Montefiore is the embodiment of a 21st century medical center, with model programs in areas such as minimally invasive surgery, organ transplantation, congestive heart failure and pediatric oncology. These "state of the art" programs epitomize a tradition of innovation that dates back to 1884, which has seen Montefiore exemplify both medical leadership and a commitment to social change and community investment. Here are just a few of our historical highlights.
1884
Montefiore opens as a Home for Chronic Invalids, providing care primarily for patients with tuberculosis. The average length of stay is more than 350 days.
1901
Asthma patients at Montefiore are treated with adrenalin chloride - one of the earliest clinical uses of adrenalin anywhere.
1914
Women join the house staff at Montefiore and a female Medical Department chair is appointed.
1920s
Ernst Boas, MD, Director of Montefiore, develops the cardiotachometer, an innovative instrument to measure the heart's beat. The device is now on display in the Smithsonian Museum.
Montefiore offers physicians full-time salaried positions, a rarity in hospitals of the day. This bold initiative helped attract a number of renowned physicians forced into exile by the rise of Nazism in Europe.
1930s
African-American medical residents are accepted at Montefiore.
1940s
The nation's first Headache Unit is opened at Montefiore.
Montefiore opens a Department of Home Health Care, establishing the earliest such hospital-based program in the nation.
1950s
The Social Medicine Department is started at Montefiore, the first medical department in the nation to focus on removing health disparities between the general and disadvantaged populations.
Physicians at Montefiore develop a heart-lung machine that is used in a series of operations to correct congenital heart defects in children.
Researchers at Montefiore develop a transvenous cardiac pacemaker.
Montefiore recognizes a hospital workers union.
1960s
Montefiore begins an affiliation with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a relationship that continues today.
New York City's unique private-public system of medical care gets its start when Montefiore enters into a contract to provide medical services at a municipal hospital.
1970s
A Residency Program in Social Medicine is created at Montefiore.
The community-based Lead Poisoning Prevention Program is launched. The program remains a national model to this day.
Montefiore begins providing care for prisoners at New York City's Rikers Island Detention Center, a relationship that extends for two decades.
A Montefiore physician invents the system of cardiac pacemaker monitoring by telephone.
1980s
Montefiore launches an early response to the emerging AIDS epidemic, earning designation as one of the first comprehensive AIDS Centers in New York State.
The Child Protection Center is established at Montefiore, the first center in New York dedicated to the evaluation, treatment, follow-up and prevention of child abuse.
1990s
The New York Children's Health Project joins the Montefiore system.
The Montefiore Safe House for Lead Poisoning Prevention opens.
The Association of American Medical Colleges chooses Montefiore as the recipient of its Outstanding Community Service Award.
The Rabin Medical Center in Israel affiliates with Montefiore for collaborative research and the exchange of health professionals.
Montefiore joins with other New York medical centers to form the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York (BRANY), a clinical research consortium.
2000 and beyond
Montefiore leads the way in organizational ethics, becoming the first medical center in the nation to develop a Code of Ethics.
Setting a trend for the future practice of surgery, Montefiore sets up the Montefiore Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIMIS).
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore opens, offering children from across the NY metropolitan region and the world the most advanced medical technologies and the best medical experience for children and their families anywhere.
The Heart Transplant Center is established at Montefiore.
Major rebuilding occurs at Montefiore's East campus, including 6 robotic surgical suites, a new emergency department, a new cancer center and a new orthopedic center.
For the first time in medical history, in 2004 surgeons at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore successfully separated conjoined twins in a series of four staged surgeries with no resulting neurological damage or deficit to either patient. The boys were born joined at the tops of their heads and shared a section of brain and critical blood vessels. Now, three years after their history-making separation, Carl and Clarence Aguirre are healthy, happy, rambunctious five-year-olds who make their home in Westchester, NY, with their mother Arlene. They attend school daily and have every prospect of leading normal, healthy and separate lives.
Developing breakthrough technologies such as: the PET-CT scan for improved diagnosis of cancer and heart disease; the use of improved LVADs (left ventricular assist devices) as permanent instead of temporary heart-pumping devices; use of ever-more-precise imaging and radiation-dose technology that compensates for normal tumor motion when treating certain forms of cancer.
Montefiore Medical Center was a National Finalist for the 2006 Foster G. McGaw Prize for excellence in community service in health care.
In 2007 Montefiore launched the first and only hospital-based Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine Clinic in New York. Montefiore Medical Center also joined with the New York Blood Center to establish an umbilical cord blood collection site -- the first such facility in the Bronx and the seventh in the U.S.
© 2008 Montefiore Medical Center