It is an Alliance goal to stimulate an interest in the research and recording of otherwise unacknowledged events and significant contributions to the broad field of medicine within the region of the Southern Medical Association.

Aesculapius
The symbol of the medical profession is the entwined serpent and the distaff. It is the symbol of Aesculapius, god of medicine and father of two sons, both physicians. Aesculapius was also the father of three daughters, Hygeia, the goddess of health, Panacea (all-healer), and Iaso (healer). The serpent is used because in mythology the shedding of its skin each year probably meant renewal and regeneration. The knotty rod or distaff was the symbol of support for the weak and the problems of medicine.