Alberta Medical Association


The Alberta Medical Association is a provincial affiliate of the Canadian Medical Association, established in 1889 in the Canadian province of Alberta. It describes itself as an "advocate for its physician members, providing leadership and support for their role in the provision of quality health care".
The Alberta Medical Association was formed in 1906, as the Canadian Medical Association, Alberta Division and serves as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. It was predated by the North West Territories Medical Association founded in 1889 at a Canadian Medical Association meeting at Banff. The association supported prepaid health insurance in the 1940s, and its advocacy helped bring about the government-created Medical Services Incorporated. The group's name was formally changed to the Alberta Medical Association in the 1960s.

Mandate and mission

It describes itself as an "advocate for its physician members, providing leadership and support for their role in the provision of quality health care".

Affiliations

It is a provincial affiliate of the Canadian Medical Association, is a national, voluntary association of physicians that advocates on behalf of physicians and their patients on key health issues.

Background

At an 1889 Canadian Medical Association meeting held in Banff, Alberta the North West Territories Medical Association was founded.
In 1906, the Canadian Medical Association, Alberta Division was formed, as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
In the 1960s, the organization changed its name to the Alberta Medical Association.

Medical history

Pioneering Alberta doctors

, maintained a private practice in Edmonton, Alberta from 1898 until he died in 1917. He served in what was then the North-Western Territory, as a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk and surgeon and spent over three decades there—from 1864 to 1898, eventually becoming the HBC Factor in Fort Chipewyan. He was one of several physicians from Scotland who practiced medicine in Alberta.
Early pioneers in AMA's history include Dr. Lorne Tyrrell b. 1943-, who was awarded with the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2000, became an officer in the Order of Canada in 2002, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004, and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2011, and was a Killam Prize winner in 2015. His research into viral hepatitis and the subsequent development of the oral antiviral drug lamivudine, enabled the use of liver transplants for persons infected with Hepatitis B, saved thousands of lives. Tyrrell