Cooperation and Coordination
ACP and ASIM Joint Projects
Throughout their histories, the ASIM and ACP have found
many opportunities to exchange ideas and to lend their support to
common projects and initiatives. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the
ACP provided space for ASIM news in the ACP Bulletin,
ACP Forum, and Annals. At ASIM's request, the ACP
for many years offered Group Insurance to ASIM members who were not
members of the ACP.
In the same spirit of cooperation, the two organizations jointly represented internists on the AMA Interspecialty Advisory Board. The positive relationship the ACP and ASIM formed through their work with the AMA led them, with ABIM and APM at their side, to establish the Federated Council for Internal Medicine (FCIM) in 1975. FCIM gave these organizations a forum in which to discuss socioeconomic issues and come to consensus when possible. FCIM developed several position papers or "white papers," including "The Internist and Primary Care" (1976), "The Health Manpower Study" (1978), and a "Statement on Geriatric Medicine" (1981).
In the 1980s and 1990s, ASIM and ACP continued to
support similar solutions to socioeconomic problems facing
internists. Differences in perspective, however, were apparent on a
small number of issues leading politicians to occasionally pit the
two organizations against one another. As long as the potential for
such divisiveness existed, the idea of merging would loom
large.
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