David Welsh, MD, pictured left, was recently elected to the AMA Board of Trustees during the AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago. William Mohr, MD, right, chair of ISMA’s AMA delegation, managed Dr. Welsh’s campaign.

ISMA Past President David Welsh, MD, MBA, has been elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.

Delegates at the AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago chose five trustees, including Dr. Welsh, from a field of seven candidates on June 11. The newly elected trustees will serve four-year terms on the board.

“From rural communities like mine to cities and suburbs, patients need access to quality care. Their problems are nearly identical,” Dr. Welsh told the delegates. “As your representative on the board, I’ll advocate your agenda and work collaboratively and tirelessly for you and for our patients to get things done.”

Dr. Welsh has served the ISMA in numerous capacities. In addition to his 2008-2009 term as president, he has chaired the ISMA Board of Trustees, and has served on the Commission on Legislation, as district president, and as an AMA delegate. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons Board of Regents.

A cum laude graduate of Notre Dame, Dr. Welsh received his medical degree from Indiana University. He is a general surgeon at Surgical Associates of Southeastern Indiana in Batesville, and serves as county health officer for two rural Indiana counties. In 2021, Gov. Eric Holcomb named Dr. Welsh to a special Public Health Commission, whose recommendations led to last year’s creation of the Health First Indiana initiative which dramatically increased state funding to local health departments.

Dr. Welsh is the first ISMA member elected to the AMA board since Dr. Edward Langston, MD, who joined the board in 2003 and was reelected in 2007.

“This is an extraordinary moment in the history of Indiana physician leadership,” said ISMA President David R. Diaz, MD. “There’s no one better suited than Dave Welsh to work collaboratively and relentlessly toward policies that will benefit all physicians and patients.”

The ISMA congratulates Dr. Welsh on his victory and looks forward to continuing to benefit from his expertise as a consensus builder and physician leader.

The ISMA’s House of Delegates (HOD) is already scheduled to elect two AMA delegates and two alternate delegates at the 175th Annual Convention in September. The House will now also elect a third delegate, to take office Jan 1 and serve the one year remaining in Dr. Welsh’s term. Nominations may be made at any HOD session and remain open until elections occur at convention. Only those who submit the form at www.ismanet.org/CandidateForm will be announced in ISMA publications. 

Learn more about Dr. Welsh’s candidacy >>