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MU Doctor new head of largest medical specialty org in the U.S.

University of Missouri Health Care

Doctor David Fleming of the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine is the new president-elect of the American College of Physicians, the nation's largest medical specialty organization.

Fleming was elected to the post Thursday, and will spend the rest of the year as president-elect until his official term begins in 2014. He says he is already planning for what will be the most pressing aspects of his term.

“We’re gonna be highly focused on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, how we’re going to deal with the extremely high cost of health care in our country,” Fleming said.

Fleming spent 20 years as a primary care physician in Moberly, Mo. he says his experiences there have helped prepare him for this position.

“Having the experience of taking care of Missourians, which are challenged like many rural states that often times don’t have the resources available to be able to provide the community health and other supportive systems in place in our communities; I think has really given me some great insights into what the needs are not just in Missouri, but also throughout the country,” Fleming said.

He says he will also make preventative care programs like nutrition and smoking cessation a priority as he says prevention will help keep national health care costs down.