AAMC Reporter: June 2007

American Public Medical Education Celebrates Its 200th Birthday

University of Maryland School of Medicine students observe a surgical procedure at the University of Maryland Hospital in 1897. The school was the first in the nation to build a hospital for resident training.

Kitchen knives were common surgical tools. Bloodletting was an everyday treatment protocol. Yellow fever was a major health concern. And the University of Maryland School of Medicine was in its infancy.

Established on Dec. 18, 1807, the United States' oldest public medical school is celebrating its bicentennial this year.

"It is hard to imagine the medical landscape as it was in 1807, when the University of Maryland School of Medicine was one of just a handful of medical schools in existence," said AAMC President Darrell G. Kirch, M.D. "As the nation's oldest public medical school, the University of Maryland School of Medicine has a proud and distinguished history."

Five students made up the school's inaugural graduating class in 1810. John B. Davidge, M.D., the school's first dean, and colleagues opened its first building in 1812. Now known as Davidge Hall, it is the oldest American facility continuously used for medical education. Match Day and other special occasions still take place there.

The university has acted as a trailblazer in a wide range of medical fields. In 1848, University of Maryland became the first medical school to make anatomical dissection mandatory. The university was also the first to perform a tracheotomy. Alumnus James Carroll, M.D., contracted the first experimentally induced case of yellow fever in 1900 as part of the search for a cure. More than a half-century later in the 1960s, R. Adams Cowley, M.D., and colleagues defined the critical window—or "golden hour"— for treatment of severe injuries.

"The AAMC salutes the University of Maryland School of Medicine for countless unique contributions to our nation's medical education system and the nation's health," Kirch said. The university is holding festivities all year, including a lecture series and bicentennial gala.

"This is a wonderful milestone," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., dean of the medical school. "It is a celebration of public medical education in America."

—Elissa Fuchs

For more information, please visit the University of Maryland School of Medicine Bicentennial Web site.

Editor's Note: The regular back page feature will return next month.

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