A bold plan to achieve unity in medicine

doi:10.1136/bmjusa.01030006

BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmjusa.01030006, (Published 5 September 2002)

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A bold plan to achieve unity in medicine

Ronald M Davis, BMJ USA
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This article originally appeared in BMJ USA

At the last two meetings of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates $---$ in June and December of last year $---$ participantsdebated and approved the broad outlines of a bold plan to achieveunity among medical associations. Here in the US the medical professionis represented by a system of medical associations often referredto as "organized medicine" or the "federation of medicine." Atthe core of the federation is the American Medical Association(AMA) and its House of Delegates $---$ the AMA's policy-making bodycomprising 550 delegates representing state medical associations;national medical specialty societies; military services; and specialsections for medical students, residents and fellows, young physicians,medical school deans, and international medicalgraduates.

As the medical profession in the US has become increasingly specialized, ¹ ² organizations representing medical specialtiesand subspecialties have proliferated. About 100 national medicalspecialty societies are now represented in the . . . [Full text of this article]