ACPM Timeline 1909 The death of Lt. Thomas Selfridge in an airplane accident causes U.S. Army doctors to begin understanding the importance of aviation medicine. 1915 The American Medical Association creates a section on Preventive Medicine and Public Health to recognize the link between public health efforts and preventing disease. 1916 The American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons is formed to represent the interests of the growing number of doctors in America ’s factories.  The organization would later change its name to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 1929 Military and civilian doctors form the Aviation Medicine Society – the predecessor of today’s Aerospace Medical Association – to study the relationship between flight and medicine. 1947 Thousands of flight surgeons commissioned during World War II transfer to the new United States Air Force. 1954 ACPM is founded in St. Petersburg , Florida .  Florida public health physician George A. Dame is the College’s first president. 1955 ACPM Charter Fellow Jonas Salk is featured on the cover of Time Magazine for his work in development of an effective polio vaccine. 1959 The U.S. Air Force opens its new School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks AFB , Texas . 1960 The New York Academy of Preventive Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine publicize their findings showing the first link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. 1962 ACPM develops an accreditation program for residency work in preventive medicine at the request of the Joint Residency Review Committee, the AMA Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM). 1964 The College celebrates its 10th anniversary shortly after enrolling its 1,200th member. 1965 The passage of Medicare gives the federal government a new role in the nation’s health care system. 1967 Congress sharply increases research funding for preventive medicine when it passes the Partnership for Health Act and the Cancer and Stroke Regional Medicine Program Act. 1970 Katherine Boucot Sturgis is elected ACPM ’s first female president. 1972 The creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the culmination of federal efforts to control air and water pollution and a spur to the growing awareness of the importance of environmental medicine. 1973 Congress passes the Occupational Safety and Health Act, part of a new societal recognition of the importance of workplace health and safety. 1975 Members attending the College’s annual conference in Chicago are allowed for the first time to take up to nine hours of accredited Continuing Medical Education sponsored by ACPM . 1976 A predicted swine flu epidemic never materializes, catching both the preventive medicine community and the federal government off guard. 1977 The College moves its national offices from Bryn Mawr , Pennsylvania to the nation’s capital. 1978 ACPM initiates its first five-year plan, laying the foundation for strategic planning during the next quarter century. 1980 The Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee reports that preventive medicine could see significant personnel shortages by 1990. 1984 PREVENTION ’84, sponsored jointly by ACPM and ATPM, debuts as a major national conference. 1985 The College and the ATPM jointly publish volume 1, number 1 of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 1989 ACPM ’s Graduate Medical Education subcommittee sets out on a decade-long quest to define the competencies preventive medicine residents need to master. 1990 Negotiations to merge ACPM and ATPM come to naught when ACPM members informally vote to remain independent. 1993 ACPM works closely with the Clinton Administration to design a comprehensive Health Care Reform Initiative. 1998 Hazel Keimowitz, the College’s executive director for much of the 1990s, resigns and is replaced by Jud Richland . 1999 The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Medical Specialists adopt the ACPM core competencies model as requirements for accreditation of residency programs nationwide. 2001 Ron Davis is ACPM ’s first fellow to win a seat on the AMA’s prestigious board of trustees. 2004 ACPM hosts its 50th annual conference in Orlando , just an hour’s drive east of St. Petersburg , the site for its organizing conference in 1954. Return to Top