MedChi

The Maryland State Medical Society, commonly known as MedChi, is the Maryland state-level affiliate of the American Medical Association. Its purpose is to represent the interests of physicians and protect the citizens in the state of Maryland from unscrupulous and untrained practitioners holding themselves out as health care providers. MedChi is a shortened form of The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.^[1] MedChi has offices in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland.

History

MedChi was founded in January 1799 in Annapolis by 101 leaders of the medical profession in Maryland. The physicians who started the organization represented most of Maryland's counties.^[2] The Maryland Legislature approved a petition for a charter for an incorporated society of physicians in Maryland to be known as the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland. (Chirurgical was the common spelling of surgical at the time.) The society became the seventh of its kind in the country. MedChi is composed of 24 component medical societies, plus international medical graduates, residents, and medical students sections.^[1] MedChi's House of Delegates elects its president each year. The president must be a Maryland physician.^[3]

Staff

Current MedChi staff includes:

• Gene M. Ransom III - CEO
• Harbhajan (Harry) S. Ajrawat, M.D., president^[4]
• Debra Sciabarrasi - chief of staff
• Stephen H. Johnson - general counsel, director of Law & Advocacy Division

Notable past presidents

• Richard Sprigg Steuart (president 1848-49, 1850–51), founder of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, now known as Spring Grove Hospital Center
• William H. Welch (president 1891-92), first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• Sir William Osler (president 1896-97), first physician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, described as the Father of Modern Medicine

Notes

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (June 2011)

References

• Md Med J. 1985 Sep;34(9):900-12. "Supporting Maryland physicians: the Med-Chi staff". Lehman E. PMID 3903416
• The Medical Annals of Maryland. 1799-1899. Prepared for the centennial of the medical and chirurgical faculty. by William Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy (1843–1913).

External links

• MedChi website
• Nottingham, England medical and chirurgical society

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