[1] It was originally developed in 1952 by an anesthesiologist at Columbia University, Virginia Apgar, to address the need for a standardized way to evaluate infants shortly after birth.

[2] Today, the categories developed by Apgar used to assess the health of a newborn remain largely the same as in 1952, though the way they are implemented and used has evolved over the years.

[3] The score is determined through the evaluation of the newborn in five criteria: activity (tone), pulse, grimace, appearance, and respiration.

Various members of the healthcare team, including midwives, nurses, or physicians, may be involved in the Apgar scoring of a neonate.

[10] In cases where a newborn needs resuscitation, it should be initiated before the Apgar score is assigned at the one-minute mark.

[12] To reduce the risk of negative outcomes, it is recommended to obtain a sample of the umbilical artery blood gas when a newborn has an Apgar score of five or less at the five-minute mark.

Other factors that may contribute to variability among infants are birth defects, sedation of the mother during labor, gestational age or trauma.

One study was done in which several health care providers were assigned to give Apgar scores to the same infants.

[17] Apgar originally developed the criteria as a way to address the lack of a standardized way to assess the need for assistive breathing procedures for newborns.

[3] Some ten years after initial publication,[20] a backronym for APGAR was coined in the United States as a mnemonic learning aid: Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration.