"You have to be there": twenty-five years of SCAMC/AMIA symposia.

The AMIA Annual Symposium began life as the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC) in 1977. Inaugurated as a multidisciplinary meeting with multiple sponsors, the Symposium quickly became a force in the development of the field of medical informatics. The authors summarize the 25-year history of the meeting and its proceedings, drawing on information in the printed programs and proceedings and on the personal recollections of some Symposium organizers and attendees. They also present the results of a study of the extent to which Symposium papers have been cited in the journal literature.