Vicksburg physician Daniel P. Edney M.D., an internist with Medical Associates of Vicksburg, was inaugurated on Aug. 12 as the 148th president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, the state’s largest physician organization.

An expert in medical readiness for international disasters, Edney thanked his fellow physicians for their faithful service to Mississippians in his inaugural address as MSMA president.

“Above all, Edney’s passion is his patients, and he has patients far and wide,” said past president Dr. Claude Brunson during the inauguration. “A volunteer for medical missions in Vicksburg and around the world, Edney has led medical response teams to national disasters across the globe in places like Iraq, Nepal, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Haiti—and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.”

Edney pledged to defend and protect the association’s hard-won victory with tort reform and the resulting fair judicial climate. He also announced his plan to address workforce issues, specifically retaining practicing physicians.

“Every year in Mississippi we lose competent colleagues with mature practices to suicide, substance-use disorders, burn-out, accidents from risky behaviors and preventable diseases,” Edney said. “Because of this I am calling on the association to study ways to promote physician wellness and health.”

There are currently 5,000 doctors practicing in the state of Mississippi, which is a relatively low number, Edney said.

“Every doctor that we put into the workforce, we add another $1 million to the local economy and employ another seven Mississippians,” he said.

“This is a very big issue for us.”

Edney said one of the goals of the organization is to promote public health in the state of Mississippi.

“We work with federal, state and local government to educate our leaders on different problems we have in Mississippi with providing medical care and what the barriers to access to care are for Mississippians,” he said. “Mainly, we work with the state government to try to rectify those problems.”

Edney started his practice in Vicksburg in 1991, and he didn’t know a lot about organized medicine at the time.

“The senior partners in our group taught me the importance of banning together to protect the profession,” he said. “I joined in 1993, and I’ve been active ever since.”

Edney is the host of an online health radio show, “On Call with Dr. Dan Edney,” and the medical director of First Baptist Church of Vicksburg’s Medical/Dental Ministries.

He graduated Summa Cum laude with a B.S. in chemistry and biology from William Carey College in Hattiesburg and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, earning the Doctor of Medicine Degree.

He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia Hospitals in Charlottesville, Virginia.