by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: December 02, 2010   Last Updated: July 21, 2011

The American Medical Association came into being May 7th, 1847 when "Two hundred fifty delegates from twenty-eight states were seated among exhibit cases and before ancient bones of a mastodon. . . in the hall of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. .."
Dr. Nathaniel Chapman was chosen as the president and Jonathan Knight was the first chairman. However, neither of these two gentlemen are known as the father of the AMA, but the honor goes to a much younger doctor,

Nathan S. Davis. He did  become the president in 1864 and was the first editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Who was he and why was he such an advocate for this prestigious group whose rules have been guiding the practice of medicine in the US for over 160 years? He was a young doctor indeed! At the Medical College of Western New York, he became a doctor a little beyond twenty years of age. Most likely a most precocious lad. Most kids at that age are barely out of high school.

Elected to  New York Society of Medicine  in 1844, this entrepreneurial medical worker sought to improve the way medicine was practiced. The following year he proposed a national association. Not everyone had his vision, thinking his ideas utopian and not at all practical. A couple of years later the AMA became a reality. In 1852, he "formed a new medical school, now known as the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. He continued his interest in the AMA and for fifty years he only missed three annual meeting. He died in 1904 at the age of 87. He wrote three books, The History of  Medical Education, History of the AMA, and history of the Code of Medical Ethics.

The AMA today honors its founder and as an organization is still a viable and  important. When it speaks, people and governments listen. In its archives are documentation of how this group has made great strides in health care in its long history. One of the many different ways they have cared for the sick is to document fraud. That has been and continues to be one of its main priorities.

Of course no sampling of any of its testimonies are available for perusal here - Only valid members are allowed to partake for free, others must pay - yet there are guidelines for use posted on the Internet. "The collection contains close to 1,000 boxes of advertising pamphlets, letters, product containers, and actual equipment relating to more than 3,500 practitioners, products, and businesses that the

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