|
|
Our History
Oakland
County Medical Society members include approximately 2,000 practicing and non-practicing
physicians of all specialties throughout Oakland County. The Society works in
tandem with the Michigan State Medical Society, in affiliation with the American
Medical Association.
|
|
|
Our Purpose
The
purpose of the Oakland County Medical Society is
to empower physicians to better care for their patients. |
Our
Mission
To
advocate for physicians and the practice of quality
healthcare. |
Our
Vision
By improving health care delivery and consequent health, we improve
the quality of life in Oakland County. |
History
of the Oakland County Medical Society
In
1819, the Michigan Territorial Legislative Council
passed an act “to incorporate Medical Societies for
the purpose of regulating the Practice of Physic
and Surgery in the Territory of Michigan.” Under
this act, the medical Society of the Territory of
Michigan was organized in Detroit in August, 1819.
The law provided that licensed physicians in any
county,
upon application to the Territorial Medical Society,
were granted the right to form a county
society, which, within the limits of the county, had the same rights
as a parent society. On June 12, 1827, a group of physicians were granted
permission
to form the Washtenaw County Medical Society. And three years later,
in June, 1831, physicians William Thompson, David L. Porter, Thaddeus Thompson
and Ezra Parke were granted permission to organize a medical society
in the county of Oakland, the second county society in the Territory. Records
of the
Society’s activities during these early years are sketchy, but meetings
were held and officers were elected until about 1851, when the legislature
repealed
the medical law and thus deprived the medical societies of their former
power and privileges. The Medical Society of Michigan was formally dissolved
at a meeting in
May 1851.
The Michigan State Medical Society was organized in 1866. It encouraged
its members to study and record local climates, epidemic diseases and public
health problems. It demanded compliance with the Code of ethics of
the American Medical Society, insisted on improved standards for the University
of Michigan
Medical Department, and called for better treatment for the insane by building
state insane asylums. It initiated the demand for state and local boards
of health and the use of scientific knowledge to improve the daily
life of Michigan residents. Scientific papers read at its meeting attracted
scholarly members,
but the Society failed to attract and hold the majority of Michigan
physicians. The American Medical Association, founded in 1847, was reorganized
in 1901.
Its new constitution provided that any dues-paying member in good standing
of a local society affiliated with the state society could become a member
of the
Association. This encouragement from the AMA gave impetus to a surge in
membership for MSMS and the rebirth of the Oakland County Medical Society. At
an organized meeting held in the Council Chapter of the City of Pontiac,
September 9, 1902, the Oakland County Medical Society was organized and
its Constitution and By-Laws were adopted. Dr. Franklin B. Galbraith of Pontiac
was elected President.
The Society worked in public health, to eradicate diphtheria, to improve
maternal and child welfare, and to provide care for the indigent. OCMS
also worked with
the Oakland County Tuberculosis Sanitarium, helped with programs on inoculation
against polio, and worked with the American Cancer Society to plan for cancer detection.
The Bulletin, published without interruption since 1927, records the activities
and current issues of concern to the Society. In connection with the Society’s
sesquicentennial celebration in 1981, Ruth Howes of Oakland University,
Rochester, compiled a comprehensive history of the Oakland County Medical
Society. |
| Click
here to print OCMS history information |
|
|
|
