Published 19 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2643
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2643

Obituaries

Ronald Mark Davis

Life long crusader against smoking and founding editor of the journal Tobacco Control

Medicine and public health in the United States are separate worlds, with different organisations, publications, and leaders. Ron Davis bridged that gap in a way that no other doctor has, bringing the population perspective of public health and preventive medicine to the house of medicine. Ron entered medical school at the University of Chicago after college at the University of Michigan, and here began a long connection with the American Medical Association (AMA). He was elected president of the medical student section, and even as the most junior trustee, Ron spoke up for health promotion and disease prevention, focusing especially on tobacco control and prevention.

After training in epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ron became the director of the organisation’s new office of smoking and health in 1987. Here he worked with the surgeon general, Charles Koop, to issue three important reports. Ron’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the science and history of advertising of tobacco, combined with his ready wit and humour, made him an effective public health advocate and a popular speaker at events—from scientific meetings to public forums to Congressional hearings. He authored or coauthored dozens of scientific papers and editorials about smoking.

In 1991 Ron returned to Michigan to become chief medical officer in the state department of public health, turning down grander and more prestigious jobs for family reasons.

At about this time Ron and others began agitating for a medical journal devoted to the problem of tobacco. When the AMA declined to sponsor it, Ron pitched the idea to the BMJ Publishing Group, which agreed to publish Tobacco Control, an unusual and perhaps unique combination of scientific rigour and a strong advocacy agenda. So began a long relationship with the BMJ. Ron became Tobacco Control’s first editor and shepherded it through its first six years. He then became the North American editor of the BMJ, in which he promoted the importance of chronic diseases. The BMJ published a series of theme issues on chronic diseases well before their importance was widely recognised. Ron also spearheaded a renewed effort to create a US version of the BMJ, which was born as BMJ USA in 2001, a monthly digest of the BMJ edited for and circulated to 100 000 US doctors. He served as the first editor of that as well.

As Ron climbed the AMA leadership ladder he became a knowledgeable spokesman for the association’s bread and butter issues, such as payment of doctors under Medicare, Ron continuously pushed the leadership to strengthen its policies and advocacy for tobacco control and prevention. At Ron’s funeral, the association’s current board chairman said that "because of Ron’s work, tens of thousands of young people never started smoking. Because of Ron, tens of thousands of lives were saved."

Ron had a remarkable ability to work towards solutions, to use meticulously researched positions, and he had an affable, cooperative, but unyielding manner to win over his opponents and move bureaucracies—such as the AMA—to action.

Ron was elected the 162nd president of the AMA in 2006, the first preventive medicine specialist to head the organisation. He continued to advocate the association for activism in public health, expanding beyond tobacco to obesity, bullying, physical activity, and other topics. But just over half way through his term he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Ron faced his diagnosis head on, deciding that the association should issue a press release about it and posting frequent updates of his status on the Care Pages website (www.carepages.com) for his many friends and acquaintances. His postings combined a dispassionate description of his symptoms, pathology, and treatments, with personal reflections about what was happening to him and his family.

Ron investigated all possible treatments for his disease, saying that even a 5% chance of survival was not the same as no chance. He became an advocate for pancreatic cancer research, appearing at many meetings to promote research towards a cure. He shaved his head when his hair began to fall out after chemotherapy, and his collection of hats became a standing joke in his speeches.

Even while ill and receiving chemotherapy, Ron continued his travelling and speaking on behalf of preventive medicine, public health, and the AMA. One of his last achievements was issuing on behalf of the association a carefully researched history of and apology for the association’s shameful treatment of African-American doctors throughout its history (JAMA 2008;300:323-5).

His final posting on Care Pages, written nine days before his death, ended with his decision to focus on palliative care and gave thanks to all his readers for their support. He died at home, with his family around him, while the semi-annual meeting of the AMA house of delegates was in session in Orlando. Characteristically, Ron Davis sent a letter to be read to the delegates, thanking them for their friendship and support and urging them to work to provide health care for the 46 million US residents who are without health insurance.

Looking back at Ron Davis’s too brief 52 years of life it is clear that he had an unusual talent for bridging divides—between trainees and practising doctors, public health and medicine, the sick and the well, and even the US and the United Kingdom. He was an enormously effective leader, negotiating successes and strategising ways to achieve concrete accomplishments in real world settings. One leader of the US preventive medicine community said that whenever times were tough and he was trying to puzzle a way forward, he asked himself, "What would Ron do?"

Ron leaves a wife, Nadine, and three sons.

Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2643

Douglas Kamerow, chief scientist, RTI International, and associate editor, BMJ

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Ronald Mark Davis, director, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, and immediate past president, American Medical Association (b 1956; q University of Chicago, 1983; MA public policy), died from pancreatic cancer on 6 November 2008.

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