Evolution and revolution: the formation of Today's American Thoracic Society, Part 2.

The major event in the recent history of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) is its separation from the American Lung Association (ALA), resulting in the Society's independence. The seeds of the separation were sown over the course of many years. The fundamental reason driving the separation was the organizational structure of the ALA, with the ATS being a division within the larger organization and having neither the standing to make independent decisions nor the ability to respond effectively to the expectations of a growing and diverse membership. Additional important factors included continual organizational conflicts; ongoing struggles over finances; reluctance by the ALA to provide what the ATS considered to be appropriate support for research; divergence of areas of interest as the Society became more broad based to include critical care and sleep medicine, as well as concerns with medical practice issues; and internationalization of the Society, with an increasing proportion of members residing outside the United States. Once it was decided that the ATS could only exist as an independent organization, the separation agreement was negotiated in less than 3 years. Although there were substantial unknowns immediately after the separation, a unified leadership, a strongly supportive membership, and a skilled and dedicated staff guided the organization through this difficult period, from which the Society emerged as a strong independent professional organization that remains true to the public-minded spirit that guided its formation 107 years ago.

Evolution and revolution: the formation of today's American Thoracic Society, part 1.

The American Thoracic Society (ATS), the preeminent professional organization in the field of respiratory, critical care, and sleep medicine, is now 107 years old. For the most part, the Society's administrative and medical-scientific interests evolved in an orderly fashion, but two "revolutions" took place that should be remembered. What ultimately metamorphosed into the ATS in 1960 began in 1905 as the 34-member American Sanatorium Association, which in 1915 became the medical section of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT). In 1918, the NASPT became the National Tuberculosis Association and in 1939, the ASA became the American Trudeau Society, cosmetic revisions having no effect on either the medical section-parent relationship or the one-disease orientation of both organizations. After World War II, the narrow focus of the ATS on tuberculosis was progressively enlarged through coalescence of several factors that transformed the practice of pulmonary medicine: the growth of intensive care units and pulmonary function laboratories and the advent of fiberoptic bronchoscopy; the rise of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer coincident with the withering of tuberculosis; and the arrival of pulmonary physician-scientists who sought enrichment through a professional society. The newcomers found a home in the ATS, but it was slow to fulfill their needs for scientific communication and administrative responsibility. The first revolution, the formation of Scientific Assemblies, got the job done quickly and well, as described in Part 1 of this perspective. The second revolution, separation from the American Lung Association, is described in Part 2.