AOA stands for Alpha Omega Alpha, a prestigious medical honor society in the United States and Canada, similar to Phi Beta Kappa. Membership is awarded through election based on exceptional academic performance, and candidates include medical students, house officers, and alumni and faculty of medical schools. AOA also represents the American Osteopathic Association and the American Optometric Association.Alpha Omega Alpha's History:In 1902, William Webster Root and five fellow medical students at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago founded AOA. At that time, American medical education was far from exemplary. Root established the society as a challenge to the prevalent perception of medical students, which was linked to unruly behavior, lack of morals, and poor educational standards. Out of the approximately 25,000 medical students in the U.S. at the century's start, only about 15% had a college degree. The primary admission requirement for most schools was merely a high school diploma or its equivalent, often just the ability to afford the fees. There were around 150 medical schools, many of questionable quality. Abraham Flexner's seminal 1910 study of medical education revealed that some so-called medical schools operated out of storefronts, tenements, and warehouses, with minimal lab equipment—a few microscopes, some old slides, and a solitary skeleton. Except for a few, like the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine established in 1893, medical curricula mainly consisted of lectures, occasionally supplemented by bedside or lab demonstrations if facilities were available. It was in this context that Root and his peers aimed to create a society dedicated to promoting integrity and elevating educational standards.
