Corey Howard, MD, receives FMA’s highest honor

By Erika D. Peterman, FMA Managing Editor

FMA Past President Corey Howard, MD, FACP, of Naples, Fla., has been advocating for medicine since he was a resident in the early ‘90s. More than 30 years later, the FMA honored Dr. Howard for his steadfast leadership by presenting him with the 2024 Award of Distinguished Service at Annual Meeting in Orlando on Saturday, Aug. 3. It is the association’s highest award.

Dr. Howard is a Board-certified internal medicine physician who got started in organized medicine in 1992, when he became a delegate to the AMA Resident Physicians Section – now the Resident & Fellow Section – for the American Society of Internal Medicine before it merged with the American College of Physicians. He has written, co-written and collaborated with other physicians on many resolutions that are now AMA policy. 

Dr. Howard joined Florida’s delegation to the AMA House of Delegates in 2005 and was delegation chair from 2011 until June of this year, when he stepped down from the position. Before his installation as the FMA’s 142nd President in 2018, he served as Speaker of the FMA House of Delegates (2014 to 2017) and as Vice Speaker (2011 to 2014). 

Dr. Corey Howard receiving the 2024 Award of Distinguished Service at FMA Annual Meeting in Orlando on Saturday, Aug. 3.

Earlier this year, Dr. Howard received the Physician of the Year award from the Collier County Medical Society (CCMS), which he led as President from 2001 to 2002. “His career has been marked by a relentless dedication to supporting physicians in their practice through active involvement in organized medicine’s policymaking process,” CCMS stated in its announcement of the award. 

Dr. Howard earned his medical degree from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, where also he completed his internal medicine residency and a fellowship in gastroenterology. He is founder of Howard Health & Wellness, a lifestyle medicine-focused solo practice, and he models a holistic approach to health in his own life: Dr. Howard is an Ironman triathlete who holds a professional certificate in plant-based cooking from the Rouxbe culinary school. He and his wife, FMA member and dermatologist Cyndi Yag-Howard, MD, FAAD, have three adult children.