AAFP names Kisha Davis, M.D., new president; Roche's MS pill slows chronic lesion growth; stress tests may miss firefighters' heart risk — Morning Medical Update

AAFP names Kisha Davis, M.D., new president

The Montgomery County, Maryland, health chief will lead the 124,500-member academy.

Kisha Davis, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, was installed Oct. 21 as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) at its Congress of Delegates in Nashville, Tennessee.

Davis is chief health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland. She was previously vice president of health equity at Aledade and vice chair of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, which advises Congress on Medicaid policy.

"I've always valued having a foot in both the policy and clinical worlds. They inform each other, and each makes the other stronger," Davis said.

Delegates also elected Russell W. Kohl, M.D., FAAFP, chief medical officer of TMF Health Quality Institute, as president-elect. Outgoing President Sarah C. Nosal, M.D., FAAFP, moved to board chair. Find the full updated AAFP board roster here.

Roche's MS pill slows chronic lesion growth

The FDA is reviewing fenebrutinib for relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Roche's investigational oral drug fenebrutinib reduced the annualized relapse rate by 55% compared with teriflunomide over 96 weeks in pooled data from two late-stage trials in relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS), the company said Oct. 21.

Across those trials and a third in primary progressive MS, fenebrutinib reduced the volume of slowly expanding lesions, a marker of chronic inflammation in the brain, by up to 30% compared with teriflunomide or Ocrevus (ocrelizumab). In the relapsing MS trials, 75% of patients on the drug had no relapses, MRI activity or worsening disability at nearly two years.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Roche's application for both forms of MS under priority review in September. The new data are being presented at the MSToronto2026 meeting and have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Reuters has more details.

Stress tests may miss firefighters' heart risk

Enlarged heart muscle was tied to more on-duty deaths than coronary artery disease.

Cardiac events caused 43% of the 3,401 on-duty firefighter deaths recorded by the U.S. Fire Administration from 1990 through 2025, according to a Cedars-Sinai study published in JACC: Advances.

From 1990 through 2019, on-duty deaths fell overall, but the odds that a given death was heart-related rose 2.2% a year. In the general U.S. population, cardiac deaths as a share of all deaths fell 1.3% a year.

Many of the deaths involved coronary artery disease, but more were tied to enlarged heart muscle, which the exercise stress tests in firefighters' annual physicals may not catch. Training builds heart muscle, which can mask changes caused by dangerous conditions.

"Our research shows there may be a blind spot when it comes to routine heart screenings for firefighters in the U.S.," said senior author Alan Kwan, M.D., of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. The authors said more research is needed to learn why firefighters appear to be at risk.