American Medical Association

William Monroe 

due: 2/23/15

American Medical Association          

          People have been using their knowledge of medicine to make money for hundreds of years. This is because no matter how safe the world is, people will always continue to become injured. I have been through countless surgeries myself, and it is comforting to know that there is a place like the American Medical Association out there. This is because they regulate, or set, standards for the doctors of today. If the AMA had never been created, then the medical world could still be unregulated. The AMA is an act of progressivism because of the drastic changes that it made for the doctors to be able to practice.

            Before the AMA was created, just about anything would happen in the operating room. This is because there was no one there to regulate the doctors. Many “doctors” that would operate on people were not actually real doctors. These fake doctors could just buy their education, and not even go through any sort of schooling. This is because the places that were handing out these letters of certification were more concerned about getting money rather than the well being of patients. People of society realized that you could buy your certification and saw it a problem. One man that really saw it as a problem is Nathan Smith Davis. Mr. Davis was so concerned about the well being of others that he decided to found the AMA (American Medical Association). Mr. Davis founded the AMA in 1847. He founded it with the support of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The uncertified doctors could go into surgery and use the wrong technique on a patient, and they could be in worse shape leaving the surgery than going into the surgery.

            The AMA had a list of schools that they trusted degrees from. This list was categorized into three categories. These three categories were A, B, and C. A was considered “Acceptable”, B was considered “Doubtful”, and C was considered “Unacceptable”. The AMA looked at a total of one hundred and sixty schools. This medical education inspection started in the year of 1906. Along with classifying the doctors, the AMA would measure the students’ performance from school. This was just another way of further regulating the doctors. The AMA also set high standards for the compounding, or creating of drugs. The reason for the regulation of the drugs is because the drug manufactures could have just sent out any sort of pill from the factory and the consumer would never know, but because of AMA there was a regulation for the drugs as well as the doctors. The doctors knew that it is a privilege to be a part of the AMA. This is because not all doctors were associated with it.

            The AMA had many different rules and regulations. The rules and regulations have been revised and edited multiple times since 1847 when the AMA was first founded. A lot of the rules from the AMA were just common courtesy rules to the patients. An example of that is in the “Principles of Medical Ethics” it states that all patients should be treated with “attention and humanity”. There were some regulations that I found interesting or of somewhat odd. The one that surprised me most is a doctor is not allowed to doctor themselves, and by this they mean a doctor isn’t allowed to just keep writing prescriptions for him or herself. “Physicians should not, as a general rule, undertake the treatment of themselves, nor of members of their family.” I was surprised to see the part of that that said the doctors cannot treat their family members. I assume this was most surprising because of the amount of friends that I have that are prescribed medicine by their parents when they get sick. I do understand why the AMA wouldn’t want a doctor to write themselves, or their family prescriptions. The reason is that, in the past doctors have abused their authority by writing a prescription for anything that they want. One other rule that I thought was a given is “avoid unnecessary visits to the doctor”.  

            Professionalization is another important part of the AMA. The thing that set the AMA aside is that the ethical code is what made the doctors become professional rather than just a doctor. The doctors that were professional were the successful ones. This is because they could be trusted much easier than others. The other professional aspect of the AMA is that they regulated the level of easiness to be seen by a doctor. By this I mean that they made it where everyone who was in need of medical attention all had the same chances of getting in with a good certified doctor that knew what they were doing. This brought in the idea of equality. Therefore the Professionalism made medical equality possible.

            The AMA is clearly an act of progressivism. The amount of change in how doctors work and perform has changed tremendously, Mostly being because of the AMA and their regulations. Every doctor and patient, to this day, should be thankful for Mr. Davis for founding such a tremendous Association. Everyone should be able to agree that without the AMA, the medical world that would not be as we know it today. 

 This is apicture of a Chemistry lab that the AMA would regulate. The Chemistry labswould examine medical specimens.

 This is apicture of the AMA head quarters in 1903. 

This is apicture of Nathan Smith Davis. He was the founder of the AMA in 1847.

 This is apicture of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thatis where the AMA was founded.

This is apicture of the cover of the journal of the American medical association.