American Medical Association (AMA)

The American Medical Association (AMA) is the largest and most influential organization representing medicine in the United States. The AMA was founded in 1847 with the aim of improving medical education and establishing a code of medical ethics (and thereby improving the status of the profession). Today, the AMA maintains those aims within its more general advocacy for the welfare of physicians and the health of the public.

The AMA is both a membership organization and an umbrella organization; that is, physicians can join as individuals (roughly a third of physicians do so), but the House of Delegates consists of representatives of specialty organizations (e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics) and state medical societies (e.g., the Michigan State Medical Society). Each of these organizations has its ...