William Morton, a local dentist, for the first time demonstrates the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic
Massachusetts General Hospital – Ether Dome
1848 Medical School for Women
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine -The New England Female Medical College was founded, becoming the first institution in the U.S. to train women in medicine and graduated the first black female physician, Rebecca Lee Crumpler.
1890: First Native American Physician
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine – The first Native American physician, Charles Eastman, graduated from BUSM. He was featured as the central figure in “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
1896: First X-ray presentation at a Medical Meeting
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine –First X-Rays in Boston by Francis Williams (need verification) who also became the first physician to show x–rays at a national medical meeting in the United States. he reported the findings in a patient with TB
1897: First African-American psychiatrist
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine – First African-American psychiatrist, Solomon Carter Fuller, graduated from BUSM.
1919 Infant Formula
Similac – first infant formula developed at the Floating Hospital for Children (Tufts Medical Center).
1938 Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
Boston Children’s Hospital – Robert Gross, MD performs the world’s first successful surgical procedure to correct a congenital heart defect.
1942: First GI Section
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine – First section of gastroenterology in the U.S. was established at BUSM
1944: First Studies in Penicillin
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine -First studies on the use of penicillin in civilians with infectious diseases
1944 Conception Outside the Human Body
Harvard University – First conception outside the human bodyRock and menkin successfully fertilize an egg in a petri dish –
1948: Framingham Heart Study
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine -First medical school to work with the U.S. Public Health Service National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease, creating the Framingham Heart Study
1949 Polio Virus Culture
Boston Children’s Hospital Polio virus cultured in 1949 leading to the development of the vaccine by John Enders, PhD, who won the Nobel Prize in 1954. Enders’ group also credited with culturing the measles virus and developing the measles vaccine.
1954 First Organ Transplant using a Live Donor
Brigham and Women’s Hospital – a team led by Joseph E. Murray, MD, J. Hartwell Harrison, MD and John P. Merrill, MD, accomplished the first successful organ transplant involving a live donor.
1958 Immunosuppression.
Tufts Medical Center- Developed and coined the term immunosuppression. The discovery enabling progress in the field of organ transplantation reducing the chances of organ rejection.
1962 Limb Reattachment
Massachusetts General Hospital – first successful reattachment of a severed human limb, involving the arm of a 12-year-old boy.
1986 First cancer gene.
Massachusetts Eye and Ear isolate the first hereditary human cancer gene (retinoblastoma gene) providing a genetic insight of cancer
1980’s T cell role in immune system
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – immune system is “turned on” by helper T cells and “turned off” by suppressor T cells with significant implications of how the immune system functions
2008: Green Fluorescent Protein
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine –Nobel Prize for Chemistryawarded to Osamu Shimomura for his work on green fluorescent protein