Physicians were encouraged to provide their information to the AMA from its inception. The original information was kept on 4″x6″ cards until 1969, when it was computerized. The directories were published periodically (2-8 year intervals). The information contained in each contemporary volume may differ slightly. In 1987, the Library and Information Management division began to convert the old cards to an electronic database. The first group was for those physicians who died between 1804 and 1929, and has been published as The Directory of Deceased American Physicians: 1804-1929<\/i>. This directory has additional information summarized, including information about obituaries in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)<\/i>.
Perhaps the most useful of these for genealogical research is The<\/i> AMA Directory of Deceased Physicians<\/i>, 1804-1929, in 2 volumes, published 1993. Listings are alphabetical.
The items listed are: [1] name \/ date of death (gender) [2] place of death [3] date of birth [4] place of birth [5] type of practice [6] practice specialties [7] board specialties [8] states and years of licensure [9] places and dates of practice [10] hospital affiliations [11] medical school (and “G” means graduate) [12] other education [13] professorships [14] JAMA citation for obituary, where it is “vol:page” [15] licensure action [16] cause of death [17] death notice information (M) AMA Member. Not every space is filled in for every physician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sample listing:
GALEHOUSE, Frank Clark; 7\/29\/24 (M); [2] Long Beach, CA; [3] 11\/1\/1872; [4] Vallejo, CA; [5] Allopath; [8] CA 1903; NV; [9] Fresno, CA 1903, San Rafael, CA 1909, Taft, CA 10\/1\/1913; Santa Rosa, CA 5\/12\/1922; [11] College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 1902 (G); [12] public schools; [14] 83:1018; [16] cirrhosis, liver (M).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AMA Directory of Physicians, published periodically since 1904, is a geographically<\/b> based directory. Physicians are listed by city within a given state. If you know the city, a search is fairly easy; searching the index if you don’t know the city and have a common name can take a while. Each edition has a listing of the medical schools and their shorthand listing. The shorthand may change over the years, as various states were admitted to the US. The current listing of states includes the US Territories as well (Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) so Wyoming is [53?]. This is great if you know where someone was, and just want more details, or an exact address. It can be particularly helpful for military physicians, since there are still only so many places they can be stationed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sample listings:
1d\/1904: McSWAIN, Thomas Omar; Visalia CA: Cal.7,’99; l’99 office First National Bank Bldg; 1-4
(edition\/year: Name; City: school, grad year, licensed year; home address, office address, office hours)
In this case, “Cal.7” is the College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21d\/1961: MONTY, Anthony Jack; San Jose CA 12; 278 N. 2nd St; 01 025-06-27 28 C* D03 D05 1T +
(edition\/year: Name; City; office address; 01 – school\/grad license – specialty – professional orgs – full\/parttime – member)
In this case, 025-06-27 is Nebraska’s sixth school, Creighton, graduating in 1927, licensed 1928, Specialty Cardiology (* = board certified), D03 and D05 are two specialty organizations, 1T is full time specialist, and + is AMA member<\/p>\n\n\n\n

32d\/1990: DOYLE, Christine Anne; San Francisco CA; Univ CA San Francisco-GS 94143 #030-06 GS *011
(edition\/year: Name; City; office address – #school – specialty – practice type)
In this case, #030-06 is still<\/i> Creighton, but Nebraska is now the 30th state. GS is General Surgery, *011 means that the person is in their first year of post-doctoral training (internship).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:
[1] Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 26d, 1995 (Williams & Wilkins).
[2] The Directory of Deceased American Physicians: 1804-1929, Introduction, pages v-x, published 1993 by the AMA.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n