History of American Healthcare Part 4: The Origins of the AMA

With orthodox medicine in disarray, with no standards of education, and with alternative medical philosophies ruling the roost, several prominent orthodox doctors came together to forma national organization to represent the needs of orthodoxy, the American Medical Association (AMA). Founded in 1847 largely by Nathan Davis, the AMA had several goals: To promote licensing requirements, to standardize education, and to provide a collective where all orthodox doctors could gather. Although formed as a democratic union of orthodox doctors, the organization from the start sought to stamp a unifying dogma upon its members and the nation, one that included the medical racial script. In fact, the script helped to congeal doctors under a single rubric of medical science, one shared by doctors North and South. Weak from the start, the AMA hobbled along for many decades before emerging as the predominant Progressive force in American healthcare, one destined to change the system into the one we know today.