WASHINGTON — The American Medical Association (AMA) presented Timothy F. Jones, M.D., a physician who serves as chief medical officer for the Tennessee Department of Health, with the Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service.
Before being named chief medical officer, Dr. Jones served as state epidemiologist and assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Health, where he led work to contain multi-state epidemics including West Nile Virus, Zika, and fungal meningitis, impacting hundreds of lives in the process.
In 2012, Tennessee was heavily impacted by the fungal meningitis outbreak, which was related to pain injections with contaminated pharmaceutical products and resulted in 64 deaths nationally. Under Dr. Jones’ direction, the Tennessee Department of Health was a key player in the investigations that discovered the cause of the outbreak.
“A leader in his field, a font of scientific expertise, and a devoted volunteer to underserved communities, Dr. Timothy Jones is an exemplary physician and public servant,” said AMA Board Chair Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, M.D., MPH. “His work every day keeps Americans – not just Tennesseans – safe, and for that, it is our pleasure to award him with the Dr. Nathan Davis Award.”
An international authority on foodborne disease, which remains a major cause of morbidity and thousands of deaths annually in the United States, Dr. Jones has been a member of expert advisory groups on this topic at the CDC, the World Health Organization, the FDA and other government agencies.
Dr. Jones is one of eight honorees chosen this year to receive the Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service. The award, named after the founding father of the AMA, recognizes elected and career officials in federal, state or municipal service whose outstanding contributions have promoted the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
He is an alumnus of Amherst College and Stanford University. The AMA presented Dr. Jones with the Dr. Nathan Davis Award last night at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. as part of the AMA’s National Advocacy Conference.
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The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
