Department History

A timeline of highlights since the department’s founding

2023

Bonnie Maldonado is appointed interim chair following Bob Harrington’s departure as chair after 11 years

Bonnie Maldonado


2022

William H. Robinson publishes a paper with Lawrence Steinman on the link between infection with the Epstein Barr virus and multiple sclerosis

William H. Robinson


2021

Launch of Post Acute COVID-19 Syndrome (PACS) Clinic, co-directed by Linda Geng and Hector Bonilla

Hector Bonilla and Linda Geng


2017

The Stanford-Meharry Initiative, later the Stanford-HBMC Summer Research Program, launches

Stanford-HBMC Summer Research Program members


2015

Purvesh Khatri and his associates find a genetic signature that enables early sepsis detection

David Relman and his team link a risk of premature birth to the composition of the mother’s vaginal bacterial community during pregnancy

Stanford Medicine purchases ValleyCare (now TriValley) in Pleasanton; Hospital Medicine staff are among the first to staff the new hospital

Purvesh Khatri


2014

Hannah Valantine, Stephen Quake, Kiran Khush, and Thomas Snyder develop a blood test that can detect heart transplant rejection


2012

Robert Harrington becomes department chair

Robert Harrington


2009

Abraham Verghese organizes the first Bedside Medicine Symposium, the precursor to the Stanford 25, also led by Verghese

Ravi Majeti, Irving Weissman, Mark Chao, and Siddhartha Jaiswal find that human leukemia cells escape detection by sending a “don’t eat me” signal

Abraham Verghese


2001

Paul Yock co-founds Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign with engineering professor Josh Makower, pioneering a new process for medical device innovation

Paul Yock


1993

William Haskell and colleagues demonstrate that aggressive lifestyle and drug therapy decrease heart attack rates and slow progression of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries

Researcher Joel Killen is the lead author on a paper sharing findings from the first long-term, controlled study attempting to prevent adolescent eating disorders


1992

First family medicine clerkship launched


1990

Shoshana Levy identifies a new family of proteins called tetraspanins and spawns a new field of cancer research

Paul Yock invents rapid exchange angioplasty and stenting system

Shoshana Levy


1989

Tom Merigan’s lab develops quantitative viral RNA assay to measure HIV viral load

Paul Yock files fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound imaging, which produces cross-sectional images from inside of arteries

Tom Merigan


1987

Karl Blume completes the first successful bone marrow transplant

Mark Musen builds Protégé, a widely used platform for building and maintaining terminology and ontologies, including ICD-11

Karl Blume


1985

Georgette Stratos and Kelley Skeff introduce the “train the trainer” model in faculty development

Georgette Stratos and Kelley Skeff


1984

Richard Popp and colleagues develop a noninvasive method for estimating pressures in the heart using ultrasound


1981

Ronald Levy successfully uses monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer

John Simpson and Ned Robert develop a catheter system for coronary angioplasty with an independently steerable guidewire

Ronald Levy


1979

Bryan Myers publishes a landmark paper elucidating the properties of the human glomerulus and tubule in health and disease


1975

Peter Wood and colleagues discover a link between exercise and increased HDL cholesterol levels

Bill Robinson and colleagues successfully treat hepatitis B, previously incurable, with interferon, laying the groundwork for an eventual vaccine

Saul Rosenberg and Henry Kaplan develop new techniques for treating cancer patients with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy

Peter Wood


1974

Stanley Cohen and UCSF professor Herbert Boyer clone DNA and transplant genes from one living organism to another, paving the way for genetic engineering and DNA therapies

Bill Robinson isolates the genome of a virus that causes hepatitis B and a common form of liver cancer

Stanley Cohen


1972

Immunologist Hugh McDevitt discovers a new class of regulatory genes that controls the immune response to foreign substances

John Farquhar and Peter Wood conduct first U.S. studies of community-wide health education for preventing heart disease

Hugh McDevitt


1971

Peter Wood and John Farquhar conduct first multi-site clinical studies showing lowering cholesterol prevents heart disease

Peter Wood and John Farquhar


1968

John Farquhar and Gerald Reaven discover that insulin resistance is the principal physiologic characteristic of mild type-II diabetes and obesity

John Farquhar


1964

Judith Pool discovers a technique for extracting anti-hemophilic globulin, the blood fraction needed to prevent bleeding in hemophiliacs

Judith Pool


1963

Saul Rosenberg establishes one of the first academic oncology programs in the United States

Researchers in the Department of Medicine Oncology program


1961

Internal Medicine residency program begins with Saul Rosenberg as the program director

Saul Rosenberg


1960

Halsted Holman, age 35 at the time, becomes department chair


late 1950s–1960s

John Luetscher characterizes hyperaldosteronism, an endocrine disorder in which the adrenal glands produce too much aldosterone

John Luetscher


1957

Rose Payne discovers the role of human leukocyte antigens in the immune system, leading to tissue-matching techniques for organ transplants


1956

Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover serves as honorary chairman of a committee to fundraise for a medical center to be built on campus


1926

Arthur Bloomfield named chair of the Department of Medicine

Arthur Bloomfield


1925

A medicine clerkship is introduced for third-year medical students to provide practical ward experience

Patients under care


1921

The School of Medicine is reorganized into departments, including the Department of Medicine


1917

Nearly a dozen members of Stanford Medical Faculty, including Albion Walter Hewlett, are called to active service in Europe during the First World War


1916

Albion Walter Hewlett is appointed executive of what was then the Division of Medicine and its subdivisions


1914

The Department of Medicine becomes the School of Medicine and includes divisions of medicine, neurology, psychiatry, jurisprudence, and dermatology


1910

Ray L. Wilbur is appointed executive head of the Department of Medicine


1909

First year of medical instruction begins with students to receive MD degrees in 1913

Medical students in the early years of the Department of Medicine