History

Drs. McNutt, Jeannie Smith, Isabella Satterthwaite, and Isabella Banks found Babies Hospital, the first hospital in New York City for children, in a brownstone on Lexington Avenue and 55th Street. The hospital, with only women resident physicians, has 30 beds for sick infants up to three years of age, hence the name of the hospital, “Babies.” Malnutrition is most common diagnosis.

The hospital is the first in the US to use incubators, which were developed in France. Until this innovation many premature babies died because they were unable to regulate their body temperature, and the incubator solved this deadly problem.

Dr. Holt publishes the first modern textbook of pediatrics, Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. This textbook, in its 23rd edition in 2018, is now published as Rudolph’s Pediatrics.

Neurologist Dr. Bernard Sachs publishes his findings on what was then called “amaurotic family idiocy” and later called Tay-Sachs disease. In 1887 Dr. Sachs had noted the higher incidence of this neurologic condition among Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.

Radiologists at Babies Hospital establish the first pediatric radiology service.

The hospital, now with 191 beds, moves to Broadway and 167th Street, affiliates with the College of Physicians & Surgeons, and becomes part of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Hospital staff now treat children up to 12 years of age.

Dr. McIntosh remains department chair until 1960. He fostered a “spirit of doubt and need for inquiry” that led to breakthroughs in the treatments of many childhood diseases.

Pathologist Dr. Dorothy Andersen is the first to recognize the disease cystic fibrosis, and later helps to develop a test to diagnose it.

Dr. Hattie E. Alexander develops the first treatment of Haemophilus influenzae meningitis, heretofore an infection with case fatality rate of 80%, based on an infusion of an antiserum that she prepared

Anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar creates a simple scoring method for predicting the health status of newborns, now known as the “Apgar score.” The Apgar score measures five body functions at one minute after birth and again five minutes later to determine whether there is need for life-saving assistance. It has become an international standard of care of neonates.

Building on Dr. Dorothy Anderson's work, Dr. Paul di Sant’Agnese describes elevated sweat chloride in cystic fibrosis, then develops the noninvasive, and now standard, “sweat test” for the diagnosis of this disease.

Dr. Vincent Freda, an obstetrician, and Dr. John Gorman, director of the blood bank at Presbyterian Hospital, pioneer a vaccine that effectively eradicates Rh disease in newborn children. Rh disease is a form of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn that once claimed the lives of nearly 10,000 babies a year in the US. Drs. Freda and Gorman receive the 1980 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award in recognition of their work.

Dr. Hattie Alexander is named president of the American Pediatric Society, and is one of the first women to head a national medical association.

Dr. Jen-Tien Wung pioneers the use of non-invasive nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy to manage respiratory problems in premature infants, with the support of Drs. Stanley James, John Driscoll, other colleagues, and NICU nursing staff. CPAP is shown to reduce the need for invasive mechanical ventilation and its complications and to improve survival rates, especially among extremely low birthweight infants.

Dr. Robert Mellins is the first and only pediatrician to be appointed president of the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Mellins, a founding father of the field of pediatric pulmonology, was an international authority in the field of pediatric asthma and a career-long advocate for multidisciplinary research and patient care who welcomed into his laboratory and clinics trainees from disciplines as widespread as allergy, anesthesiology, engineering, health education, psychology, and nutrition.

Columbia surgeons Keith Reemtsma, MD and Eric Rose, MD perform one of the first successful pediatric heart transplants at Columbia. Pediatric heart transplants are now standard, and surgeons now perform about 30 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia each year, more than any other center.

Based on the research of Dr. Anne Gershon, who studied its safety and efficacy, the varicella zoster vaccine is licensed for use in the US. By 2005 the number of chickenpox cases has dropped by 90 percent, and chicken pox-related deaths in children by 97 percent. In 2013 Dr. Gershon receives the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal from the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

While diagnosing and treating children with rare disorders through the Discover Program, clinical geneticist Wendy Chung MD, PhD identifies 40 novel genes in diseases including pulmonary hypertension, congenital heart disease, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and autism. Dr. Chung  led the pivotal study of newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy.