William A. Dolan, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon from Rochester, N.Y., was elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees (BOT) in June 2007. Dr. Dolan has served on the AMA Council on Medical Service since 2002, before becoming chair this year. He has been deeply involved in the AMA's efforts to replace Medicare's sustainable growth rate formula, develop meaningful programs for expanding coverage for the uninsured, and reform Medicare and Medicaid policy.

Dr. Dolan currently serves on the AMA-BOT Awards and Nominations Committee, the Group Practice Advisory Committee, the Task Force on Quality, Safety and Electronic Health Records, and the Health System Reform Task Force. In addition, he is also on the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

As a lead physician in a well-publicized class action suit against managed care companies, Dr. Dolan helped win $140 million in payments for New York physicians. More important, the lawsuit resulted in widespread reform of oppressive institutionalized business practices that had frustrated New York physicians for many years. As president of the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) and chairman of its board of trustees, Dr. Dolan was instrumental in leading the society into the 21st century as a founding member of the MSSNY Strategic Planning Task Force. The MSSNY Young Physicians Section also recognized Dr. Dolan for his leadership in championing issues of importance to younger physicians.

A practicing orthopaedic surgeon and clinical professor at the University of Rochester, N.Y., Dr. Dolan was a member of Gov. George Pataki's Health Care Reform Act Quality Task Force and the committee to study proposed regulation of office-based surgery. Dr. Dolan also developed the Medical Quality Assurance Task Force, a statewide coalition of health care provider organizations that focus on eliminating errors in delivery of patient care. An active leader in the second-largest independent practice association in the United States, Dr. Dolan is well aware of physicians' fiscal, strategic and practice management issues. He also is an active board member of the Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company, the largest medical liability carrier in the country.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Dolan attended Dalhousie University Medical School and obtained his medical degree cum laude with many honors, including Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Dolan also served as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy.