PACEMAKER: Centennial 1998

PACEMAKER

The State University of Iowa is founded on February 25.

1868

State legislature approves a plan for medical training on UI campus.

1870

The UI Medical Department holds its first classes. With 10 women in the first class, it is the nation’s first co-educational medical school.

1898

A new $55,000, 50-bed University Hospital opens in a three-story brick building on the east side of the Iowa River (now Seashore Hall), replacing sparse facilities in the Mechanics Academy.

1904

State creates University Hygienic Laboratory at UI to study development of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and rabies.

1907

University Hospital adds a large new wing.

1908

Tuberculosis Sanitorium constructed on the Oakdale Campus. While it provides patient care and is a teaching site, it does not become a part of University Hospitals until decades later.

1910

The Flexner Report (an evaluation of medical education in the United States and Canada) recommends that the UI College of Medicine and University Hospital change or shut down.

1913 and 1914

University Hospital adds two more wings, bringing capacity to 350 beds.

1915

The Iowa Legislature passes the Perkins Act, which provides that a child suffering from a curable ailment whose parents cannot afford to pay for proper treatment can be taken to University Hospital at state expense.

1919

Children’s Hospital opens, the first UI building on the west side of the Iowa River. University Hospital becomes University Hospitals.

1919

The Haskell-Klaus Act extends state-paid care to all poor children and adults, solidifying University Hospitals’ role as the health service provider for the entire state.

1921

The Psychopathic Hospital (later Psychiatric Hospital) opens on the west side campus.

1921

Westlawn opens as a dormitory for nurses.

1922

UI receives $2.25 million from the Rockefeller Foundation, along with state matching funds, to build a new Hospital.

1928

The seven story, 770-bed General Hospital-one of the largest in the nation-opens. Approximately 1,350 feet of tunnels link it to other west side facilities.

1932

Statewide ambulance service begins transporting patients to University Hospitals from around the state, and back to their homes.

1936

UI establishes Iowa State Services for Crippled Children as a public service unit.

1939

Investigators, lead by Dr. Elmer L. DeGowin, develop modern-day blood banking, demonstrating that it is safe to refrigerate, ship and use banked blood.

1947

Newly organized Iowa Hospital-School for Severely Handicapped Children begins serving disabled children in the basement of the Westlawn Building. The initial enrollment of 8 swells to 20 by end of the first year.

1950s

In 1950, University Hospitals admits 560 polio patients; by 1952, the number swells to 660. At the epidemic’s height, the hospital needs to use not only patient care units for polio patients, but also many other areas, including an operating room, sterilizing room, the library, hallways, and in summer, tents on the lawn.

1951

University Hospitals establishes its first cardiac catheterization laboratory.

1952

300-bed Veterans Administration Hospital opens in Iowa City.

1952

UI establishes first cryobank for frozen semen. The next year, the first child conceived in Iowa with sperm stored in this manner is born at University Hospitals.

1953

University Hospitals begins using hypothermia technique for open heart surgery.

1955

Iowa Hospital-School program moves into a new building known as University Hospital School for Severely Handicapped Children.

1955

First University Hospitals cornea transplant.

1955

Dr. Johann Ehrenhaft and staff build a heart-lung machine able to circulate, oxygenate, and filter the blood of heart surgery patients. The machine is used for the first time on June 22, 1956, to benefit a five-year-old girl.

1955

UI establishes world’s first Institute of Agricultural Medicine and Occupational Health. Today, researchers from many UI specialties are studying problems on the farm and in the workplace.

1960

"Iowa Hospital-School" is renamed University Hospital School, and begins serving children with mental as well as physical disabilities.

1961

College of Medicine establishes Clinical Research Center to promote interdisciplinary research and encourage scientific clinical investigation.

1962

Dr. Alson Braley, then head of the Department of Ophthalmology, founds the Eye Bank Network, a group of amateur radio operators who meet on the air twice a day to help the nation’s ophthalmologists obtain donor eyes.

1964

Chronic hemodialysis program (located at VA Hospital) begins serving University Hospitals and VA patients.

1968

University Hospitals transforms a former bread delivery truck into its first Neonatal Transport van.

1968

College of Medicine organizes the Iowa Regional Medical Program to unite scientific research, medical education, and medical care for the benefit of Iowa physicians.

1969

First University Hospitals kidney transplant.

1969

First laser surgery for eye diseases in Iowa.

1972

To better define the institution and its purpose, University Hospitals becomes the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC).

1972-73

As part of a commitment to provide personal services to patients and families, UIHC establishes Patient Representative Program (1972) and Volunteer Program (1973).

1974

With groundbreaking for the North Tower addition, UIHC begins a phased capital program to replace outdated and non-conforming patient care facilities. The $548.7 million program will extend through the year 2001, and is carried out using gift funds and self-generated capital replacement funds, no state-appropriated funds.

1974

UI Cardiovascular Research Center established.

1975

UIHC establishes state’s first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

1975

The National Institutes of Health funds an Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Training Program to be administered by the UI Cardiovascular Research Center.

1976

North Tower (later renamed Boyd Tower) opens.

1977

Iowa Lions Cornea Center opens.

1978-1988

Phased development of the Roy J. Carver Pavilion.

1979

UIHC initiates Air Care helicopter service.

1979

First UIHC pancreas transplant.

1980-1992

Phased development of the John W. Colloton Pavilion.

1980

First family-related bone marrow transplant at UIHC.

1980

Dr. Edward Mason and associates develop the most common surgical treatment for severe obesity, Vertical Banded Gastroplasty.

1981

First unrelated bone marrow transplant at UIHC.

1982

UI otolaryngologists are the first in the United States to implant a multichannel cochlear implant.

1983

The former Children’s Hospital building is named after the late Dr. Arthur Steindler, who dedicated his life to caring for Iowa’s pediatric orthopaedic patients.

1984

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center opens.

1984

Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center opens; UI neurologists pinpoint one of the critical brain areas damaged in Alzheimer’s disease.

1984

First Children’s Miracle Network Telethon at UIHC.

1985

First UIHC adult heart transplant.

1985

First UIHC liver transplant.

1985

Ronald McDonald House opens as a "home away from home" for the families of pediatric patients receiving health care at UIHC.

1985

The Clifton Center for Digestive Diseases, the first multidisciplinary subspecialty unit at UIHC and one of the first nationwide, opens.

1985

The UI Cystic Fibrosis Research Center is created.

1987-2000

Development of the John Pappajohn Pavilion.

1987

Seven-day-old infant is first child to receive a heart transplant at UIHC.

1987

Three-year-old boy receives first cochlear implant designed for children.

1987

The UI’s growing reputation for research-it ranks among the top 10 public biomedical research centers-is enhanced by the appointment of three faculty as Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators.

1987

UIHC’s 10,000^th open heart procedure.

1988

First UIHC hyperbaric chamber opens.

1990

UIHC ranks among the top 15 for first time in the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals in America listing. Equally high annually rankings continue through 1997.

1990

The UI Cancer Center establishes a nationwide Cancer Information Service.

1991

UIHC opens the state’s only Positron Emission Tomography unit, a powerful tool for providing images of the brain, heart, and other organs.

1992-2001

Development of the Pomerantz Family Pavilion.

1993

UIHC’s first pediatric liver transplant.

1993

John and Mary Pappajohn Clinical Cancer Center opens.

1993

Dr. Jeffrey Galvin and associates develop the UI’s Virtual Hospital, one of the most-visited sites on the Internet.

1993

Dr. Joseph Zabner and Dr. Michael Welsh develop first successful, although temporary, gene therapy for correction of the defect in cystic fibrosis.

1994

UI becomes a national leader in the emerging field of telemedicine when federal grant establishes UI National Laboratory for the Study of Rural Telemedicine.

1994

UI neuroscientists shed valuable new light on which parts of the brain perform rational decision-making and process emotion.

1995

UIHC’s first living-related liver transplant.

1995

Pediatricians and surgeons begin providing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to neonates, infants, and adults with impaired lung function.

1996

UIHC’s first auditory brain stem implant.

1996

UI neuroscientists identify new areas responsible for word finding.

1996

UI researchers identify the first in vivo link between elevated levels of homocysteine and increased risk of heart disease.

1997

UI establishes Center for Macular Degeneration-the first of its kind in the United States. The center provides patient care while researching more effective treatments and possible prevention of this disease, which is the most common cause of blindness.

1997

UIHC establishes the University of Iowa Children's Hospital, reclaiming the heritage and tradition of excellence in children’s health care first established at the UI in 1919.

1997

UI researchers identify the gene responsible for glaucoma, a major step in ongoing efforts to find the cause and eventually develop a cure for glaucoma.

1997

UIHC’s 1,000^th adult bone marrow procedure.

1997

World’s first bilateral cochlear implant during the same surgical procedure.

1998

The new Family Care Center will open in the Pomerantz Family Pavilion, providing primary care clinics for the Departments of Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, and General Pediatrics.

1998

UIHC Trauma Service receives the highest level of designation possible from the American College of Surgeons-Level I with pediatric commitment.

1998

UIHC’s1000^th cochlear implant procedure.