Meredith Parks, age 13, of Erie, Pa., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST MEDICAL SCHOOL OPENED IN THE U.S.?
In 18th century colonial America, prospective physicians either apprenticed themselves to established practitioners or went abroad to study in the traditional schools of London, Paris and Edinburgh. Medicine was first taught formally by specialists in America at the University of Pennsylvania, beginning in 1765, and in 1767 at King's College (now Columbia University), the first institution in the colonies to confer the degree of doctor of medicine.
In 1893 the Johns Hopkins Medical School required all applicants to have a college degree and it was the first school to afford its students the opportunity to further their training in an affiliated teaching hospital.
The growth of medical schools affiliated with established institutions of learning was paralleled by the development of proprietary schools of medicine run for personal profit, most of which had low standards and inadequate faculties.
In 1910 an American education reformer named Abraham Flexner wrote "Medical Education in the United States and Canada," exposing the inadequacies of most proprietary schools. Subsequently, the American Medical Assn. and the Assn. of American Medical Colleges laid down standards for course content, qualifications of teachers, laboratory facilities, affiliation with teaching hospitals and licensing of practitioners that survive to this day.
By the beginning of the 1980s the U.S. had 123 four year accredited medical colleges. Of these, 114 offered M.D. degrees in conventional medicine and nine offered D.O. degrees in osteopathic medicine, together conferring more than 13,500 degrees yearly.
Graduates, after a year of internship, received licenses to practice if they passed an examination administered either by a state board or by the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Medicine, the science and art concerned with curing and preventing disease, goes back to primitive times.
Through the years, the U.S. has contributed significantly to medical progress.
In 1900 a U.S. Army physician, surgeon and bacteriologist named Walter Reed and his colleagues, acting on a suggestion made by the Cuban biologist Carlos Finlay, demonstrated that the mosquito is the vector of yellow fever only a few years after a British doctor named Roland Ross had proved the role of the mosquito as a carrier of the malaria parasite.
In the last half of the 20th century operations once thought impossible were performed. In 1962, for the first time, an arm completely severed at the shoulder was successfully rejoined to the body.
Plastic replacements have led to such advances as new hip joints, which enable persons crippled by arthritis to walk again, and prosthetic arms powered by batteries.
Kidney failure, previously fatal, is now routinely treated either by a transplant or by long term treatment with an artificial kidney.
Many infectious diseases have been conquered in the 20th century by improved sanitation , antibiotics and vaccines.