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Smallpox Vaccine
Benjamin Waterhouse introduces the smallpox vaccine to the United States and Helps gain acceptance for the new procedures. -
Anesthesia
John Collins Warren, provided the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery -
Appendictics
Reginald Heber Fitz provides the first clinical description of appendicitis; he also performing appendectomies. -
Period: to
Insect-Borne Disease Transmission; Scurvy; Heat-Killed Vaccine
Theobald Smith identifies the mechanism of insect-borne disease transmission, discovers the cause of scurvy and develops the concept of heat-killed vaccines. -
Electrocardiography
Paul Dudley White introduces the electrocardiograph to the United States. -
Maggot Therapy
Maggot therapy was invented by William Baer. -
Insulin; founding of Joslin Diabetes Center
Elliott Joslin becomes one of the first physicians to introduce insulin to the United States and subsequently founds Joslin Diabetes Center. -
Heart Valve Surgery
Eliot Cutler performs the world’s first successful heart valve surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, today part of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. -
Iron Lung; Syphilis test
*Philip Drinker invents the iron lung to help polio-paralyzed patients breathe.
*William Hinton develops a blood test for the detection of syphilis. -
First Polio patient saved
In a first, the newly developed Drinker Respirator (iron lung) saves a polio patient at Peter Bent Brigham in collaboration with Children's Hospital Medical Center, today Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health. -
Corrective Heart Surgery for children
In a first, the newly developed Drinker Respirator (iron lung) saves a polio patient at Peter Bent Brigham in collaboration with Children's Hospital Medical Center, today Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health. -
Rh Disease
In a first, the newly developed Drinker Respirator (iron lung) saves a polio patient at Peter Bent Brigham in collaboration with Children's Hospital Medical Center, today Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health. -
Artificial Kidney;Pediatric remission of acute luekemia
*Carl Walter, John Merrill and George Thorn perfect the Kolff-Brigham artificial kidney for clinical use. *Working at Boston Children’s, Sidney Farber is responsible for the first successful pediatric remission of acute leukemia. -
Human limb reattachment; heart rhythm restoration
A surgical team, led by Ronald Malt, at Mass General performs a replantation of a severed arm, thus achieving the first successful reattachment of a human limb. Bernard Lown becomes the first to use direct electric current to restore the rhythm of the heart.
1964
Human blood storage -
Human oncogene;positron emission emission tomography(PET) scan
Dana-Farber researchers clone the gene ras and demonstrate that, when mutated, this gene—the first known human oncogene—helps spur the development of many common human tumors. Mass General researchers pioneer the positron emission tomography (PET) scan, an imaging technique that made possible one of the first noninvasive looks at functional changes within the brain and other organs. -
Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI)
Mass General radiologists pioneer the use of MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, to diagnose illness and injury. -
HIV/AIDS
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and affiliated institutions make, and continue to make to this day, numerous key discoveries in the HIV/AIDS field. -
Early on-set Alzheimer gene;duchenne muscular dystrophy gene
Mass General researchers contribute to the discovery of the first gene associated with inherited early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Louis Kunkel and colleagues at Boston Children’s discover the gene that causes Duchenne muscular dystrophy.