The Phipps and Staff Houses are built to provide housing for medical center staff, at 445 East 68th Street. In 2015, the buildings are torn down to make way for a new hospital ambulatory care building.
Named for Franklin W. Olin, this student housing and administrative office building is constructed at 445 East 69th Street. The groundbreaking ceremony is held on March 4, 1953, and the building is dedicated on November 15, 1954.
In September, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center opens. The complex includes buildings for New York Hospital, Cornell University Medical College, New York Hospital School of Nursing, and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. (Photo by William Frange.)
In April, Dr. Ronald Crystal, Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division, is the first to use a genetically altered cold virus to treat cystic fibrosis, at his research laboratory at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He continues his pioneer research at this medical center.
Two years later, in 1995, Dr. Crystal performs a similar gene therapy to treat colorectal cancer that has metastasized the liver. (Photo by Medical Art and Photography.)
AIDS biomedical research begins in 1983. The Center for Special Studies and AIDS Clinical Trials, directed by Dr. Jonathan Jacobs, is established in 1986. In 1991, a new facility on the 24th Floor of the Baker Tower is opened.
In addition, Dr. Alton Meister, Chair of the Department of Biochemistry, conducts pioneer research during this time.
New York Hospital is the first in the New York metropolitan area to install an MRI machine.
The first full service burn center in the New York metropolitan area opens in December. A 1977 expansion of the facility, which includes the FDNY Skin Bank, makes it the largest burn center in the country.
Later, in 1998, the burn center is renamed William Randolph Hearst Burn Center.
Dr. Fritz Fuchs, Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief at New York Hospital, is credited with introducing the laparoscope into the U.S. gynecological practice.
Two years later, in 1967, Dr. Fuchs develops the use of alcohol as an intravenous agent for preventing premature labor.
The first kidney transplant in the metropolitan area is performed by a renal group led by Dr. Albert Rubin. (Photo: a kidney transplant operation in 1968.)
Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud, Chair of the Department of Biochemistry, receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the pituitary gland hormone oxytocin, which is crucial for childbirth and producing milk.
Dr. Vigneaud is also known for accomplishing the first synthesization of penicillin in 1946. (Photo by Text & Bilder.)
