Anmol Singh Mahal, M.D., was inaugurated this week as CMA’s 139th president at the association’s annual House of Delegates in Sacramento.

In his address to the 750 delegates, Dr. Mahal said that during his tenure he expects CMA to build membership and confront the challenge posed by rising health care costs. He told his colleagues that CMA would defeat regulations proposed by the Department of Managed Health Care that would allow health insurance companies to escape their responsibility to provide and pay for emergency care for all their customers. He also drew attention to the need to provide access to health care to all Californians and to train more physicians.

“In California, we train half as many physicians per capita as does the rest of the U.S. We train a third as many physicians as do Pennsylvania and New York,” he said. “The only states that train fewer physicians per capita are the states that do not have a medical school. California needs to make a substantive investment in the health care infrastructure and that is a message I will carry.”

Dr. Mahal is the first physician of Indian origin to head CMA. Since coming to the United States 33 years ago, Dr. Mahal has held numerous local, state, and national positions in organized medicine. He is a founding member and past president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin of Northern California, and serves on its board. He serves on AMA’s Commission on Eliminating Health Disparities. He has been a CMA trustee for nine years and a member of CMA’s Executive Committee for four years.

Dr. Mahal, 56, who is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, is currently on staff at Washington Hospital in Fremont and previously served as chief of staff of Washington Hospital Healthcare System.

He serves as a Commissioner for the Emergency Medical Services Commission of the State of California. He was recently appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the Board of Trustees of the Health Professions Educational Foundation.