Washington, June 11 -- Srinivas Mukkamala was elected President of the American Medical Association, the first person of Indian origin to lead the organisation in its 178-year history.

"To call this moment humbling doesn't capture it," said Bobby Mukkamala, MD, an otolaryngologist and the AMA's newly inaugurated 180th President. "It's moving. It's awe-inspiring," he said.

For many in attendance at the AMA presidential inauguration in Chicago, that inspiration was reciprocal. Last November, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam revealed an 8-cm temporal lobe tumour on the left side of Mukkamala's brain. Three weeks after the startling discovery, the 53-year-old father of two underwent surgery, as per a statement by AMA.

The removal of...