National Doctors' Day is always March 30. In 2007, it is on Friday. The first Doctors' Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Ga. The idea came from Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Cha Almond, and the date was the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery (on March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Long of Barrow County, Georgia, used ether while removing a tumor from a patient's neck). The Barrow County Medical Society Auxiliary proclaimed the day “Doctors' Day,” which was celebrated by mailing cards to physicians and their wives, and by placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors, including Dr. Long. The United States House of Representatives adopted a resolution commemorating Doctors’ Day on March 30, 1958, though it wasn't celebrated nationally until 1991 following an act of Congress.

Recent Trends

Doctor-patient relationships are changing, for a variety of reasons, including:

• Medical information has become more available via media.
• Medical/hospital television shows are more popular than ever.
• Patients are encouraged by doctors, employers, and insurers to share in the responsibility for their health and health-care decisions.
• Increasingly, relationships between individuals and their physicians are becoming more informal, open, and conversational.
• New drugs, experimental programs, testing programs, and more variety in treatment methods have fostered closer doctor/patient relationships.
• New methods, techniques and therapies have allowed for more “miracles,” extended years for those with medical conditions and injuries, and more options requiring patient discussion and choice.