There are now more than 120 chapters in the United States. Criteria for election include scholastic excellence, and integrity, capacity for leadership, compassion, and fairness in dealing with colleagues. Alumni may be elected ten years after graduation based on professional achievement. In addition, each year a chapter may elect up to two faculty members per year. It is equally a duty to avoid that which is unworthy, including the commercial spirit and all practices injurious to the welfare of patients, the public, or the profession.
Eligibility requires academic rank in the top quartile of the class.
Only one sixth of a class may be elected to membership, with a maximum of one quarter of this number elected in the third year of medical school. The noted American sculptor, Milton Horn, was commissioned in 1954 to create a visual history of the healing arts for the proposed West Virginia University Medical Center. He produced eight high-relief panels depicting important developments and personages in the history of medicine, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy. Medical Center architect, Cyrus E. Silling, had chosen Horn to render the sculptures. Collaborating with his wife, Estelle, the artist took a year for research in the history of health sciences.