The Association of Pediatric Program Directors: The First 25 Years

Abstract

In the early 1970s, the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) had no mechanism for communicating with directors of the more than 200 residency programs. Communication existed between the ABP and the medical school department chairs through the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs (AMSPDC), but this mechanism did not extend to the numerous nonuniversity programs. Between 1974 and 1982, the ABP sponsored 4 conferences for program directors. At the meeting in 1978, the feasibility of forming an association of program directors was raised, with particular interest expressed by individuals in nonuniversity programs, and, in 1983, the ABP Program Directors Liaison Committee recommended to the ABP leadership that a program directors' association be formed.