Since its inception in 1806, the New York County Medical Society has been representing physicians as they treat patients, advance science, maintain the standards of the profession, and protect the public health. The Society, a professional membership organization for physicians who live or work in the Borough of Manhattan, has a tradition of activism on behalf of practitioners and patients. As part of the federation of organized medicine, which includes the American Medical Association and the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Society provides a common ground for physicians across a range of specialties to discuss health care issues of the day and work for the good of the profession and the public.