1954 Robert H. Williams, MD—Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine—founds APM, which was initially called the “Academic Medicine Club.” A select group of chairs is invited to join the association and discuss issues.
1960 APM invites chairs of departments of internal medicine from every medical school to join the association.
APM begins to hold a meeting each spring in conjunction with the concurrent meetings of the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the American Federation for Clinical Research (the Tri-Societies).
APM elects a Council and Chair.
1965 Recently retired from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Williams is appointed APM’s first executive secretary.
Maxwell Wintrobe, MD—Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine—is elected to serve as the association’s first president. APM begins to operate from the office of the association’s secretary-treasurer.
APM begins public policy efforts.
1968 Dr. Williams resigns as APM Executive Secretary and no successor is named.
1970 APM creates its first standing committees.
Dr. Williams receives the association’s first “Distinguished Chair of Medicine Award,” which recognizes “a physician who has demonstrated outstanding leadership as the chair of a department of internal medicine.”
1971 Recently retired as the Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Jack D. Myers, MD, becomes APM Executive Secretary. Robert G. Petersdorf, MD—Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine—chronicles the association’s history in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
1973 Dr. Myers resigns as APM Executive Secretary and no successor is named. APM continues to operate from the office of the association’s secretary-treasurer.
1974 The APM membership adopts the association’s bylaws.
1976 Under the direction of Alvin Tarlov, MD—Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago School of Medicine—the APM Manpower Task Force begins the National Study of Internal Medicine Manpower (NaSIMM).
APM helps form the Federated Council for Internal Medicine (FCIM), which includes APM, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and the American Society of Internal Medicine (ASIM). Later, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM), the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), and the Association of Subspecialty Professors (ASP) join FCIM.
1977 APM becomes the first client of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Constituent Services Program. As a result, APM moves its headquarters to the AAMC office in Washington, DC. AAMC staff serve as APM Executive Secretary on a part-time basis.
In addition to meeting with the Tri-Societies’, APM begins to meet in conjunction with the AAMC’s fall conference.
1980 APM hires AAMC staff to oversee the association’s public policy efforts.
1984 APM plays a major role in modifying legislation concerning animal welfare in research.
1985 APM ends its relationship with AAMC and contracts with ACP for management and advocacy.
1988 APM ends its relationship with ACP and contracts with Smith, Bucklin & Associates (SBA), the nation’s largest association management firm. For the first time, APM has assigned staff.
The association creates a quarterly newsletter called APM Update.
APM stops meeting in the fall during the AAMC conference.
1989 APM holds its first winter meeting at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ.
During the 1989 APM Winter Meeting, Norton J. Greenberger, MD, initiates the APM New Chairs Program. James E. Lewis, PhD, succeeds Dr. Greenberger as the program’s leader in 1993, Robert L. Wortmann, MD; succeeds Dr. Lewis in 1996; John B. O’Connell, MD, succeeds Dr. Wortmann in 2001; and Jonathan I. Ravdin, MD, succeeds Dr. O’Connell, MD in 2002.
1990 Besides continuing its public policy and workforce efforts, APM expands its activities to include residency curriculum, financing for graduate medical education, and the recruitment of under-represented minorities to academic internal medicine.
APM Council begins to meet monthly by conference call.
The association revamps its quarterly newsletter, APM Update.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Registry Resort in Naples, FL.
1991 APM holds its first strategic planning retreat. The APM Council constitutes itself, plus two invited APM members, as the association’s strategic planning committee; the council chooses an outside facilitator for the retreat. The 1991 APM Strategic Planning Committee agrees that the association should “take a leadership role in academic internal medicine and become a primary voice for preserving the intellectual base of the specialty.” The committee also recommends that APM “increase revenues and work with other organizational elements within departments of internal medicine.” Finally, the committee proposed that APM create an Executive Council (the officers and two at-large councilors) and Board of Directors (the Executive Council, Committee Chairs, and three at-large members).
APM and AAMC cosponsor a retreat on internal medicine curriculum reform.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, AZ.
1992 The APM membership approves changes to the association’s bylaws, implementing the 1991 APM Strategic Planning Committee’s Final Report.
APM adopts the goal of ensuring 50 percent of all physicians are generalists (family physicians, general internists, or general pediatricians) and that the number of residency positions in the United States is capped at 110 percent of the graduates of US medical schools. In the July 1993 edition of The American Journal of Medicine, Robert G. Luke, MD, Jim Terwilliger, and Tod Ibrahim publish “Beyond the 50 Percent Solution” to articulate APM’s position on the physician workforce.
The APM Board of Directors meets for the first time.
The association creates the APM-Industry Roundtable. Intended to serve as a forum for discussing the common concerns of the academic internal medicine community, the pharmaceutical industry, and the biotechnology industry, the roundtable is disbanded in 1998.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel, CA.
1993 APM becomes the official sponsor of The American Journal of Medicine (AJM).
Cosponsored by Merck & Company, the association holds the APM Geriatrics Curriculum Development Conference.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Turnberry Isle Resort and Club in Aventura, FL.
1994 APM revises its bylaws to allow chairs of departments of internal medicine at affiliated teaching hospitals to become affiliate members.
Sponsored by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, APM holds the Executive Management Program for Chairs of Departments of Medicine at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. APM continues the weeklong program at Wharton until 1997, when it becomes two-day long sessions prior to each of the association’s meetings.
APM initiates its annual fall symposium series by holding a conference to address “How Academic Internal Medicine Can Succeed in a Capitated Environment.”
APM holds a winter meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, CA.
1995 APM stops meeting in the spring in conjunction with the Tri-Societies’.
Working with the APM-Industry Roundtable, APM creates the Clinical Research Scholars Program for Young Investigators, which is ended in 1997.
R. Neil Cronin, Richard L. Gengenbach, and J. Michael Gorman are the first recipients of the APM Special Recognition Award, which honors non-members who have contributed to the association.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, CA, and fall symposium on “The Future Role of Subspecialists in Departments of Internal Medicine” in Leesburg, VA.
1996 APM creates the Academic Contract Research Organization (ACRO), a for-profit subsidiary to help departments of internal medicine generate clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
APM renegotiates its contract as the official sponsor of AJM.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ, and fall symposium on “Biomedical Research in Academic Departments of Internal Medicine: Challenges and Solutions” in Leesburg, VA.
1997 APM finalizes matrix management agreements with the Association of Subspecialty Professors, Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine, and Administrators of Internal Medicine.
APM leaves SBA and establishes a freestanding office in a building owned by AAMC. APDIM agrees to share the same suite as APM, ASP, CDIM, and AIM, while SGIM decides to move to the same floor in the AAMC-owned building.
APM receives a four-year, $1.3 million contract from the Health Resources and Services Administration to develop a faculty development program for community-based teachers.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, FL, and fall symposium on “Do Departments of Internal Medicine Fit in Integrated Delivery Systems” in Chicago, IL.
1998 APM, APDIM, ASP, CDIM, and AIM form the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM).
APM, APDIM, and ASP begin a “stakeholders” movement to reform residency and fellowship accreditation.
ACRO and the Canadian Medical Laboratories (CML) form the Academic Network for Clinical Research (ANCR), a site management organization to promote industry-sponsored clinical trials in departments of internal medicine. ACRO and CML terminate ANCR in 2001.
The association revises its bylaws to broaden eligibility for potential affiliate members.
APM creates the Medical Education Regulatory and Legislative Information Network (Merlin), a weekly email update for APM members on how events “inside the Beltway” affect academic internal medicine.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Sunburst Resort in Scottsdale, AZ, and fall symposium on “Departments of Internal Medicine: Practical Solutions to Challenging Problems” in Leesburg, VA.
1999 APM partners with the University HealthSystem Consortium to develop benchmark data on faculty productivity.
APM attempts to build a “strategic alliance” with ABIM and ACP-ASIM.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel and Spa in Pasadena, CA, and fall symposium on “Mentoring, Solving Problems, and Establishing Culture in Departments of Internal Medicine” in Toronto, ON.
2000 APM revises its bylaws to streamline the association’s leadership structure to eliminate the association’s executive council, restructure the APM Board of Directors, reduce the number of APM committees (from six to four), and increase the number of At-Large Members of the association’s Board of Directors (from three to four). As a result of these changes, APM reduces the “ascension” time for the association’s presidents from six years to four years.
APM and APDIM negotiate profit-sharing agreement with ACP-ASIM over joint Internal Medicine In-Training Examination.
APM creates the Academic Internal Medicine Job Bank, which provides all AAIM members a forum to disseminate information about open positions (clinical, educational, research, and administrative) in departments of internal medicine.
The association establishes APM e-Update, a bimonthly electronic newsletter. As a result, the association begins to publish APM Update on a semiannual basis.
APM completes staff structure with hiring of 10th staff member.
For the first time, the five AAIM members—APM, APDIM, ASP, CDIM, and AIM—hold concurrent meetings. The AAIM leadership agrees to continue holding concurrent fall meetings on a biennial basis.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami, FL, and fall symposium on “Educating Ourselves as well as Our Students, Residents, and Fellows” in Washington, DC.
2001 APM receives support from the Merck Company Foundation to initiate the AAIM-Merck Executive Leadership Program.
APM renegotiates its contract as the official sponsor of AJM.
APM Board of Directors agrees that the association’s 2001 Strategic Planning Retreat should revisit the results of the 1991 retreat, which was a watershed moment for the association. To organize retreat, the board appoints a planning committee.
APM holds Winter Meeting at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ.
2002 APM and APDIM agree to unify staffs under AAIM. As a result, one staff administers APM, APDIM, ASP, CDIM, and AIM.
For the first time, APM creates long-range planning committee. The committee is charged with developing a proposal to continue the association’s evolution from the “Academic Medicine Club” to a mission-based organization.
APM holds Winter Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA.
2003 APM contacts the AAMC Council of Deans about future evolutions in the organization of medical schools, particularly the affect of centers, institutes, and interdepartmental structures on departments. Related to this topic, APM publishes a two-part commentary in AJM, “Centers, Institutes, and the Future of Clinical Departments.”
Led by APM, AAIM holds a summit with Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Research and Development Officer to expressed research community’s concerns about several new initiatives in the VA Office of Research and Development.
APM agrees to fold its semiannual newsletter (APM Update) into Academic Internal Medicine Insight. Published quarterly by AAIM, Insight addresses issues related to the alliance, the associations (APM, APDIM, ASP, CDIM, and AIM), faculty and staff, and departments of internal medicine.
APM Board of Directors approves the association’s long-range plan. APM Board seeks feedback on the plan from leaders in the academic medical and internal medicine communities.
APM holds a winter meeting at the Four Seasons Resort in Santa Barbara, CA, and fall symposium on “Balancing Centers, Institutes, and Departmental Integrity” in Savannah, GA.
APM launches APM Education and Research Fund