* Seek liability protection for following best practices

* Seamless medical records to reduce unnecessary testing

* Medical insurance companies use single form

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO, June 17 (Reuters) - Fixing the U.S. healthcare system will require extensive reforms, much like treating a patient with multiple organ failure, the president of the leading U.S. doctor's group said on Wednesday.

Dr. J. James Rohack, a practicing cardiologist from Texas and president of the American Medical Association, said physicians are committed to restructuring the health system because "if we don't do anything, we're headed over a cliff."

Rohack listed some reforms from the physicians' perspective in an interview with Reuters as the AMA concluded its annual meeting in Chicago.

* Liability laws to give doctors who follow agreed-upon best treatment practices protection from lawsuits. The aim is to reduce costly "defensive medicine" in which doctors order unnecessary tests and treatments to protect against legal liability.

* Electronic records that contain a patient's medical history, and a living will, to reduce medical testing and curtail costly end-of-life treatment.