J Fred Ralston, Jr. - MD, FACP, President American College of Physicians, is 2010-2011 President of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the national organization of internists. He became President during Internal Medicine 2010, the ACP annual scientific meeting, held April 22-24 in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Ralston has been in the practice of general internal medicine in Fayetteville, Tennessee since 1983. His group, Fayetteville Medical Associates, includes internists, family physicians, pediatricians and a nurse practitioner. The group traces its roots to 1909 and serves a rural county of 30,000 near Huntsville, Alabama.
Dr. Ralston was a transitional Governor for ACP's Tennessee Chapter from 1998 to 1999, during the College’s merger with the ASIM, and was elected Governor of the state chapter in 2000. He was named parliamentarian for the ACP Board of Governors for 2003-2005 and was elected Chair of the Board of Governors for 2005-06. Dr. Ralston was also Vice Chair of the ACP Publications Committee (2002-03), Finance Committee (2004-05), and Health and Public Policy Committee (2003-04), in addition to chairing a Special Reference Committee on Recertification in 2002.
Dr. Ralston has served in many leadership capacities for the Tennessee Medical Association, including a term as board chairman. He was chairman of the TMA TennCare Reform Task Force and is involved in many community activities. Dr. Ralston has served as a board member and in many leadership capacities on the medical staff of Lincoln Medical Center in Fayetteville. He was actively involved in a public referendum which succeeded with overwhelming approval for a new community hospital.
Dr. Ralston has a strong interest in electronic health records, efficiency in health care delivery, and health care system reform focused on a close relationship between individuals and a personal physician. He remains concerned about the lack of access to well-trained primary care physicians for increasing segments of our population and understands that a major overhaul of our “system” is required. Dr. Ralston remains active in advocacy on health-care issues, combining his political science background with the real-world perspective of a physician in full-time clinical practice.
Dr. Ralston was chair of the ACP Health and Public Policy Committee from 2007 through 2009. He is co-author of “Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries,” Ann Intern Med. 2008; 148:55-75, developed for the ACP Health and Public Policy Committee.
A graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., Dr. Ralston received his B.A. in political science from Yale University. He earned his medical degree in 1980 from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency training at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. He is board-certified in internal medicine. Dr. Ralston is married to Farris Lynch Ralston and they have twin teenage sons, Will and Jim.
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