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From SourceWatch

The American Medical Association (AMA) is the main professional trade group representing American doctors. The AMA publishes a medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Contents 1 A facelift for the AMA 2 AMA and tobacco 3 Landmark article on adverse drug reactions 4 Contact details 5 Articles & sources 5.1 SourceWatch Resources 5.2 References 5.3 External links

A facelift for the AMA

"Hoping to improve its image and boost sagging membership, the American Medical Association is launching a $60 million marketing campaign that includes heartstring-tugging ads that portray doctors as 'everyday heroes.'" The ads, which will be run nationally on television and radio and in magazines, "emphasize the nobility of the profession," explained an AMA marketing executive.

One TV ad features "soaring music" and images of "a tiny premature baby grabbing a doctor's finger." Other campaign aspects include a logo redesign and "routine meetings with doctors around the country to hear what is on their minds." AMA's membership has dropped for the past five years. [1]

AMA and tobacco

The AMA has concluded that nicotine is addictive.(Barron's, 5/16/94). In 1985, the AMA called for a complete ban on the advertising and promotion of cigarettes (L. White, Merchants of Death, 1988). The AMA's House of Delegates first passed a resolution calling for FDA control of tobacco in 1989. Randolph Smoak Jr., M.D., a physician and officer with the AMA in 1994, said the AMA was calling for immediate federal action against tobacco by the FDA, to regulate tobacco. The AMA started an intensified anti-tobacco effort in March of 1994.(Wall Street Journal, 6/7/94). The AMA directed the Smokeless States Program, a private-sector effort funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at reducing tobacco use nationwide. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded $10 million to coalitions in 19 states to promote local campaigns against tobacco use. Most states targeted their efforts toward persuading adolescents not to start smoking or chewing tobacco.(Dow Jones, 8/15/94).

Thomas Houston was the director of Smokeless States in 1994 and was in the AMA's Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health.(Dow Jones, 8/15/94).

Landmark article on adverse drug reactions

A landmark article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 15, 1998 titled, Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients evaluated serious and fatal adverse drug reactions in U.S. hospitals during 1994. The study revealed that in 1994, adverse drug reactions accounted for 2,216,000 serious events and 106,000 deaths in this country. ^[1] See also Medical Industrial Complex, section 5 on Drugs, vaccines, health issues & animal testing .

Contact details

American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Phone: 800-621-8335
Web: http://www.ama-assn.org

Articles & sources

SourceWatch Resources

• Journal of the American Medical Association
• Pharmaceutical industry
• American Tort Reform Association
• Direct-to-consumer advertising
• Drug industry
• Eli Lilly's Grants and Contributions (US)/Organizations Names Beginning With A-K
• Medical Journals and Conflicts of Interest
• Medical paper ghostwriting
• Medical Industrial Complex

References

1. ↑ David Perlmutter, M.D., Perlmutter Health Center Pharmaceutical Drugs - A Prescription for Danger, A Quarterly Health Update, Summer 1998; Vol. 3 No. 3

External links

• Lindsay Tanner, "AMA Seeks Fresh Image With 'Heroes' Ads", Associated Press, June 16, 2005.
• Jeanne Lenzer, "American Medical Association rejects proposal to ban consumer adverts for prescription medicines", British Medical Journal, Volume 331 No 7, July 2, 2005.

This article may include information from Tobacco Documents Online.