The journal was established in 1883 with Nathan Smith Davis as the founding editor. The journal's editor-in-chief is Howard Bauchner of Boston University, who succeeded Catherine DeAngelis on July 1, 2011

The journal was established in 1883 by the American Medical Association. In 1960, the journal obtained its current title, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. The journal is commonly referred to as JAMA.

“Continuing Education Opportunities for Physicians” was a semiannual journal section providing lists for regional or national levels of continuing medical education (CME). Between 1937 and 1955, the list was produced either quarterly or semiannually. Between 1955 and 1981, the list was available annually, as the number of CME offerings increased from 1,000 (1955) to 8,500 (1981). In 2016, CME transitioned into a digital offering from the JAMA Network called JN Learning CME & MOC from JAMA Network.

On 11 July 2016, JAMA published an article by Barack Obama entitled, “United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps”, which was the first academic paper ever published by a sitting U.S. president. The article was not subject to blind peer-review. It argued for specific policies that future presidents could pursue in order to improve national health care reform implementation.

From 1964 to 2013, the JAMA journal used images of artwork on its cover and it published essays commenting on the artwork. According to former editor George Lundberg, this practice was designed to link the humanities and medicine. In 2013, a format redesign moved the art feature to an inside page, replacing an image of the artwork on the cover with a table of contents. The purpose of the redesign was to standardize the appearance of all journals in the JAMA Network.

According to en.wikipedia.org