The American Medical Association (AMA) faced an
identity crisis at its interim meeting in Dallas. What is the value of
its name? What does the name American Medical Association mean? What is
the AMA? Is it a moneymaking entity that lobbies for doctors? Or is it
a professional association that upholds the ethical standards that are
expected of its members?
A contract to endorse Sunbeam products brought the issues to a
head. In August, AMA top officials announced the so-called
"cobranding" or endorsement contract that would have put the AMA
name and logo on consumer medical products. There was no plan to
test the products, and it also violated an unwritten 40-year-old
rule against product endorsements by the group. The AMA Board of
Trustees hastily canceled the contract in September.
In the resulting furor, four top officials of the organization
resigned. A week before the AMA interim meeting in Dallas, the AMA's
top paid executive, P. John Seward, MD, also resigned after the New
Jersey delegation to the meeting introduced a resolution calling for
his ouster as well as that of AMA chairman Thomas Reardon, MD.
The AMA committee that heard the complaints of members about the
contract during the meeting convened beyond its planned adjournment
time as physician after physician lambasted the AMA board and executive
staff for selling the organization's name.
Arnold Relman, MD, former editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine, was the first speaker, in an unaccustomed appearance
before the body. "In my opinion,
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