A preliminary organizational meeting was held at the Greenbriar Hotel in November, 1966. The first official organizational meeting of the AUPN was held June 12, 1967, at the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The interim chairman was Dr. Maynard Cohen. Items of business included the discussion of the Constitution and Bylaws of the organization, and the nomination and election of the Board of Trustees in accordance with the Bylaws. During this meeting, the following individuals were nominated and unanimously elected to the Board of Trustees: Dr. Maynard Cohen, Dr. David Daly, Dr. Erland Nelson, Dr. David Clark, and Dr. Norman Geschwind.
In 1966, William D. Macmillan, Lawrence Perin, and William A. Fisher, Jr. were appointed as Trustees of the Association for the sole purpose of forming the corporation. On June 7, 1968 in Baltimore, Maryland, they met for the purpose of formally adopting the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of the Corporation. During this meeting, the following were nominated for officers of the Corporation to serve for the periods indicated until their respective successors could be chosen by the Trustees and qualified.
President for 1 year - Trustee for 2 years | Dr. Maynard Cohen |
President-Elect for 1 year - Trustee for 3 years | Dr. David Daly |
Past President for 1 year - Trustee for 1 year | Dr. David Clark |
Secretary-Treasurer for 4 years - Trustee for 4 years | Dr. Erland Nelson |
Trustee for 4 years | Dr. Norman Geschwind |
The official activities of the organization began with the first major meeting, held June 16, 1968 in Washington, DC began. Issues addressed included: Relationship with the Council of Academic Societies (CAS); methods of evaluating effectiveness of undergraduate and graduate training programs; the development of teaching material for distribution to undergraduate and graduate programs; the effect of Medicare and other Federal programs on training of the neurologist; uniform date of residency and internship applications; research funding and federal support for neurology programs; and the value of foreign residents and their eligibility for NINDB fellowships.
Areas of major concern to the AUPN since inception have included legislative issues affecting the availability of research grant funding, representation of Neurology in the workforce, the neurological curriculum in medical education at all levels, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate, and the maintenance of communication and liaison for academic neurology with such organizations as the Association of American Medical Colleges and its Council of Academic Societies, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the Neurology Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the Child Neurology Society. Along with several of these organizations, the AUPN was instrumental in forming a liaison council, previously the Neurological Intersociety Liaison Group (NIL), and now the Leadership Council of Neurological Societies (LCNS), on which its representatives serve.
Just one year before the AUPN was founded, the AMA Council on Medical Education released the "Millis Report" which recommended abolition of the internship and combination of the internship and residency years into a unified whole. In July 1970, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology sent a notice to program directors that the ABPN would no longer require the completion of an internship as a requirement for eligibility for certification. "High-handed" was one of the kinder descriptions of this directive among AUPN members and it was unofficially agreed that Neurology programs would continue to require a preliminary year in general medicine.
This topic was discussed at most AUPN meetings after its announcement and the majority of members thought that the ABPN should ge pressured into changing this directive. The AUPN and also the AAN and ANA sent impassioned pleas to the Board to restore the intership. In January, 1974, the ABPN responded to this dissatisfaction and reinstated the requirement of a first year of general medicine training effective July 1, 1977.
At the level of graduate education, the AUPN has polled and welcomed input from trainees. Throughout the 1970’s, program directors were concerned about the methods used to recruit and sign residents. No actual uniform date or appointment was enforced and trainees sometimes ignored previous agreements when they received an offer they considered better. In order to respond to both the needs of the trainees and the needs of the Neurology training programs, the AUPN developed the Neurology Matching Program (NEMP). Initially discussed in 1976, by 1979 the AUPN made a serious commitment to this issue, contracting with Dr. August Colenbrander to direct the program. He has continued the management of the NEMP since its inception. Over the years the AUPN has felt that the NEMP provides Neurology with matching methods more tailored to the needs of the specialty than might be available from the National Residency Matching Program. An example of a system geared to our needs was the development of the two-tiered early and late matches. Oversight of the match is provided by the AUPN’s Graduate Education Committee.
In 1986, the council of Deans of the AAMC passed a resolution concerning the transition to Residency Education. As part of that resolution, it was stated that the AAMC would establish a system for residency application and selection and they urged the Accreditation Council for Medical Education to include as a condition of certification of the medical school that all independent match systems be abolished. Through the efforts of Dr. Mark Dyken, the applicants participating in the match were surveyed and overwhelmingly preferred the two-tier match being provided by the NEMP. Thus, the proposal of the Council of Deans was not enacted.
In addition to its work on the match program, the AUPN originally organized the national neurology self-assessment test for residents, later turning it over to the American Academy of Neurology to manage. The AUPN endorsed the program and encouraged trainees to take the examination.
Until the mid 90's requirements for membership in the AUPN remained unchanged. However, in the spring of 1995, the membership voted to allow adult and pediatric residency program directors to join the AUPN, while preserving the one vote per institution rule. In those institutions with a separate chair and program director(s), the representatives of each institution decide how they cast their single vote.