Penicillin
British scientist Alexander Fleming first uncovered the ability of mold to stem bacteria growth in 1928, but his finding drew little attention. It was Australian scientist Howard Florey and a Read more…
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Pap Smear
Cervical cancer was the deadliest form of cancer for women until physician George Papanicolau developed a highly effective method to detect the disease even before any symptoms were present. Papanicolau Read more…
March of Dimes
The March of Dimes is one of the most popular and successful charity campaigns in American history. Founded in 1938 by polio victim Franklin Roosevelt as the National Foundation for Read more…
Yellow Fever Vaccine
Yellow fever, one of the most feared diseases in America, ravaged port towns and nearby communities throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the human toll, international trade Read more…
Health Insurance
Until almost 1930, health insurance to cover the risk of expensive hospitalization or doctor care did not exist in the United States. Families rolled the dice, and if a member Read more…
Molecular Biology
In 1928, the Rockefeller Foundation established a natural sciences division headed by University of Wisconsin mathematics professor Warren Weaver. Weaver encouraged collaboration among biologists, chemists, mathematicians, and medical researchers, and Read more…
A Standard Nomenclature of Disease
Before 1933, no standard reference existed in American medicine for describing and diagnosing illnesses. The New York Academy of Medicine convened the first conference on the nomenclature of disease in Read more…
Influenza Virus
When the influenza pandemic struck in 1918, most scientists and doctors believed it was caused by bacteria. Killing up to 100 million people worldwide, the pandemic was the deadliest in Read more…
Rural Hospitals
When the Harkness family established the Commonwealth Fund in 1918, health care was one of their highest priorities. More than half of all counties in the United States lacked a Read more…
Shriners Hospitals for Children
In the first half of the twentieth century, polio created a heavy demand for orthopedic services for children. In response, the fraternal organization Shriners International placed a $2 yearly assessment Read more…
Huntsman Cancer Institute
Both of Jon Huntsman’s parents died of cancer. In 1992, he was diagnosed with the disease himself—the first of his four separate personal battles with the killer. His stints in Read more…
Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences
Former Stanford University professor of computer science James Clark established a clutch of successful business ventures: Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Healtheon, and myCFO. Feeling indebted to Stanford as the site where Read more…
Volunteers in Medicine
In 1994, retired physician Jack McConnell, best-known as the developer of Tylenol while a researcher at Johnson & Johnson, had the idea of recruiting other retired doctors and nurses to Read more…
Prostate Cancer Foundation
Business financier Michael Milken, a longtime anti-cancer donor, detected inefficient patterns in medical research similar to those he had worked against during his career in high finance. He discovered it Read more…
Bill Gates Helps Mass-produce DNA Arrays
One of the first major philanthropic projects of Bill Gates, launched long before he shifted his gaze steadily to philanthropy, came back in 1992. The University of Washington Medical School Read more…
Aaron Diamond Foundation Unmasks HIV’s Weak Spots
In 1985 the Aaron Diamond Foundation was founded in New York City to honor the eponymous real-estate developer, who passed away suddenly of a heart attack in 1983, by his Read more…
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
Bill Gates has described how his perspective changed when he read a 1996 New York Times story about how hundreds of thousands of children in the developing world die every Read more…
Fisher Houses Created for Families of Hospitalized Military
In 1990, New York City real-estate developer Zachary Fisher learned about a servicewoman who had recently received medical treatment at a military hospital. Her husband, unable to afford a hotel, Read more…
Development of the Automated DNA Sequencer
In the early 1980s, longtime Caltech biology professor Leroy Hood had conceptualized an instrument that would automate the slow, labor-intensive process of sequencing DNA. The tedious hand process, which required Read more…
Health Surveys and Patient-centered Care
Harvey Picker had played an important role in commercializing X-rays and other forms of electronic imaging and became a significant donor with the money he made in the process. Making Read more…