Edward Hill (physician)

Early life and education

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Hill was educated in the public schools of Vicksburg, Mississippi and received both his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Mississippi. He completed his internship while serving four years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, in addition to serving as a general medical officer in a naval destroyer group.

Career

A board certified family physician, Hill began his professional career in the rural Mississippi Delta where he practiced for 27 years. In addition to his full-service family practice, Hill developed and directed a local maternal child health program that resulted in lowering the fetal mortality rate from one of the highest in the United States to below the national average, where it remained. Hill was asked in January 1995 to become the director of the Family Practice Residency Program at North Mississippi Medical Center, which is the nation's largest rural hospital. Having stepped down from the directorship in July 2001, he remains on the faculty full-time and has an active practice.

AMA president

Hill was elected president of the American Medical Association (AMA) in June 2004 and began his one-year term as president on June 2005.

In a speech entitled "Understanding, Advocacy, Leadership: The AMA Perspective on LGBT Health," Hill became the first president of the AMA to address the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

I know that GLMA members and LGBT physicians have been treated unfairly by the AMA in the past. There is simply no excuse for discriminatory actions or exclusions based on sexual orientation or gender identity -- none. First, GLMA has opened [the AMA's] eyes to the diverse needs of LGBT patients, and second -- and just as important -- GLMA has told patients that they have the right to expect a health care system filled with openness, fairness and equality."

His speech is considered by some as an historic turning point in the policy of the AMA's towards LGBT physicians after the events at New York Medical College during the tenure of the previous AMA president Dr. John Nelson.

Hill was succeeded as AMA president by William G. Plested III, M.D.