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.

The Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry establish the Neurological Laboratory Division, led by Dr. Harold Wolff, to conduct neurological and psychobiological research. Dr. Wolff is well regarded for his research in the fields of psychosomatic illness and headaches. 

Later, in 1954, Dr. Wolff organizes the pioneer Human Ecology Program.

The Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry establish the Internal Medical Laboratory Division, led by Dr. Ade Milhorat, for general medical, biochemical, and pharmacological research. Dr. Milhorat is well regarded for his muscular dystrophy research. (Photo taken in 1952 by the New York Times.)

A blood bank is established for blood transfusions in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1938. In 1939, the Blood Bank is more formally organized under the Central Laboratories. The first blood bank was founded at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago in 1936. In New York, Mt. Sinai opened a blood bank in May 1938.  (Photo taken in 1968 by Camera Associates.)

The calorimeter, used in metabolism research conducted by the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology and Cornell University Medical College, is moved to New York Hospital from Bellevue Hospital. Connected to the research is a small six-bed ward, which would later become the oldest ward dedicated to metabolism research in the country. Dr. Eugene DuBois leads the research, which began in 1913 under the leadership of Dr. Graham Lusk, chair of the Department of Physiology.

Throughout the years, the medical center has grown to become a premier health center.  Some of the people who produced pioneer research or treatments were Drs.

Both New York Hospital and Cornell University Medical College maintained individual control of their respective departments and administrative operations. The medical center was structured on a university system with five major clinical departments: medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology, and psychiatry linked administratively. In these five clinical areas, the chairs of the college departments were the heads of the corresponding hospital departments. The pathology and radiology departments of the hospital and medical college were also linked in the same way.