In 1980, Walter Spohn and colleagues founded the American Anaplastology Association (AAA) at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. Mr. Spohn wanted the AAA to serve as an open and inspiring "Information Exchange," welcoming all of the multidiscipline specialists involved in prosthetic rehabilitation, and to promote coordination and communication among professionals working along different but related paths in the service of the patient.
At the recommendation of an advisory committee formed in 1997, the membership of the American Anaplastology Association voted to establish a certification board in 2000 to follow the guidelines of the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) - the accrediting body for the agency currently known as the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE). This certification board became the Board for Certification in Clinical Anaplastology (BCCA).
In 2002, the Board for Certification in Clinical Anaplastology was established as a private, autonomous organization and incorporated in the state of South Carolina as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit mutual benefit corporation.
In 2008, the American Anaplastology Association voted to change the name of the organization to the International Anaplastology Association (IAA) in recognition of the emerging global profession of clinical anaplastology.
The Board for Certification in Clinical Anaplastology and the International Anaplastology Association remain strategic partners - working together to achieve objectives that are mutually beneficially for the field of anaplastology.