About Doctors Day

Doctors Day or National Doctors Day is celebrated to recognize the contributions of physicians or doctors to individual lives as well as communities. This day is supposed to be celebrated by patients and benefactors of the healthcare industry but it is usually celebrated by health care organizations. Staff may organize a lunch for doctors as a token of recognition as well as gratitude. The date of celebration of Doctors Day varies from nation to nation depending on the event of commemoration used to mark the day. In some nations, people celebrate this day as a holiday.

In India, the National Doctors' Day is celebrated on July 1 to honor the legendary physician and the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. He was born on July 1, 1882, and died on the same date in 1962. Thus this day has been chosen for the celebration of Doctors Day. In the United States, National Doctors' Day is a day on which the service of physicians to the nation is recognized annually. The idea of celebration came from Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, and the date chosen was the anniversary of the first use of general anesthesia in surgery. On March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Long used ether to anesthetize a patient named James Venable in Jefferson, Georgia, and painlessly excised a tumor from his neck. Likewise, many countries celebrate Doctors day on different dates and for different reasons.

History of Doctors Day Celebration

The first Doctors Day was observed on March 28, 1933, in Winder, Georgia. On this day, cards were mailed to the physicians and their wives, flowers were placed on the graves of deceased doctors including Dr. Long, and a formal dinner was held in the home of Dr. and Mrs. William T. Randolph. After that, the Barrow County Alliance adopted Mrs. Almond's resolution to pay tribute to the doctors. Mrs. E. R. Harris of Winder, president of the Barrow County Alliance presented the plan to the Georgia State Medical Alliance in 1933.

On May 10, 1934, the resolution was adopted at the annual state meeting in Augusta, Georgia. The resolution was introduced to the Women's Alliance of the Southern Medical Association at its 29th annual meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri, November 19-22, 1935, by the Alliance president, Mrs. J. Bonar White. Since then, Doctors' Day has become an integral part of the Southern Medical Association Alliance. On October 30, 1990, Doctors Day was designated as a national holiday which is to be celebrated annually on March 30.