Dr. Michael Kuduk, a Winchester pediatrician, is the new president of the Kentucky Medical Association

Dr. Michael Kuduk, a Winchester pediatrician, is the new president of the Kentucky Medical Association. He was sworn in as the 173rd president at the organization’s annual meeting, held Aug. 25-27 in Louisville.

Kuduk, a native of New Jersey, is is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers Medical School) in Newark. He completed his residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

He previously served as board chair and vice-president of the KMA, as well as chair of its political action committee. He is a 2018 graduate of the Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute.

In his inaugural address, Kuduk discussed his goals for the year, including a focus on prior authorization reform, which was indicated as one of the leading causes of physician burnout in a KMA membership survey in 2022. The KMA House of Delegates also passed a resolution calling for prior authorization reform, a KMA news release said.

“I will continue to advocate for prior authorization reform, an issue that we can all agree not only impacts our daily lives, but the lives of our patients. Many of our physicians came to Frankfort to advocate on the issue, and we plan to put an even greater focus on it this year,” Kuduk said in the release. “We know that telling a story can be the most effective form of advocacy, and we all have many patient stories to tell showing how prior authorizations negatively impact the health of our patients.”