American Health Foundation Inc history

1893: APHA and the United States focus on the control of tuberculosis.

1895: APHA publishes the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Sewage.

1900: Walter Reed reports at the APHA Annual Meeting that mosquitoes carry yellow fever.

1905: APHA publishes the Standard Methods for the Examination of Milk.

1906: First federal Food and Drug Act passed; APHA publishes the American Journal of Public Hygiene.

1908: APHA’s standardized death certificate adopted by the United States Census.

1909: APHA publishes the Standard Methods for the Examination of Air.

1911: Journal of the American Public Health Association established, later becoming the American Journal of Public Health.

One of the CMB’s first actions, in 1915, was beginning the process of establishing the Peking Union Medical College.

The School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins was founded in 1916 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

According to the RF’s 1917 Annual Report, when construction was underway, “While the buildings will embody all the approved features of a modern medical center, the external forms have been planned in harmony with the best tradition of Chinese architecture.

Cleveland philanthropist Anna Harkness started the Commonwealth Fund in 1918 with a gift of nearly $10 million.

Over the next six years, the China Medical Board assembled a faculty of fifty professors and upgraded and enlarged the facilities of what was soon called the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). PUMC opened in 1919.

Wynder's biography shows that he was born in 1922 in Herford, Germany.

In 1923, a wealthy philanthropist’s funding helped make life-saving treatment for diabetes available to patients and doctors.

1925: APHA creates Appraisal Form for Local Health Work.

When the Commonwealth Fund launched its Division of Rural Hospitals in 1926, more than half of United States counties, many of them rural and impoverished, had no hospital at all.

Provided with a $12 million endowment and separately incorporated as CMB, Inc. when the Foundation was reorganized in 1928, the Board’s aim was to modernize medical education and to improve the practice of medicine in China.

1932: President Hoover speaks at APHA’s Annual Meeting.

Wynder studied under Evarts A. Graham, whose famous pioneering pneumonectomy patient in 1933 clearly showed evidence that infection was involved in his disease.

Doctor A.J. Warren, Assistant Director of the Foundation’s International Health Division, was the new vaccine’s first test subject in 1936.

Doctor Otto Kauders, under whom Stefan de Schill studied, circa 1940

1943: APHA sets qualification standards for health educators.

But it was not till 1947 that Doctor Kauders proposed de Schill to Broch and his directors.

Doctor Stefan de Schill circa 1948

Not long before his death, circa 1949, as Doctor de Schill accepted appointment as director of research for AMHF, the Viennese doctor traveled to the United States in search of research funds.

Visiting the foundation in 1950, Doctor Kauders declared the program to be one of the most promising projects of its time.

1956: National Library of Medicine established.

(Beginning in 1961, de Schill also served as vice president of the International Institute for Mental Health Research, Zurich and Geneva.)

1965: APHA publishes the first Public Health Law Manual.

Founded in 1969 by Ernst L. Wynder, Dietrich Hoffmann, and John H. Weisburger, the AHF epitomizes the Lasker Syndicate ideology of blaming chemical carcinogenesis and ignoring viruses.

[Gori headed the NCI's "smoking and Health" program since its beginning in 1970.

And as a native of Nazi Germany, Wynder got his ideology - as well as his pseudo-science - straight from the source! (Statement of Purpose, American Health Foundation, probable date 1971.)

American Health Foundation Newsletter 1972 AprilMay;4(2).)

1973: APHA cited in Supreme Court decision striking down most anti-abortion laws.

Report on luncheon meeting with Doctor Ernst Wynder of AHF, from Saul Warshaw to Bill Ruder, June 19, 1974.

Wynder was appointed a member of the American Cancer Society's "Task Force on Tobacco and Cancer" in June 1975. (Task Force on Tobacco and Cancer.

EL Wynder, SD Stellman. (manuscript, 1977.)

From 1978 until his death, Wynder was on the Editorial Board of Nutrition and Cancer, of which Gio B. Gori was the Editor.

Wynder participated in the Conference on the Primary Prevention of Cancer: Assessment of Risk Factors and Future Directions, at the American Health Foundation, June 7-8, 1979.

"In April 1980, a group of scientists met with the American Health Foundation Staff and Doctor Vincent DeVita, the Acting Director of the National Cancer Institute, to define preventive oncology and how preventive oncology could best evolve with the National Cancer Program.

Wynder was Chairman of the NCI's Ad Hoc Program Advisory Group on Passive Smoking in 1981.

Wynder assisted in the Office of Technology Assessment project on "Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health" in 1982.

1986: Former President Jimmy Carter speaks at Annual Meeting.

The first was the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (BLCA), a consortium the RBF had helped the New York Urban League establish in 1987.

In 1990, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company sponsored a conference on "Cancer Prevention for Black Americans: Risks and Reality." Former AHF trustee Charles B. Arnold, now medical director of MetLife and editor-in-chief of the company's Statistical Bulletin, was chairman.

The 1991 grant enabled BLCA to engage the Black media, create a newsletter, and create a computerized listing of AIDS services available to the community.

The Commonwealth Fund established its Women’s Health Program in 1992, and released the Survey of Women’s Health, the first comprehensive national survey to pay attention to the specific health needs of women.

1994: Medicine and Public Health Initiative established by the APHA and American Medical Association.

1995: President Bill Clinton proclaims the first full week of April as National Public Health Week.

In 1997, the American Health Foundation got $11 million from the NIH; The RAND Corporation got $11 million; Johns Hopkins University got $292 million; the University of California at San Francisco got $215 million; Harvard University got $180 million.

1999: APHA builds its headquarters building in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, it agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle civil charges that it improperly used federal money." Cancer Institute May Shut, by Melissa Klein.

2005: APHA relocates its Annual Meeting from New Orleans to Philadelphia following widespread devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

2006: APHA launches Get Ready campaign, an all hazards preparedness initiative.

Empire Health Foundation is a private health conversion foundation formed in 2008 through the sale of Deaconess and Valley Medical, a nonprofit hospital system in Spokane.

As a significant part of its history, please note: AMHF Books was established in fall 2009.

2010: APHA helps win passage of the Affordable Care Act.

In 2011, the Foundation was involved in a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to sell our equity stake in HCA-HealthONE to HCA for $1.45 billion.

2013: APHA rolls out APHA Connect, an online member community.

In 2014, the Foundation’s long-time leader Anne Warhover stepped down after a decade.

Current President and CEO Karen McNeil-Miller began her tenure as the Foundation’s new leader in September 2015.