(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Medical Association (IMA) Chairman Prof. Leonid Eidelman has been chosen to serve as the next president of the World Medical Association.

Medical association leaders from across the globe—representing more than 9 million doctors worldwide—elected Eidelman at the organization’s annual convention in Chicago last weekend.

Eidelman, who ran against Dr. Heikki Palve from Finland, won two-thirds of the final vote, with 98 backing his candidacy and 43 supporting Palve.

Eidelman, 65, will succeed India’s Dr. Ketan Desai to lead the organization beginning in October 2018.

As Israel faces repeated calls to expel Israeli medical organizations from international bodies, the appointment of a doctor from the Jewish state to one of the top positions in the medical world—with a major influence on the most important decisions regarding the behavior of doctors—is seen as carrying considerable significance.

Eidelman is a prominent authority in the area of medical ethics in Israel. He has served as president of the IMA since 2009, in addition to his role as professor of anesthesiology and intensive care medicine at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. He immigrated to Israel from Riga, Latvia, in 1987.