"S" is for South Carolina Medical Association

"S" is for South Carolina Medical Association. In 1814, members of the Medical Society of South Carolina—largely a Charleston organization—founded the South Carolina Medical Association (SCMA) in an effort to organize physicians across the state. The object of the association was to advance the “common interests of the medical profession in South Carolina.” SCMA evolved into an influential professional body, providing leadership and support in statewide efforts to combat epidemic and endemic disease, build hospitals, provide vaccinations/inoculations and school examinations for children, improve medical and nursing education, and educate the public on medical matters. Since 1905, SCMA has published the Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association, the oldest medical journal in the South. Today, more than seventy percent of the licensed physicians in South Carolina were members of the South Carolina Medical Association.