History of NASPAG: Society for Adolescent Medicine founded in 1968
Society for Adolescent Medicine founded in 1968
The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAM, now SAHM) was founded in 1968 as one of the first organizations solely devoted to adolescent healthcare, from which NASPAG would eventually stem. SAHM is a multidisciplinary organization committed to improving the physical and psychosocial health and well-being of all adolescents. Important reproductive health issues at the time were adolescent pregnancy, birth control, abnormal Pap smears and reproductive endocrine disorders.
Over the decade of the 1970s in the USA, a few academic departments of pediatrics established adolescent medicine services that provided clinical care including office gynecology to adolescent patients and trained several fellows as subspecialists in adolescent medicine.
The Society’s journal, Journal of Adolescent Health, was established in 1980
The development of adolescent medicine and SAHM preceded NASPAG and incorporated much gynecology training for physicians caring for female children and teens and set the stage for NASPAG's development.
Fellowships: 1951 – 1st Adolescent Medicine program in the U.S. Dr. Ross Gallagher, a school physician at Andover, recruited by Dr. Charles Janeway to start an Adolescent Unit (1st President, Society for Adolescent Medicine).
1998- The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, through its Pediatric Residency Review Committee process, accredited 16 adolescent medicine fellowship training programs. There are now 31 AM Fellowship Programs.
1994- the first examination for certification in the Subspecialty of Adolescent Medicine was given by the American Board of Pediatrics.
Up next: