Kentucky doctor named as AMA’s president-elect, will become the group’s 3rd woman president

CHICAGO – An internal medicine doctor from Kentucky is the American Medical Association’s new president-elect.

The nation’s largest physicians group says Dr. Ardis Hoven will take office as president-elect in June 2013. She’ll become the third woman to lead the association when she becomes president in 2014.

Hoven ran unopposed for president-elect and was named during the group’s annual policy-making meeting. She is from Lexington and is also an infectious disease specialist.

Denver psychiatrist Jeremy Lazarus is ending his yearlong term as president-elect and officially becomes AMA president on Tuesday evening.

An AMA statement Monday said Hoven has served on the AMA’s Board of Trustees and is a former president of the Kentucky Medical Association.

The AMA’s annual five-day meeting began Saturday.