With friends, family, mentors and former AMA presidents seated behind him, Bobby Mukkamala, MD, the newly inaugurated AMA president, faced the hundreds of delegates gathered in attendance tonight and basked in the glow of a career-defining moment.
“To call this moment humbling doesn’t capture it,” said Dr. Mukkamala, an otolaryngologist who is now the AMA’s 180th president—and the first physician of Indian heritage to lead the AMA. “It’s moving. It’s awe-inspiring.”
For many in attendance at the AMA presidential inauguration at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, that inspiration was reciprocal.
Last November, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam revealed an 8-cm temporal lobe tumor on the left side of Dr. Mukkamala’s brain. Three weeks after the startling discovery, the 53-year-old father of two underwent surgery.
The removal of 90% of the tumor was a best-case scenario for Dr. Mukkamala. To avoid radiation and chemotherapy, he is taking an isocitrate dehydrogenase inhibitor that prevents the remaining portions of the tumor from growing. His physicians indicated he could enjoy up to 20 years of survival.
“As I lay in the recovery room from brain surgery at the Mayo Clinic, with tubes and wires monitoring my every movement, this night—this honor, this opportunity to improve health care—seemed a very distant dream,” Dr. Mukkamala said. (Read his speech in full.)
The power of perspective
During his decades working in organized medicine, Dr. Mukkamala has been a fierce advocate for patients. His cancer battle reaffirmed the purpose of his position—to use his platform and lived experience to advocate for a better, more equitable U.S. health system.
“I am here tonight because of the brilliance of many skilled physicians, because of the enduring love and patience of my family and friends, and because our health care system—for all its flaws, and there are many—is still the best in the world for people like me,” he said.
“But that is not true for everyone. Most patients who walk through our doors have a much different experience.”
Dr. Mukkamala went to highlight that he, without question, benefited from the best possible treatment. But for many patients, the process of getting care comes with far more troubling questions than reassuring answers: whether insurance will cover a procedure, how much a medication costs or how long they will wait to see a specialist for something as serious as a lump in their neck.
“Our health system needs the input of many skilled physicians—physician leaders across every state and specialty—who are working together with incredible purpose and urgency,” he said. “It needs the AMA more than ever, with leaders in our profession speaking with one firm and commanding voice.”
Dr. Mukkamala made clear that his survival—and his ability to stand at the lectern as AMA president—was made possible by decades of government-backed medical research and innovation. He warned that the kinds of treatments and breakthroughs that saved his life are at risk of disappearing in today’s political climate, where investment in science and medicine is increasingly politicized or deprioritized.
The realities on the ground
A lifelong resident of Flint, Michigan, Dr. Mukkamala has spent decades treating patients in a city that has weathered economic collapse and public health disasters. Flint, he said, is emblematic of the most pressing issues in American medicine.
He returned to the city with his wife—Nita Kulkarni, MD, an ob-gyn—after completing his medical training. The two share an office together and are exposed to the city’s “incredible and heartbreaking health disparities,” he said. “Widespread poverty, community disinvestment, and a national man-made disaster of deteriorating lead pipes have contributed to high rates of obesity, chronic disease, cancers, infant and maternal mortality, and other conditions that paint a pretty bleak picture of health.”
Life expectancy in Flint is about 12 years shorter than it is in nearby suburbs.
In Flint, he sees patients who wait weeks—sometimes months—for specialty referrals, who skip medications due to cost, and who face limited options for timely, physician-led care.
He shared a story about a patient who called to schedule a follow-up appointment just before Dr. Mukkamala left for brain surgery. When the patient realized she would have to wait weeks to see other otolaryngologist in the area, she told him she’d rather wait for his return—even though he was recovering from brain cancer.
“That’s the state of medicine today,” Dr. Mukkamala said. “Too few physicians, stretched far too thin.”
Among other challenges, doctors must bear the crushing weight of administrative burdens, especially the delays caused by prior authorization requirements. Dr. Mukkamala spoke candidly about how these systemic inefficiencies waste valuable time and jeopardize patient care.
Broken practice
As a physician in private practice, Dr. Mukkamala routinely confronts the same financial pressures that are driving many of his peers out of medicine.
To keep their doors open, many physicians are having to make difficult choices about staffing, technology investments or limiting the number of Medicare or Medicaid patients they see. And then there are the unrelenting inefficiencies of the prior authorization process.
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Dr. Mukkamala outlined the many fronts on which the AMA continues to fight for a more functional and equitable health care system. Among them:
- Calling for long overdue Medicare physician payment reform.
- Addressing the increasingly dire physician shortage.
- Combating physician burnout by restoring time for direct patient care.
- Defending physician-led care through advocacy on scope of practice.
Many of the changes needed in the U.S. health system must come from Congress. But getting health care back on solid ground starts with the AMA.
“Our patients and our colleagues are why we fight, and why we will continue to fight until our health care system truly reflects the values of our profession: compassion, access, and a respect for human dignity and rights,” Dr. Mukkamala said. “We have a long way to go, but I’m committed to this work and I’m ready for this fight.”
Channeling “tumor wisdom”
In the weeks following his surgery, Dr. Mukkamala began compiling a personal file labeled “tumor wisdom”—a space for reflections on everything from clinical empathy to spiritual humility.
In his trying time, he gained clarity on what matters—connection, compassion and the importance of not putting off for tomorrow, next month or next year what should be said or done today. That ethos now guides the urgency with which he plans on approaching his term as AMA president.
“There is no doubt that our nation and our profession face many challenges right now, and in moments like this, it would be easy to fall into hopelessness and apathy,” Dr. Mukkamala said. “But this is where we must find the motivation to drive us forward—to push the work of this organization forward.
“Physicians are built for moments like this. We are problem-solvers. We are advocates. We are resilient. We are determined. We must speak with one voice to demand a better future for our patients and our profession.”
Read about the other highlights from the 2025 AMA Annual Meeting.
