Leadership

Health care innovator readies his departure as AMA CEO

James L. Madara, MD, took the role in 2011. His strategic vision helped align the AMA’s work more closely with its mission, boosting membership by 33%.

By
Jennifer Lubell , Contributing News Writer
| 7 Min Read

AMA News Wire

Health care innovator readies his departure as AMA CEO

Jun 23, 2025

James L. Madara, MD, the AMA’s longest-serving CEO since the early 1970s and a chief architect of farsighted strategic efforts to better fulfill its mission to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health, is retiring from his post this month.

Half the dues, all the AMA benefits!

AMA membership offers unique access to savings and resources tailored to enrich the personal and professional lives of physicians, residents and medical students.

Dr. Madara leaves behind a legacy (PDF) of significant policy wins and advancements in medical education, physician training and health technology, all flowing from three strategic priorities:

  • Removing obstacles that interfere with patient care.
  • Confronting chronic disease and eliminating health inequities.
  • Driving the future of medicine by reimagining medical education and lifelong learning.

“That time has arrived,” Dr. Madara wrote in an AMA Leadership Viewpoints column about the decision. “By the time I depart, I will have had the privilege of serving in this role for 14 years. That is a long time for a CEO in any industry, but particularly in health care, which is constantly evolving as new public health threats emerge and the needs of patients and physicians change.” 

Membership grew by 33% during his tenure, reflecting the AMA’s ability to elevate the physician voice and tap into physician needs, he said during a Q&A with Chicago Medicine magazine. AMA membership now exceeds 290,000 physicians, medical students and residents—the highest level in 20 years.

Dr. Madara witnessed the congressional repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). Under his leadership, the AMA also raised physician awareness about the dangers of inappropriate opioid prescribing, contributing to a nearly 50% drop in such prescribing nationwide since 2012. 

Physicians face significant headwinds now: increasing prior authorization demands, administrative hassles, and—since 2001, after adjusting for inflation—a 33% drop in Medicare payment (PDF). 

Physicians “need an ally on their side to remove obstacles and address challenges that are contributing to burnout, dissatisfaction and early retirements,” said Dr. Madara. The AMA and organized medicine represent that powerful ally in health care, a collective voice that advocates changes to improve public health and advance physicians’ well-being. 

“None of this is possible without the engagement and membership of physicians, medical students and residents. It’s the lifeblood of what we do,” Dr. Madara said. 

James L. Madara, MD
James L. Madara, MD

Dr. Madara has a long history of medical and policy accomplishments spanning several academic institutions. He is now an adjunct professor of pathology at Northwestern University and has published more than 200 original papers and chapters.

The majority of his publications focus on the cell and molecular biology of polarized epithelial cells of the intestine as published in journals such as the Journal of Cell Biology, Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Clinical Investigation and the American Journal of Physiology. More than a dozen of his former postdoctoral trainees now hold tenured professorships and lead major research programs at Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Colorado, University of Michigan, University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University, Georgia State University and the University of Massachusetts. 

Dr. Madara also is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He received a National Institutes of Health Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award, served as a Fogerty International Visiting Scholar at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and has been recognized with national and international awards including the Astra-Zeneca International Prize for Distinguished Research in Digestive Diseases. In recognition of his scientific discoveries, Dr. Madara has been awarded honorary degrees (MA, DHL, DSci).

Prior to joining the AMA, Dr. Madara served as director of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Harvard Digestive Diseases Center and eventually moved to Chicago to serve in two roles: dean of medicine and biology at University of Chicago and CEO of the University of Chicago Medical Center—now the University of Chicago Medicine. 

The medical center’s biomedical campus underwent a renewal under this leadership, as Dr. Madara built new affiliations with community hospitals, teaching hospital systems, community clinics and national research organizations. 

He played a key role in one of the nation’s first medical homes, working with Eric Whitaker, MD, MPH, and Michelle Obama—then the university’s vice president of public affairs. Together, they formed the Urban Health Initiative, which involved partnering with federally qualified health centers to reinvent health care delivery on Chicago’s South Side. 

The initiative today reflects the cornerstone of population health: ensuring that low-income patients who lack access to health care get services in the right place at the right time. Dr. Madara also served as senior adviser with Leavitt Partners, a health care consulting and private-equity firm founded by former Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. In this position, he gained crucial knowledge about venture capital and private equity in health care.

Dr. Madara also founded and currently chairs Health2047 Inc., the AMA’s wholly owned innovation subsidiary in Silicon Valley, whose goal is to overcome systemic dysfunction in U.S. health care. Health2047, with eight companies in its portfolio, works closely with AMA to develop transformative health care spinout companies in four fields: chronic care, data utility, radical productivity and health care value.

The Health2047 studio in Silicon Valley “continues to advance digital solutions with direct input from physicians,” Dr. Madara said.

Subscribe to free AMA email newsletters

Get the latest news from the AMA on the topics that matter to you—delivered to your inbox.

General newsletter front door subscribe

Ask Dr. Madara about his key policy accomplishment at AMA, and he will say it was the AMA’s visionary long-term strategic plan, which took place early in his AMA tenure. 

“The AMA functioned much differently prior to this strategic framework, with many short-term initiatives with much smaller impact,” he told Chicago Medicine. An internal audit of the AMA’s work prior to the strategic plan revealed more than 100 disparate projects in varying stages of completion. Dr. Madara’s strategic framework sought to better align the AMA’s work with its mission.

“One important area of our strategic focus is our decadelong commitment and investment to reinvent medical school and graduate-level medical education and training in the U.S. to better prepare aspiring physicians for the modern clinical world,” he said. The AMA helped gather a consortium of leading medical schools in two dozen states to focus on competency-based approaches, health systems science, using technology for learning, and academic coaching. 

“We later added a residency component to create a seamless pipeline to better train young physicians. Our more recent work has focused on precision education,” he added.

The AMA also has worked to improve EHR usability over the last 10 years and continuously advocates for physician- and patient-centric guardrails for augmented intelligence (AI), often called artificial intelligence. 

Under Dr. Madara’s watch, the AMA created the Physician Innovation Network, an online collaboration platform, that connected physicians directly with entrepreneurs working on new health technologies. By 2024, the platform had more than 19,000 users sharing ideas and collaborating on new technology tools. 

In 2019, the AMA launched the Center for Health Equity, a national voice for equitable policies, programs and practices in health care. 

“We know there are deep-rooted inequities across health care and society that create enormous health challenges for historically marginalized communities,” Dr. Madara said. “Our commitment to realizing optimal health for all remains paramount and includes educating physicians on inequities, their implications, and why they matter.”

Among the challenges facing the AMA in the years ahead, Dr. Madara noted two in particular. One is streamlining the AMA’s governance without losing the power conferred by its House of Delegates. Another is recognizing and properly responding to the increasing migration of physicians from independent practice toward employment settings.

In his column, Dr. Madara thanked current and past leaders of the AMA Board of Trustees, the senior management group, the House of Delegates, staff, AMA members and other stakeholders who helped build the AMA’s foundation. 

“We can all be proud of how we’ve advanced the AMA’s remarkable mission—to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health,” he wrote. “And now we must ensure this legacy continues.” 

Learn more about John Whyte, MD, MPH, who will take over as the AMA’s new executive vice president and CEO starting July 1.

Editor’s note: Watch this “AMA Update” interview with Dr. Madara, posted July 1, in which he discusses how medicine and the AMA have changed during his tenure.

FEATURED STORIES

Midsection of patient in hospital gown waiting in exam room

Senate budget-reconciliation bill risks worsening access to care

| 8 Min Read
Smiling patient sits across from doctor

How to give physicians autonomy—and protect them from burnout

| 5 Min Read
Figure using puppets to control up and down fluctuations of the two arrows charts

Physicians will get their day in court to challenge insurer price-fixing

| 5 Min Read
Arizona State Capitol

Arizona strengthens its support for physicians’ well-being

| 4 Min Read