Doctors for Patient Freedom to Confer Ed Annis Award on Jane Orient, M.D.

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 19, 2017 -- Doctors for Patient Freedom will be recognizing the achievements of Dr. Jane Orient at the upcoming meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, Jan 27, 2017. "Congressman Tom Price, M.D., and Ben Carson, M.D., have previously received the Ed Annis Medical Freedom Award, which recognizes leaders who have fought for medical freedom," states David McKalip, M.D., founder of Doctors for Patient Freedom.

Dr. Orient serves as the Executive Director of AAPS, a national organization advocating for freedom and choice in medical care and the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. She has been leading the group since 1989. The Ed Annis Award is named for another hero of medical freedom.

"Dr. Annis was elected as President of the American Medical Association in 1963," Dr. McKalip states. “He was one of the voices that warned America about Medicare during the first attempt to pass it in 1962. Based on his efforts, the first attempt at passing Medicare was not successful. Today Dr. Annis’s warnings on Medicare have come true, with the government program facing chronic funding shortfalls and the Medicare now imposing rationing onto patients through their doctors. He went on to be a national spokesman for the AMA and wrote the award winning book Code Blue. He lived to the age of 96, always serving as an example for the principles of patient empowerment, physician professionalism, and the value of a free market in medical care unencumbered by the damaging effect of third-party intervention in the patient-physician relationship.”

In addition to Dr. Benjamin Carson, the most recent recipient of the award in 2013, and Dr. Tom Price, recipients have included Senator Tom Coburn; past AMA presidents Donald J. Palmisano, M.D., Daniel “Stormy” Johnson, M.D., and William G. Plested III, M.D.; health policy expert Greg Scandlen; Georgia physician leader Joseph Bailey, M.D., and Dr. Edward Annis himself, reports Dr. McKalip.

The award will be presented in conjunction with the meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons to be held on Jan 27, 2017, at the Orlando Doubletree by Hilton (Orlando Airport location), during the Friday evening banquet.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in virtually all specialties and every state. Founded in 1943, AAPS has the motto “omnia pro aegroto,” which means “all for the patient.”

Contact: Jeremy Snavely, (520) 270-0761, [email protected], or David McKalip, M.D., (727) 822-3500, [email protected]