CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest physician organization, today announced the election of David H. Aizuss, M.D., an ophthalmologist from Los Angeles, Calif., to its Board of Trustees.

“We are facing unprecedented times as a profession and as a country,” Dr. Aizuss said in his speech to the House of Delegates. “While we battle the frontlines of COVID-19, we must look ahead to the future and ensure that we are working as a united voice, advocating for our profession, for our patients and for our communities.”

Dr. Aizuss is a longtime leader in organized medicine; he is the immediate past president of the California Medical Association (CMA) and a current member of the AMA Council on Legislation. As a Northwestern University medical student, he served as a leader in the Illinois State Medical Society’s Medical Student Section and on the AMA-Medical Students Section (AMA-MSS) Governing Council. He also served on the AMA-Resident and Fellow Section (AMA-RFS) Governing Council for three years.

During his tenure as CMA president, he was personally responsible for implementing a new organizational emphasis on diversity and inclusion. His guidance led CMA to significantly increase diversity in its council and committee leadership, as well as in their AMA delegation. Dr. Aizuss has also been at the forefront on issues such as physician scope of practice, vaccines, mental health and gun violence.

Dr. Aizuss is a managing partner in a multispecialty ophthalmology group, where he focuses exclusively on patient care. He also serves as an assistant clinical professor of Ophthalmology at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.

He received his M.D. from Northwestern University Medical School and his bachelor’s degree in medicine from Northwestern University. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles, where he also undertook a fellowship in cornea and external ocular disease.