American Medical Writers Association

The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) is a professional association for medical communicators, with more than 5,600 members in the United States, Canada, and 26 other countries. AMWA is governed by a board of directors composed of a 14-member executive committee and representatives from its 19 US and Canadian chapters. The association was founded in 1940 by physicians interested in improving the quality of medical writing and editing. The current president is Douglas Haneline, PhD.

AMWA includes a variety of medical communicators, including administrators, advertisers, authors' editors, college and university professors, journal editors, pharmaceutical writers (and those involved in pharmaceutical publication planning), public relations specialists, publishers, reporters, researchers, statisticians, and translators. Many members are freelance writers and editors. Membership in AMWA is open to anyone interested in any aspect of medical communication.

AMWA's headquarters are located in Rockville, Maryland, United States.

On the evening of September 25, 1940, in the Mississippi River town of Rock Island, Illinois, Drs. Harold Swanberg, George B. Lake, N. C. Barwasser, Norman Zolla, Florence Johnson, and James Dunn organized the Mississippi Valley Medical Editors’ Association (MVMEA).

The MVMEA was absorbed by the new AMWA, which was formed at Springfield, Ill., September 29, 1948, during the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Medical Society in that city. At this time The Mississippi Valley Medical Journal was made the official publication of AMWA. During the 1948 meeting, Morris Fishbein, M.D., then editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association, gave a two-hour course on medical writing at the meeting. Dr. Fishbein was president of AMWA, 1958–1959.

Up until 1951, the constitution of AMWA was written so that only physicians could be members. The constitution adopted for 1951–1956 allowed, besides physicians, "medical librarians and health educators," and, importantly, "personnel of hospitals, foundations, technical companies and allied organizations, educational institutions, publishing and who are concerned with medical writing or publishing ..."

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