AΩA Charter
History
When William Webster Root and five other medical students
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago organized
Alpha Omega Alpha in 1902, "excellence" was hardly the word that
would describe American medical education. Indeed, the founder
viewed the society as a protest against "a condition which associated
the name medical student with rowdyism, boorishness, imi-noratity,
and low educational ideals."
Of the approximately 25,000 medical students in the United States
at the turn of the century, no more than 15 percent were college
graduates. The only requirement in most schools was a high school
diploma "or its equivalent," the latter often meaning the ability to
pay the fee. The schools themselves -there were about 150- were by and
large of dubious quality. In his landmark study of medical education
in the United States and Canada, published in 1910, Abraham Flexner
found so-called medical schools located in storefronts, tenements,
and warehouses, their laboratory equipment consisting of a couple of
microscopes, some mouldy slides, and a lonely skeleton. With a few
exceptions, notably Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, founded in 1893,
the medical school curriculum consisted of series lectures, sometimes
supplemented by demonstrations at the bedside or in the laboratory,
if such existed.
These, then, were the circumstances under which Root and his fellow
medical students met to form a society that Would foster honesty and
formulate higher ideals of scholastic achievement. Chartered in 1903
by the state of Illinois, Alpha Omega Alpha's growth has paralleled the
development of American medical education. Within a decade after the
society was founded, chapters were established at seventeen medical
schools. At present there are 105 active chapters in the United States
and Canada
Today, when students and established physicians alike reject easy
platitudes, the tenets of the society are more relevant than ever. As
framed by Root, they are a modern interpretation of the Hippocratic
oath:
"It is the duty of members to foster the scientific and
philosophical features of the medical profession, to look beyond self
to the welfare of the profession and of the public, to cultivate social
mindedness, as well as individualistic attitude toward responsibilities,
to show respect for colleagues, especially for elders and teachers, to
foster research and in all ways to ennoble the profession of medicine
and advance it in public opinion. It is equally a duty to avoid that
which is unworthy, including the commercial spirit and all practices
injurious to the welfare of patients, the public, or the profession."
"Worthy to serve the suffering"
| 
