Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a group of conservative activist doctors who oppose the 2010 health care reform law, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." Members of the group also believe that President Obama may have hypnotized voters and that climate legislation is a threat to human health. Some of the group's former leaders were members of the John Birch Society. Mother Jones wrote of the group, "Yet despite the lab coats and the official-sounding name, the docs of the AAPS are hardly part of mainstream medical society. Think Glenn Beck with an MD."

The group describes itself as "a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country. Since 1943, AAPS has been dedicated to the highest ethical standards of the Oath of Hippocrates and to preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine."

AAPS publishes the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

False leprosy claim
The Spring 2005 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons contained an article by Madeleine Cosman, headlined "Illegal Aliens and American Medicine," claiming, "Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy," citing a 2003 article in the New York Times as a reference. Among news outlets repeating this claim were WorldNetDaily and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. In fact, the 7,000 number in the Times article was an apparent reference to all then-current cases of leprosy in the U.S.; according to the National Hansen's Disease Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been just 431 reported cases of Hansen's disease (leprosy) over the "past three years."

Political contributions
Donations to political candidates by the AAPS' political action committee in 2000 and 2004 skewed rightward, with donations given to candidates registered as Republican, Libertarian or with the Constitution Party.

Positions on health issues
Mother Jones, discussing AAPS's journal (called the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons), writes, "The publication's archives present a kind of alternate-universe scientific world, in which abortion causes breast cancer and vaccines cause autism, but HIV does not cause AIDS. Cutting carbon emissions represents a grave threat to global health (because environmental regulation would make people poorer and, consequently, sicker) ... The organization opposes some of the most accepted practices in health care, including mandatory vaccine regulations. Peer review, a long-standing hospital practice that helps doctors learn from and prevent errors, is viewed as the source of great injustice by AAPS, which fights attempts to micromanage doctors with such bureaucratic nuisances as medical evidence about what works and what doesn't. Computers, too, are an ominous threat. The organization has resisted the use of electronic medical records—which, naturally, represents an attempt by the government to acquire masses of private information about American citizens. (AAPS' executive director claims to keep all her patient notes in longhand.)"

Doctors for Disaster Preparedness
The website for the group Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) is registered to Jeremy Snavely of AAPS. DDP and AAPS also share the same mailing address, in Tucson, Arizona.

DDP is skeptical of climate change, as the title of their web page on the subject suggests: "Ozone hole, Global warming, and other Environmental Scares."

Contact information
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons 1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9 Tucson, AZ 85716-3450

Phone: (800) 635-1196 Website: http://www.aapsonline.org

Sourcewatch resources

 * Doctors for Disaster Preparedness
 * Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine
 * Robert J. Cihak
 * Nathaniel E. Adamson, Jr.
 * Paul Leithart - Former President

Articles

 * Krepel, Terry, "Conservative Medicine", ConWebWatch, April 29, 2005.
 * "Strange Bedfellows", Neurodiversity weblog, March 12, 2006.
 * "CNS, Fox Business silent on controversial views of medical group," Media Matters for America, June 26, 2009.
 * can sceptical climate scientists expect to be taken seriously when they associate themselves with fringe political groups?"