AMA House of Delegates: Tradition of empowerment

Soon the AMA house will hold its Annual Meeting, harnessing the grassroots power of the nation's physicians

Editorial. April 18, 2005.

When the American Medical Association's House of Delegates convenes in Chicago in June, it will be carrying on a tradition that dates back more than 100 years. Its structure and processes exemplify the organization's strength as a democratic institution in which grassroots participation is the cornerstone.

For the first 55 years of its life, the AMA policies were set at a "town hall" type of meeting held in conjunction with the annual scientific session. As the organization grew and issues became more complex, this became unwieldy, and in 1901 the recommendations of a Committee on Reorganization led to the formation of a House of Delegates not much different from the one that exists today.

The delegates -- this year there will be 543 -- come from every state medical society, from every qualifying national medical specialty society, from regional organizations of medical students, and from the military, the Veterans Administration and the U.S. Public Health Service. Already, we are well into the spring and early summer annual meeting season, when many state societies hold their own yearly sessions that include discussions of resolutions to be presented at the AMA Annual Meeting. Also seated in the AMA House and offering resolutions following their own sessions on the eve of the Annual Meeting are delegates from the AMA's sections: Organized Medical Staff, Young Physicians, Resident and Fellows, Medical Students, Medical Schools, and International Medical Graduates. The Minority Affairs Consortium also has a delegate.