Argentine Medical Association
Encyclopedia
The Argentine Medical Association (Asociación Médica Argentina) is the principal professional association of physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

s in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It is a medical non-profit organization with headquarters in Buenos Aires.

Overview

Tha group was founded on September 5, 1891, as the Sociedad Mèdica Argentina by a conference of doctors in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 led by Dr. Pedro F. Roberts, an opthalmologist, and Doctors José Penna and Alfredo Lagarde. Though the society was preceded by the Buenos Aires National Academy of Medicine
Buenos Aires National Academy of Medicine
The Buenos Aires National Academy of Medicine is an Argentine non-profit organization and learned society.-Overview:The National Academy of Medicine is the oldest medical Academy in Argentina, and was founded in Buenos Aires in 1822, coinciding with the establishment of the University of Buenos...

 (founded in 1822), the former was founded with a focus on advocacy
Advocacy
Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...

 on behalf of the nation's medical professionals, and was a response to hardships imposed by the Panic of 1890
Panic of 1890
The Panic of 1890 was an acute depression, although less serious than other panics of the era. It was precipitated by the near insolvency of Barings Bank in London. Barings, led by Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke, faced bankruptcy in November 1890 due mainly to excessive risk-taking on poor...

. Although the founding conference debated the possibility of establishing the society as a guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

 or trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, these options were discarded in favor of creating a professional association and learned society
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...

.

The society was initially composed of 106 members, and was housed within the Illuminated Block
Illuminated Block
The Illuminated Block is a historical landmark in the Monserrat neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.-History:The Society of Jesus arrived in the newly-founded village of Buenos Ayres in 1608, establishing their first mission on a 2 hectare lot which had earlier been aside by Spanish...

, a historic, Jesuit center of learning; among its founding members was Dr. Juan B. Justo
Juan B. Justo
Juan Bautista Justo was an Argentine physician, journalist, politician, and writer. After finishing medical school he joined the Unión Cívica Radical, later participating in the foundation of the Socialist Party in 1896, of which he was chief director until his death...

, later a leader of the Socialist Party of Argentina. It relocated to offices of its own in 1892, and as it grew, it became legally necessary to have the society succeed to the Argentine Medical Association, a name adopted by an assembly held on August 13, 1913. The Buenos Aires city government granted it a valuable Santa Fe Avenue
Santa Fe Avenue
Avenida Santa Fe is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The artery is essential to the imaginary axis of Barrio Norte in Buenos Aires, comprising the areas influenced by the route of the avenue through Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, it is considered one of...

 lot for the construction of new offices in 1917, and the following year, new headquarters were inaugurated.

The new facilities allowed the association to grow, and by 1923, over 1,000 physicians had become members. Six societies comprised the association in 1919: internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

, surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...

, radiology
Radiology
Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

, and ophthalmology
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...

. Societies of urology
Urology
Urology is the medical and surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to diagnose, treat, and manage patients with urological...

 and otolaryngology
Otolaryngology
Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....

 were added in 1922, and later, toxicology
Toxicology
Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...

 (1926), and pharmacology
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 (1928). Dr. Carlos Mainini's tenure (1936-42) was marked by a notable expansion of the group's academic activities, including the establishment of the societies of orthopedic surgery
Orthopedic surgery
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system...

, endocrinology
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...

, nutrition science, and mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

, as well as the Argentine Society of Medical History. The Argentine Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery
Argentine Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery
Argentine Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery is a medical nonprofit association, which includes doctors specializing in plastic surgery in Argentina.- Origins and history :...

 was inducted in 1952.

The institution grew to include 43 societies, 7 associations, and 25 committees; over 37,000 physicians (over a fourth of the nation's total) were members. The association issues accreditation
Hospital accreditation
Hospital accreditation has been defined as “A self-assessment and external peer assessment process used by health care organizations to accurately assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and to implement ways to continuously improve”...

 to health facilities nationwide, and since 1950, operates the school of Continuing Medical Education
Continuing medical education
Continuing medical education refers to a specific form of continuing education that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. These activities may take place as live events, written publications, online programs, audio, video, or...

, which offers 60 courses to over 2,000 students yearly (including around 300 from overseas). Its periodical, the Revista de la Sociedad Médica Argentina has been published since October 1891, and its library, opened in 1917, houses over 25,000 volumes.

General features

This scientific society was created in 1891 to promote medical science and improve health.

It carried scientific sessions to disseminated information, advances and various aspects of medicine.

It is composed of sections and / or subsidiaries representing different medical specialties and subspecialties. Their number is increasing, in view of the complexity that medical science takes every day.

Is a center for teaching in different medical specialties. Basically, it performs continuing medical education and postgraduate education.

The AMA members require being doctors and having a behavior, honesty and morality of the profession itself.

Objectives

They stand out in AMA statute the following:

1. Contribute to the progress of medicine and encourage scientific research.

2. Celebrating scientific activities by facilitating the exchange among its members in medical specialties.

3. Contribute to teaching medical in the country.

4. Publish the works of scientific interest to disseminate knowledge and encourage medical research.

5. To promote scientific relations with other similar foreign societies.

Organizational structure

It consists of a General Assembly, a Steering Committee and a Board of AMA.

The administration of the AMA is in charge of a Steering Committee headed by a chairman. It is elected by the majority of the members present at the Ordinary General Assembly.

The Council of the AMA is constituted by the Committee and the chairmen of the Sections and Subsidiaries.

The current President of the AMA is Prof. Dr. Elias Hurtado Hoyo.

Sections

To organize scientific efforts in each specialty or discipline sections are created.

These sections are increasingly important and popular because of the unceasing progress and development of health sciences.

In them, they develop conferences, round tables and complex clinical cases also for discussed by the attendees and encouraging colleague’s diagnosis and medical treatment. They also developed seminars, courses and other educational activities.

Graduate School of AMA

The EGAMA began in 1977. Brings together and coordinates all formal educational activities carried out at AMA. Some of them are specialists in different disciplines. Its current Director is Prof. Dr. Armando Arata.

Journal of the Medical Association of Argentina

It is the official publication of AMA. Professionals use it to dump its expertise in scientific articles in various fields.

The magazine is distributed to all partners. Four issues were published per year and is quarterly appearance. The current editor is Prof. Dr. Alfredo Buzzi.
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