A History of Improving Care for All

1922: First administration of insulin in the United States

In 1898, at the age of 29, Elliott P. Joslin, MD, opened an office on Beacon Street, Boston, where he researched the effects of fasting and feasting in patients with diabetes. After establishing himself as a leader in the field, Joslin helped the New England Deaconess Hospital open the William Nast Brodbeck Cottage (named for the first president of the hospital’s Board of Managers), a site dedicated to the care of ‘diabetic and nervous patients,’ though it was soon devoted solely to diabetic work.

In 1921, two researchers at the University of Toronto, Frederick G. Banting and Charles H. Best, succeeded in bringing a diabetic dog out of a coma through the use of insulin. These researchers teamed up with Eli Lilly and Company, an Indiana-based pharmaceutical manufacturer, to begin preparing their extract of purified insulin for commercial use.

A year later, Joslin became one of a select few American physicians to receive insulin for clinical trials. On August 7, 1922, Joslin oversaw the first administration of insulin in the United States by his assistant Howard Root, MD. The recipient was a 42-year-old former nurse, Elizabeth Mudge, who lived another 25 years.

In 1898, at the age of 29, Elliott P. Joslin, MD, opened an office on Beacon Street, Boston, where he researched the effects of fasting and feasting in patients with diabetes. After establishing himself as a leader in the field, Joslin helped the New England Deaconess Hospital open the William Nast Brodbeck Cottage (named for the first president of the hospital’s Board of Managers), a site dedicated to the care of ‘diabetic and nervous patients,’ though it was soon devoted solely to diabetic work.

1959: First Hospital in the World to Bank Blood Platelets for Immediate Transfusion

In 1959, led by hematologist James Tullis, MD, New England Deaconess Hospital became the first hospital in the world to bank blood platelets for immediate transfusion. Tullis had worked with Dr. Edward Cohn at Harvard Medical School on modifying the Cohn fractionator, a device used around the world to prepare human blood products for transfusion. This device collected plasma and platelets, safely returning the remaining blood products to the donor. Today, one-third of the 60 million blood collections performed worldwide are collected on modern versions of the “Cohn centrifuge.”

Dr. Tullis also became the first president of the American Society of Hematology in 1959.

1972: BI Establishes Hospital-Based Ambulatory Care

Between the 1950s and early 1970s, hospital outpatient departments saw a surge in demand for their services, fueled by the lower cost and easier access associated with outpatient care. As care shifted away from private physician offices toward outpatient hospital care, Beth Israel’s Thomas Delbanco, MD, saw an opportunity to rethink a hospital’s role in delivering high-quality patient care.

In 1972, under the supervision of Delbanco and others, Beth Israel Hospital in Boston closed its traditional general clinics and established a primary-care group practice: Beth Israel Ambulatory Care (BIAC). This new practice was one of the first primary care teaching practices at an academic health center in the world, and opened as the forerunner to the present-day Healthcare Associates.

BIAC was transformative for both patients and hospitals alike. It gave patients access to affordable, comprehensive care with a continuity of physicians, nurses, social workers and others, while also freeing up specialty services and the ER for patients who needed them most.

2003: Newly Discovered Protein Advances Preeclampsia Treatment

Researchers at BIDMC were the first to discover sFlt-1, a protein that leads to the development of preeclampsia. This condition occurs in an estimated 5 percent of all pregnancies, affecting approximately 200,000 women in the U.S. each year. And, it’s one of the leading causes of maternal and infant mortality in developing countries.

The discovery of sFlt-1 has helped clinicians make more prompt and accurate diagnosis of preeclampsia. In addition, it has led to new therapeutic techniques that show promise in treating preeclampsia and safely extending pregnancies and improving outcomes for mothers and newborns.

2010: BIDMC Establishes the Mouse Hospital

The BIDMC Cancer Center established the Preclinical Murine Pharmacogenetics Core, or the Mouse Hospital, as it’s more commonly known. The Mouse Hospital designs and implements preclinical trials to test new medicines and treatments in mice – the mice are used to model human diseases. The Mouse Hospital is unique in several ways: one, for scaling down complex machinery such as ultrasounds and CT scanners to fit the size of mice; and two, for the ability to genetically modify mouse models by programming mutated genes that result in specific cancers.

The New York Times described BIDMC’s Mouse Hospital as being “at the forefront of a new approach to studying human cancers.”

Early trials at the Mouse Hospital were the first to test treatments in mice and humans simultaneously. Subsequent studies and clinical trials have shown promise in advancing research and personalized treatment.