Department Timeline since 1870

• 1870

  State University of Iowa (UI) launches its School of Medicine.

• 1890

  Dr. John Mullen, "Anesthetizer", teaches anesthesia to nursing students in the Gynecological School.

• 1910

  UI hires its first resident physician anesthetist (possibly the first in the U.S.), Lewis William Harding.

• 1923

  Mary Ross, an intern under Lewis William Harding, becomes the first known U.S. physician to complete anesthesia residency as a medical specialty.

• 1927

  Dorothy Dimond, MD, who interned under Mary Ross, becomes head of Division of Anesthesia.

• 1938

  Stuart Cullen, MD, becomes chief of anesthesiology in 1938; in 1939, he becomes the 55th person in the U.S. to be board-certified in anesthesia.

• 1949

  Wool pants cause an explosion of diethyl ether in an operating room, perforating the anesthetist's eardrum and causing a pharyngeal laceration in the patient; the incident motivates Stuart Cullen, MD, to begin researching inert gases (xenon) as anesthetizing agents.

• 1950

  Jack Moyers, MD, future Department Chair, teaches an anesthesia course in Copenhagen, Denmark, sponsored by the World Health Organization during the European polio crisis; he introduces the concept of manual ventilation of patients with bulbar polio.

• 1951

  First reported use of xenon as an anesthetic in humans in the world, (Stuart Cullen, MD, and Erwin G. Gross, MD. Published in the journal Science/1951)

• 1952

  Lucien Morris invents the Copper Kettle vaporizer, the first anesthetic system to permit reproducible, known volumes and concentrations of volitile anesthetic vapor to patients. This system becomes the industry standard for the next 25 years.

• 1953

  Jack Moyers, MD, establishes the Intensive Care Unit at Iowa.

• 1957

  John Severinghaus, MD, a resident under Stuart Cullen, MD, completes and publishes development of the PCO2 Electrode.

• 1958

  William Hamilton, MD, is appointed Division Chair.

• 1961

  First Midwest Anesthesia Residents Meeting, organized by William Hamilton, MD, and Jack Moyers, MD, is held in Iowa City.

• 1963

  Anesthesia breaks from Department of Surgery to become an independent Department.

• 1968

  Midwest Anesthesia Residents Meeting becomes Midwest Anesthesia Residents Conference (MARC), now the largest gathering of anesthesia residents in the world; Department becomes nationally known for research on muscle relaxant BW33A (atracurium).

• 1973

  Department hires its first sub-specialty anesthesiologist, Roland Kennedy, MD (obstetric anesthesia).

• 1980

  John Tinker, MD, is appointed Department Chair; recruits David Chestnut, MD, (Chestnut's Obstetric Anesthesia) and Michael Todd, MD, to bolster the Department's research activities; establishes collaboration between Department and College of Nursing to create Anesthesia Nursing Program.

• 1980

  Pain Management program begins as a Department consultation service.

• 1983

  Samir Gergis, MD, and Marty Sokoll, MD, publish their work on the priming principle, the idea that a small initial dose of anesthetic should be followed by a much larger dose to hasten the onset of neuromuscular block.

• 1984

  Max Baker, PhD, creates one of only 3 labs to study the biochemistry of anesthetics; James Bates, MD PhD, and John Tinker, MD, join the research.

• 1987

  Javier Campos, MD, expert in one-lung ventilation, author of chapter in Miller Anesthesia, joins Department; Ambulatory Surgery Center opens.

• 1988

  2-person hyperbaric oxygen chamber installed.

• 1989

  UI is the first hospital in the world to administer desflurane to a patient receiving coronary bypass surgery.

• 1994

  Franklin Dexter, MD, PhD, FASA, begins developing the science of operating room management to increase efficiency and improve work flow.

• 1995

  Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) service expands to accommodate 8 patients; SRNA program created; Pain Clinic becomes largest integrated pain clinic in the U.S.

• 1999

  Department begins high-fidelity patient simulator program, one of only 20 such programs in the U.S.

• 1999

  Michael Todd, MD, receives $11 million from NIH to conduct the Intraoperative Hypothermia for Aneurysm Surgery Trial (IHAST), the largest grant award to an anesthesiologist up to 1999. The data leads to a 5-year NIH-funded international cooperative trial at more than 30 sites. (Michael Todd MD, Bradley Hindman, MD, James Torner, MD, William R. Clarke, MD)

• 2000

  Donna Hammond, PhD, is named Vice Chair of Research for the Department, the first woman to hold a Vice Chair leadership position.

• 2002

  PreOperative Evaluation Clinic opens.

• 2004

  Ann Smith, CRNA, is named Chief CRNA for the Department, the first woman to hold the post.

• 2005

  Infant mannequins added to patient simulator program.

• 2008

  Christina Spofford, MD, PhD, becomes the first woman in the Department to earn a major FAER award.

• 2010

  Donna Hammond, PhD, is named Executive Dean of Carver College of Medicine.

• 2012

  Debra Schwinn, MD, is named Dean of the Carver College of Medicine, the first (and, so far, only) woman to serve in the role, and one of only 20 women permanent medical school deans in the U.S. at the time.

• 2014

  David Kaczka, MD, PhD, researcher focusing on mechanical heterogeneity in respiratory system diseases, joins the Department.

• 2015

  Cynthia Wong, MD, editor and chapter author for the 4th edition Chestnut's Obstetric Anesthesia, named Department chair, the first woman to lead anesthesia services at the University of Iowa since Dorothy Dimond.

• 2015

  Randy Loftus, MD, internationally recognized expert in epidemiology of intraoperative bacterial transmission, joins the Department.

• 2015

  Pain Clinic expands, averaging 250 patient visits and 290 procedures per month.

• 2015

  Melinda Seering, MD, becomes the first woman medical director of the Ambulatory Surgery Center.

• 2016

  Andrew Feider, MD, expert in cardiothoracic anesthesia and one-lung ventilation, joins the Department.

• 2016

  Michelle Parra, MD, is named director of the Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine fellowship program, the first woman to hold a fellowship director post in the Department.

• 2017

  Stead Family Children's Hospital opens with 190 beds; Sarah Titler, MD, after serving as Director of Anesthesia Transition to the Children's Hospital, is named clinical director of the Children's Hospital ORs.

• 2018

  Melinda Seering, MD, becomes the first woman president of the Iowa Society of Anesthesiologists since the 1970s, and only the second woman president in its history.

• 2018

  Department provides anesthesia services for more than 50 operating rooms, more than 20 specialty clinics, and 7 non-surgical units.

• 2018

  Hyperbaric Oxygen facility joins 20-center HOBIT study exploring best treatment parameters for people with brain injuries.

• 2018

  Anureet Walia, MBBS, opens the Pediatric Comprehensive Pain Clinic, the first multidisciplinary clinic of its kind in Iowa.

• 2019

  Forbes ranks University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics #15 overall in its list of best U.S. employers for women and #4 in the Healthcare & Social Category; anonymous donor establishes the Anesthesia Research Institute for the Department, designed to support research that otherwise would likely go unfunded.

• 2019

  Amy Pearson, MD, is elected president of Women in Anesthesiology.