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The Purpose of AIMS

by Carrol S. Small, MD

In 1977 Carl Bauer, MD, and his colleagues felt the need of a closer association among Seventh-day Adventist medical personnel around the world. The alumni associations of the Loma Linda University schools of medicine and dentistry provided fellowship within their own groups. However, Bauer indicated that, worldwide, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of SDA physicians, dentists, health educators, and other health professionals -- graduates of other schools who did not enjoy this kind of fellowship. What about gathering them all into a grand fellowship?

Thus was born the Adventist International Medical Society. It has grown, albeit slowly, ever since that time.

What are its purposes, and what justifies its existence, when the world is full of struggling societies, some stillborn, many having neonatal distress? As revised and condensed at the AIMS annual meeting, March 11, 1986,

The Purposes of AIMS are:

1) To provide an association of SDA physicians and other health professionals throughout the world for purposes of fellowship, scientific exchange, and mutual encouragement in Christian service.

2) To foster the training and continuing education of health workers throughout the world. To implement, in part, these two purposes, several groups of physicians and teachers from the USA have conducted, and continue to conduct, educational seminars in Europe, Australia, South America, Mexico, China, etc., conveying valuable information to many Adventist medical colleagues in those fields. These occasions offer an equally important opportunity for colleagues to become acquainted, understand each other's viewpoints, and become friends.

3) To provide and efficient means of giving for mission projects. True, there are "official" channels of giving, but sometimes they are slow in answering acute needs. AIMS is able to convey your gifts of equipment, cash, or other essentials quickly, to relieve sudden crises.

4) To promote health evangelism throughout the world. "Evangelism" connotes "good news," -- not only Bible good news, but the good news of a better way of physical life. The world cries for better hygiene, nutrition, and disease prevention. AIMS is committed to answering the cry.

5) To produce an official journal. Our journal has had a failure-to-thrive syndrome from time to time. A journal does not, like radium, have 1760-year half-life. It can die between issues if not properly nourished. You can contribute to its nourishment by sending to the AIMS office information about yourself, your activities, or other edifying material.

6) To establish a close working relationship with, and to act as resource agency, to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Department of Health and Temperance. AIMS aims to provide for and improve communication between the &"you and me" group and our representatives and associates in the world headquarters of the church.

7) To provide visiting lectureships at Seventh-day Adventist medical, and other selected, institutions. Such lectureships do not happen without an outlay of money. Visiting lecturers usually donate their time, but travel costs money. AIMS uses your membership dues to provide such educational endeavors whenever possible.

As an Adventist health promoter, what are your purposes? Are they not closely akin to these announced purposes of AIMS? Can we not join in securing their fulfillment, in improving the world in which we live, and in hastening the day when we can move to God's "better world"?

Carrol S. Small, MD, a charter member of AIMS, graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1934. with the exception of seven years in India he spent his entire professional career as a professor of pathology at LLUSM. On August 23, 1997, Dr. Small passed away after a short illness.

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