The Value of Membership
The History of Organized Medicine
Mohan Mallam, M.D., President, San Bernardino County Medical Society
I am pleased to introduce this new four-part website series entitled the “Value of Membership.” My goal is to point out to our members and non members the importance for physicians to be engaged in organized medicine and the many benefits that come with their involvement. I will begin the series with this first installment, “The History of Organized Medicine.” In subsequent months I will share my thoughts about “Protecting MICRA,” “Benefits For Members Only,” and a salute to “Physicians Who Care.”
The San Bernardino County Medical Society (SBCMS) has existed for 133 years and is the ninth largest county medical society in California. We are a professional physician membership organization representing 1,700 members consisting of medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy. We have representation from all medical specialties, and members include residents in training, medical students, and retired physicians. We are a dual membership organization (county and state) with the California Medical Association (CMA).
We are also very proud of our affiliated community programs and organizations that include the Inland Wellness Information Network (IWIN); Physicians’ Memorial, Gift and Benevolence Fund (PMGBF); San Bernardino County Sheriff Medical Reserve Corps (MRC); School Nurse Physician Collaborative; and the Southern California Medical Museum.
Our mission is to promote the science and art of medicine, the care and well-being of patients, the protection of the public health, and promote the betterment of the medical profession through legal, legislative, and economic advocacy.
A very long time ago, Aristotle said, “If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.” It helps us to understand the value of organized medicine today if we know something about its history.
Following a deadly cholera epidemic in Sacramento, the surviving physicians (seventeen, a third of California’s physician population), set up the first meeting of the Medical Society of the State of California on March 12, 1856 in Sacramento, and began to found county medical societies, the first in Sacramento and San Francisco.
In the early years, the society’s focus was in Northern California; its counterpart, the Southern California Medical Society, was not created until June 11, 1888 in Los Angeles. Meetings were reported in our local newspapers, the last known on December 5, 1903 in the “Redlands Citrograph.”
The late Joseph Hayhurst, MD, in his book, “San Bernardino County Medical Society 1878-1991,” wrote that on July 20, 1878, the San Bernardino newspaper included a report of the first meeting of the San Bernardino County Medical Society. The meeting was held in the office of San Bernardino physician Dr. Riley Fox. Dr. Fox was subsequently elected President and a committee was appointed to draw up a Constitution and Bylaws. The object of the society as reported by the paper, was “the cultivation and advancement of medicine by united exertions for mutual improvement and contributions to medical literature; the promotion of the interests and honor of the fraternity by maintaining the union and harmony of the regular profession of the county, and aiming to elevate the standard of medical education; the separation of regular from irregular practitioners, and the association of the profession proper for the purposes of mutual recognition and fellowship.”
In 1878, there were 17 licensed physicians in San Bernardino County. In the early days, medical society members presented case reports which were usually followed by discussion. Sanitation problems and the germ theory of disease were often addressed, as well as tuberculosis, common among the citizens of that day. Outside authorities were invited to speak. The Board of Directors was originally called the Board of Censors until 1931; their principal function was to screen applicants to be certain they were qualified and licensed medical doctors.
In 1923, the state-wide organization became known as the California Medical Association and dedicated their organization to our current mission statement to “promote the science and art of medicine, protection of public health, and the betterment of the medical profession.”
The long list of organized medicine accomplishments during the early years include:
- Formation of the state public health department in the 1870s;
- Compulsory immunizations for school children in the 1880s;
- Began looking at ways to fund health care for the poor in the 1930s;
- Performed some of the first cornea transplants, set up some of the first organ transplant guidelines in the country; and
- Started California’s first medical schools, which later became Stanford and University of California.
During the 20thcentury to the present, the SBCMS and CMA have historically been on the forefront of the medical issues of the day. We continue to lead in the fight against tobacco use and smoking, and early on promoted health care for HIV and AIDS patients. Several SBCMS members have served in influential positions and garnered important achievements and honors. Three former society presidents, Doctors Nick Krikes, Ron Bangasser, and Dev GnanaDev also served as President of CMA. Numerous other society physicians have served on state and national committees and task forces.
While we have made great strides and are proud of our accomplishments, issues continue to arise, and SBCMS/CMA continues to advocate on behalf of physicians and patients to make sure that health plans and other medical entities are complying with state laws and regulations. We continue to advocate for physicians and for patients on a broad range of health care issues, including but not limited to broader immunization against disease, financial and quality standards for insurance plans, continuity of patient care, MICRA, health care reform and implementation of electronic health records, and protecting the physician-patient relationship in health care decisions.
Today, the county medical societies and the CMA have more than 35,000 members in all modes of practice and specialties representing California patients. A united front among physicians presents a huge voice and is what makes organized medicine so unique and influential on a local, state, and federal level.
I welcome your feedback; email your comments to admin@sbcms.org.
