The Changing Nature of Language

During the Annual Conference of the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions (ASAHP) in October 2019, it was announced at the Business Meeting that as of that day the new name would be the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions, representing the third occasion such a change has occurred since the organization came into existence in 1967. The term allied health has a rich history. Confronted with workforce shortages during the 1960s in professions such as physical therapy, officials at the U.S. Public Health Service decided that a new organization should be created in the private sector to deal effectively with such matters. That decision led to the birth of ASAHP. Initially struggling with what to call this entity, a group of deans and government officials identified the words allied health as a way of distinguishing this new creation from other professions, such as medicine, dentistry, and nursing.