The University of Otago's dean of the Dunedin School of Medicine, Dr John Adams, has been elected chairman of the Medical Council of New Zealand.
He succeeds Prof John Campbell, also from the University of Otago, who has been the chairman for the past eight years.
Announcing the appointment yesterday, council chief executive Philip Pigou said Dr Adams brought a tremendous depth of knowledge and experience, invaluable for implementing such moves as regular practice reviews for the profession.
He has had a long-term interest in professionalism and ethics, which led to him chairing the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) ethics committee during the recent review of the NZMA code of ethics.
Dr Adams, whose specialty is psychiatry, has been dean of the Dunedin School of Medicine since 2003.
He gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1984.
He worked for many years at the Ashburn Clinic in Dunedin, where he was appointed medical director in 1988.
Dr Adams, who joined the medical council in 2008, has had extensive involvement with the NZMA, initially as a board member, and later as NZMA chairman from 2001-03.
Dr Adams teaches in the professional development programme in the undergraduate course in Dunedin.
He is a trustee of the New Zealand Institute of Rural Health, the Ashburn Hall board and the Alexander McMillan Trust and a member of the Otago District Health Board hospital advisory committee.