1797

Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) became the country's 4th medical school, when founder Nathan Smith delivered first lecture, Nov. 22

1811

Dartmouth opens the nation's first building to use solely for medical education

1820

First US pharmacopeia published to standardize drug therapies, based on chemistry experiments and lectures at DMS

1824

First successful tying of carotid artery

1838

Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet-physician joined faculty and introduced use of stethoscope to US medical curriculum

1846

Anesthesia introduced to Northern New England when used in Hanover

1893

Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital opened and became a DMS teaching hospital

1896

First clinical x-ray in America performed to diagnose a broken arm

1927

The Hitchcock Clinic established

1946

White River Junction VA affiliation initiated

1955

Nation's first intensive care unit (ICU) established at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital

1957

Standard technique for total ear reconstruction developed

1961

The Brattleboro rat, a laboratory model for diabetes insipidus, discovered

1972

Norris Cotton Cancer Center opens with a radiation therapy machine model that is one of three worldwide

1973

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) established

1977

Porous-coated cement-less hip implant developed

1978

Interleukin-2 identified, the first immune system hormone ever isolated and characterized

1981

First continuous infusion pump to deliver pain management drugs implanted in a patient

1983

Nation's first autologous bone marrow transplant for acute myeloid leukemia performed

1984

Role of glucocorticoids (cortisone-like steroid hormones) in stress determined

1985

Frameless stereotactic brain surgery developed, using computer guided imagery instead of frame attached to the head

1987

Northern New England Cardiovascular Study Group, now a national model for improving cardiovascular disease care, created

1989

First temperature sensitive mutants affecting respiration in any organism isolated, revealing new functions for respiratory genes

1989

1989 Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (now the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice) founded

1991

Novel immune system communicator molecule, CD154, on helper T cells identified

1993

Nations' first graduate program in evaluative clinical sciences established

1993

Essential regulator of blood cell formation encoded by the most frequently rearranged genes in leukemia purified and cloned.

1994

Key cholesterol metabolism gene (for ACAT enzyme) cloned

1995

Mechanism for how light resets biological clocks discovered

1996

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care published, the first comprehensive documentation of patterns and variations in US medical practice

1996

Innovative New Hampshire vocational program pioneered by DMS psychiatrists to place those with mental illness in jobs proves successful and becomes national model

2001

Gene family of ultra small, micro RNAs (mi RNA) discovered

2003

Aspirin shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer precursor

2003

First extensive study of health care disparities found more care is not necessarily better

2003

Role of RNA in prion diseases discovered

2004

New vitamin, nicotinamide riboside, discovered in a vital molecular pathway, and in milk

2004

International Dartmouth-led clinical trial demonstrates successful cervical cancer vaccine

2006

Landmark Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) first determines that patients with severe back pain improve with and without surgery

2007

VA study demonstrates effective therapy for women vets with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)