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Rene T.H. Laennec invents the stethoscope used for chest auscultation. With his book, Diseases of the Chest, he lays the foundation for modern pulmonology.
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Bunsen and Kirchhoff invent the spectrometer.
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Specific Asthma symptoms for diagnosis is defined by Dr. Thomas Willis.
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George Poe demonstrated his mechanical respirator by asphyxiating dogs and seemingly bringing them back to life.
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Oxygen masks are used to treat combat-induced pulmonary edema.
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Phillip Drinker develops the "iron lung" negative pressure ventilator.
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Erwin R. Levine, MD, establishes a primitive inhalation therapy program. He used on-the-job trained technicians to take care of post-surgical patients at a Chicago hospital called Michael Reese Hospital.
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Interested students of Dr. Levine and other interested nurses, doctors, and oxygen orderlies met at the University of Chicago Hospital. Here they formed the Inhalation Therapy Association a.k.a the ITA.
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Albert Andrews, MD, outlines the purpose and structure of a hospital-based inhalation therapy department stated in his book, Manual of Oxygen Therapy Tecniques.
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The ITA is renamed the American Association of Inhalation Therapists (AAIT). It was later renamed in February 1966 but it still is called the AAIT.
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The Medical Society of the State of New York and the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists form a Special Joint Committee in Inhalation Therapy to establish “the essentials of acceptable schools of inhalation therapy.”
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Sister Mary Yvonne Jenn becomes the first Registered Respiratory Therapist.
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The AAIT is renamed, once again. The association is now called the American Association for Respiratory Therapy, a.k.a. the AART.
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At the Hotel St. Clair in Chicago, the AAIT holds its first annual meeting. It is now called the AARC International Respiratory Congress).
