to advance health care through support of programs in medical education, research and public health.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN)
2141 Rosecrans Avenue
Suite 7000
El Segundo, CA 90245
www.pancan.org

PanCAN advances research, supports patients and creates hope by funding research and supporting an all volunteer network focused on community outreach programs to build awareness, as well as leading advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill to lobby for proper funding levels for pancreatic cancer research.