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.)
Drs. Frank Glenn and Joseph Artusio develop ether analgesia, which allows a patient to be conscious without feeling any pain or memory of the surgery.
Later, from 1958 to 1961, Drs. Joseph Artusio and Alan Van Poznak develop the non-flammable ether inhalation anesthetic methoxyflurane.
The Medical Comprehensive Care and Teaching Program is established. It remains part of Cornell University Medical College curriculum until 1967. (Photo taken in 1952 by Murray Tarr Inc.)
In October, New York Hospital and the New York State Department of Health establish the Institute for Physicians and Nurses in the Care of Premature Infants, one of the first postgraduate programs with focus on premature infants. The course becomes an annual event at the medical center for several years. (Photo taken in 1962 by Esther Bubley.)
Dr. Samuel Levine conducts pioneer research in the 1930s and '40s on infants’ formulas and respiratory metabolism of premature infants. In 1948, the Premature Unit, one of the first in the nation, is established as a regional center for New York County.
Later in 1975, the Perinatology Center, led by Dr. Peter Auld, continues the tradition of providing advanced, state of the art care for premature infants.
In September, RCA broadcasts the first televised operations performed at New York Hospital to the American College of Surgeons’ conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
The first eye bank in United States to store human corneas for transplant operations opens at New York Hospital in 1944.
In 1963, Dr. John McLean, Division Chief, begins performing cryosurgery for retinal detachments. (Photo by Bernard Cole.)
The Transfusion Clinic, the first of its kind in the country, is established for children with Cooley’s Anemia (Thalassemia) and other blood diseases. Dr. Carl Smith, who is considered the father of pediatric hematology, conducts pioneer research on blood diseases. (Photo by Paul Parker.)
The pap smear test for cervical cancer, developed by Dr. George Papanicolaou from the Department of Anatomy, is first used. Dr. Papanicolaou works with Dr. Harold Traut from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology to develop the test. Their book, “Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear”, is published by the Commonwealth Fund. Research on the pap smear began in the 1920s.
