American Heart Association
The American Heart Association grew out of a set of smaller precursor groups. The primary precursor was the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, formed in New York City in 1915, to study whether patients with heart disease could safely return to work. Several similar organizations formed or evolved in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago in the 1920s. Recognizing the need for a national organization to share research and promote findings, the American Heart Association was formed in 1924 by six cardiologists representing several of these precursor groups.
American Diabetes Association
The ADA was founded in 1940 by six leading physicians − including Dr. Herman O. Mosenthal, Dr. Joseph T. Beardwood Jr., Dr. Joseph H. Barack, and Dr. E. S. Dillion − at their 1939 meeting of The American College of Physicians. In September 1946, they hosted a meeting in Toronto, Canada to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of insulin. The meeting served as a successful forum for hundreds of physicians and leading figures interested in the studies of diabetes and carbohydrate metabolism. The organization is now a national nonprofit with 40 affiliate organizations, more than 800 individual chapters, over a million volunteers, and almost 1,000 staff members − including officer and a board of directors.