A.  The Louisiana Medical Advisory Board is hereby created.  The board shall consist of eighteen members to be appointed by the governor for terms of four years.  Each member of the board shall be a graduate physician or surgeon or optometrist and the members shall be selected from the following areas of specialization: (1) ophthamology or optometry, (2) psychiatry, (3) orthopedics, (4) neurology or neurological surgery, (5) general surgery, or (6) internal medicine and cardiology.  The Louisiana State Medical Society shall submit the names of six persons qualified in each specialty from which the governor shall make appointments to the board, and the Louisiana State Association of Optometrists shall also submit the names of six qualified optometrists, from which the governor shall make at least one appointment to the board.  All members appointed by the governor shall be confirmed by the Senate, and, beginning in 1984, be reconfirmed by the Senate every two years.  

B.  Vacancies in the membership of the board shall be filled by appointment by the governor.  

Added by Acts 1968, No. 281, §1.  Amended by Acts 1972, No. 223, §1; Acts 1981, No. 631, §1.