An 1845 resolution to the New York Medical Association by Dr. Nathan S. Davis, calling for a national medical convention, led to the establishment of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847. Scientific advancement, standards for medical education, launching a program of medical ethics, improved public health — these were the goals of the AMA.
key historical dates:
1873: AMA Judicial Council founded to deal with medical ethical and constitutional controversies.
1883: Journal of the American Medical Association is first published; Nathan Davis is first editor.
1906: AMA publishes first American Medical Directory listing over 128,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. and Canada.
1910: The Flexner Report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, funded by the Carnegie Foundation and supported by the AMA, is published and facilitates new standards for medical schools
1927: AMA Council on Medical Education and Hospitals publishes first list of hospitals approved for residency training.
1943: AMA opens an office in Washington, D.C
1950: AMA Education and Research Foundation established to help medical schools meet expenses and to help medical students.
1966: AMA publishes first edition of the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), a system of standardized terms for medical procedures used to facilitate documentation.
1967: The United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council is established to determine nonproprietary designations for chemical compounds.
1990: AMA Fellowship Residency Electronic Interactive Data Access System (FREIDA) describing residency programs in the United States is available in electronic form.
2008: Ronald M. Davis, MD, then the AMA's immediate past president, apologizes for more than a century of AMA policies that excluded African-Americans from the AMA and that also barred them from some state and local medical societies.