The Pima County Medical Society is one of Tucson's oldest institutions.
In 1903 the American Medical Association made it a "responsibility of
professionalism" to belong to a county medical society. If one did not exist,
then physicians were charged with starting one.
In 1904 Yavapai and Pima counties got on the stick. Physicians there started
county medical societies to "gather in one place all the reputable regular
physicians" in order to increase science, protect the public health and to
place medicine in the "high light" to which learning entitles it. Other
counties (except Maricopa which had started in 1891) started societies before
1910.
Since 1904 Pima County Medical Society has been a gathering place for
physicians to address concerns.
Some highlights include:
- Calling for, in 1909, a state lab so disease outbreaks could positively
identified
- Working for, in 1919, better quarantine laws as they battled at great risk
the influenza outbreak
- Helping to establish, in 1929, the nation's first city/county health
department
- Agreeing to staff and run - at no charge - Pima County Hospital from
1939-1961
- Buying vaccine and giving it to kids in 1963, making Tucson the first
polio-free metro area in the United States
- Creating the first HMO and attempting to end the notch group in 1975
- Treating striking miners and their families for free in 1983
- Working to pass Prop. 203 in 1996
- Creating a referral network for those without insurance today
