IN TWO weeks, JAMA will present the "MDs of the Millennium," the 12 physicians and scientists who, in one medical historian's informed opinion, represented turning points in the development of medicine. There are no representatives from this century, and the last of these great physicians—Robert Koch—died in 1902, shortly before the newly formed American Medical Association (AMA) (founded in 1847) embarked on its mission to write the Flexner Report and replace the nation's diploma mills.
Since coming of age with the writing of the Flexner Report in 1914, the AMA has changed often. Another new beginning was signaled this month in Honolulu when delegates to the 1989 Interim Meeting accepted a report from the Board of Trustees announcing the retirement within 16 months of Executive Vice President (EVP) James Harris Sammons, MD, who is 62. Sammons' impact on the AMA has been so great that his leaving surely will represent