The American Medical Association's Section on Surgery: The Beginnings of the Organization, Professionalization, and Specialization of Surgery in the United States.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the founding of the American Medical Association's Section on Surgery in 1859 and how it represented, on a national basis, the beginnings of organized surgery and the formal start of the professionalization and specialization of surgery in the United States.

BACKGROUND

The broad social process of organization, professionalization, and specialization that began for various disciplines in America in the mid-19th century was a reaction to emerging economic, political, and scientific influences including industrialization, urbanization, and technology. For surgeons or, at least, those men who performed surgical operations, the efforts toward group organization provided a means to promote their skills and restrict competition.

METHODS

An analysis of the published literature, and unpublished documents relating to the creation of the American Medical Association's Section on Surgery.

RESULTS

During the 1850s and through the 1870s, a time when surgery was still not considered a separate branch of medicine, the organization of the American Medical Association's Section on Surgery provided the much needed encouragement to surgeons in their quest for professional and specialty recognition.

CONCLUSIONS

The establishment of the American Medical Association's Section on Surgery in 1859 helped shape the nationwide future of the craft, in particular, surgery's rise as a specialty and profession.