Medicine in Illinois
Then & Now
Then
1818 – Illinois is granted statehood and becomes the 21st state; Kaskaskia is its capital, moving to
Vandalia a year later. The state’s population is only about 35,000 and most of the flat, open prairie
is largely unsettled. The principal cause of ill health is stagnant water and decaying vegetation. The
northeast part of the new state is swampland, and typhoid and malaria are rampant.
Now
The capital is Springfield, and Illinois is the fifth most populous state with 12.8 million residents.
Chicago is the nation’s third-largest city and the center of one of the world’s most dynamic
medical communities. Typhoid and malaria are nearly non-existent, only to be replaced by heart
and lung disease, cancer, strokes, accidents and Alzheimer’s as leading causes of death.
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Then
1800s – House calls are just as common as office hours, and doctors spend long hours on
horseback making “rounds.” A sturdy leather bag thrown over his saddle is the doctor’s traveling
drugstore from which he dispenses morphine, calomel (mercury), salves, and his own prepared
powders, pills and potions. Physicians are attentive to finding a good horse, one that can trot, pace
or lope, so as not to break the valuable bottles in their saddlebags.
Now
The tradition of house calls lives on, but with a technological twist. New smart phone applications
in some areas of the U.S. connect patients with a new breed of mobile physicians who efficiently
arrive at patients’ homes to provide a limited range of services. Telemedicine, patient web portals,
and consultations via email and video conference are tools used in medical practices across the
country.
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Then
1828 – Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby, 24, moves to downstate Hardin County and becomes the first
physician there, and perhaps the first female doctor in Illinois. Legend says that while following
cattle in search of the cause of dreaded “milk sickness,” she encounters a Shawnee Indian woman
who tells her the white snakeroot plant causes milk sickness (tremetol vomiting) and even death.
Dr. Anna, as she is known, confirms this hypothesis and starts a campaign to eradicate the plant.
Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy, is said to have died from milk sickness. Dr. Anna’s findings,
however, are not recognized by the medical establishment until well into the 20 th Century.
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Now
Although very rare today, milk sickness can occur if a person drinks contaminated milk or eats
dairy products gathered from a single cow or small herd that has fed on the white snakeroot plant.
There is no known cure, but treatment is available. The Illinois State Medical Society is a leader in
strongly urging the Illinois Department of Public Health to prohibit the sale and distribution of all
raw and unpasteurized milk and raw milk products in Illinois.
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Then
1840 – Seven years before the American Medical Association is formed, 12 Illinois doctors convene
in Springfield to charter the Illinois State Medical Society. The aims of the newly formed Society
are to advance the professionalism of true medical doctors and serve the public health needs of a
rapidly growing state. John Todd, MD, uncle of Mary Todd Lincoln, is the group’s inaugural
president. In the early 1840s, most doctors learn through apprenticeships, and many do not attend
medical school. Anyone can work as a doctor, with or without a medical license. The Medical
Society seeks to improve physician training, licensing and practice.
Now
The Illinois State Medical Society represents thousands of Illinois physicians. The Society is a
professional organization representing and unifying its physician members as they practice the
science and art of medicine. The Society represents the interests of member physicians, advocates
for patients and promotes the doctor/patient relationship, the ethical practice of medicine, and
the betterment of the public health.
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Then
1843 – The first two medical colleges are established in Illinois. Rush Medical College is founded in
Chicago by Daniel Brainard, MD, and named after the famed physician, Benjamin Rush, MD; and
Illinois College, in downstate Jacksonville, starts a medical class that exists for five years.
Now
Eight world-class medical schools exist in the Land of Lincoln and graduate more than 1,000 young
doctors each year. The University of Illinois and Carle Health System are establishing a first-of-itskind medical college combining the practices of engineering and medicine.
Then
1847 – David Jones Peck graduates from Rush Medical College, becoming the first African
American in the nation to earn a medical degree.
1893 – The world’s first successful open-heart surgery is performed in Chicago by Dr. Daniel Hale
Williams, one of the first black physicians in the city. The surgery takes place at Provident Hospital,
the city’s first interracial hospital, of which Dr. Williams was a founder.
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Now
Racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the workforce is fostered at all levels of medicine.
Organizations and medical schools recognize the importance of a diverse workforce in reducing
health disparities and improving patient outcomes. Medicine closed the gender gap in the 2000s
when the number of female medical school enrollees eclipsed that of their male counterparts.
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Then
1899 – Adda Eldredge becomes the first registered nurse in Illinois after successfully lobbying for
the Nurse Practice Act.
Now
There are more than 178,800 registered nurses in Illinois, including 26,500 Licensed Practical
Nurses.
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Then
1859-1900 – Chicago physicians fight smallpox and cholera epidemics, and advocate for sanitation
efforts in the rapidly growing city. The Civil War and the Great Fire of 1871 call physicians to
service in caring for the wounded. The Illinois Medical District is formed.
Now
Smallpox and cholera are eradicated in Illinois, and Chicago boasts safe, good drinking water. The
Illinois Medical District is the largest urban healthcare, education, research and technology district
in the nation.
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Then to Now
1861 – With the nation at war, Illinois physicians “… from the cities, from the villages, and from the
broad prairies” report for duty as military surgeons. Not all, however, are qualified to serve. The
Secretary of War requests that the Illinois Board of Medical Examiners set professional standards
for those physicians seeking to alleviate the suffering of the wounded. The Board designs
examinations to confirm the qualifications of each candidate for duty. The results: Of 495
candidates, 159 are recommended to the office of surgeon, 266 are recommended for the office
of assistant surgeon, and 70 are rejected.
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1910 – Cardiologist James B. Herrick, MD, is the first to identify sickle cell anemia and in 1912 is
the first to discover clot formation in coronary arteries as a major cause of heart attacks.
1923 – Rush surgeon Arthur Dean Bevan, MD, aided by anesthetist Isabella Herb, MD, is the first in
the U.S. to administer ethylene-oxygen – a new anesthetic less toxic for both patient and surgical
staff than earlier chemicals.
1923-25 – Rush Professor George Dick, MD, and his wife, pathologist Gladys Rowena Henry Dick,
MD, discover the cause of scarlet fever and develop a vaccine for the disease.
1937 – The world’s first blood bank is established at Cook County Hospital.
1948 – Cardiologist James A. Campbell, MD, establishes Chicago’s first cardiac catheterization
laboratory in the Department of Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital.
1962 – William Shorey, MD, an ISMS member for 30 years, along with John Schneewind, MD, and
Harold Paul, MD, of Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, are the first in the nation to reattach a
severed hand.
1966 – George M. Hass, MD, and a team at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s demonstrate the role of
nicotine in hardening of the arteries and thickening of blood that can lead to heart attack and
stroke.
1968 – Hassan Najafi, MD, an ISMS member for 40 years, and his team perform Chicago’s first
successful adult heart transplant at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital.
1976 – ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company is founded by physicians when other medical liability
insurance carriers flee the state due to an unfavorable medical liability climate. Over the years,
with ISMS, ISMIE participates in multiple tort reform initiatives. A major rally in Springfield in 1985
sees roughly 4,000 physicians at the Capitol, lending their voices to the call for medical liability
reforms and achieving success. In 2005, major tort reforms win the day due to physician activism
and involvement. Medical liability premiums stabilize the medical legal climate, and the flow of
doctors leaving the state subsides. Although medical lawsuit reforms were overturned in 2010,
ISMS and ISMIE remain ready to fight for reforms to ensure health care access for patients. Today,
ISMIE is the largest carrier of medical professional liability insurance in the state and remains
physician owned and led.
1970s-1980s – In the mid-1970s ISMS is established as an accreditor of intrastate CME programs,
assisting accredited providers in bringing quality CME to physicians at the most local level. In 1987
ISMS achieves status as an accredited interstate sponsor of continuing medical education, to
provide CME for its physician members that they are not likely to get from medical specialty
societies, locally accredited CME providers or other clinically oriented professional groups.
1980s – ISMS physicians galvanize efforts to bring AIDS education to junior and senior high school
students, training nearly 300 physicians to inform youths across the state on the dangers of the
disease. Extensive program materials and public service announcements are made available in
English and Spanish.
1989 – The world’s first successful liver transplant from a living donor is performed at the
University of Chicago Medical Center.
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2000s – Public health campaigns are developed and disseminated by ISMS to bring awareness to
deep vein thrombosis, outdoor/summer safety, concussion awareness, noise pollution and the
importance of advance directives.
2003 – At the request of President George W. Bush, ISMS hosts forums on Medicare and tort
reform.
2005 – The “Keep Doctors in Illinois” campaign yields success when Illinois lawmakers pass
measures to cap noneconomic damages and adopt other reforms for the benefit of physicians and
patients.
2006 – The Springfield City Council passes a comprehensive smoking ban for most indoor
workplaces, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and private clubs, protecting the public
from the dangers of secondhand smoke. In 2008, the ISMS-backed Smoke Free Illinois Act imposes
a statewide indoor smoking ban.
2007 – Non-physician health professionals vigorously push for expanded practice. To protect the
health of mothers and infants, ISMS successfully prevents licensure of undertrained lay midwives
and ensures that independent birth centers must have a physician medical director to coordinate
provision of patient care.
2010 – Congress passes and President Obama signs into law the Affordable Care Act. ISMS works
to educate physicians and patients about its implications, and advocates for changes that will
improve health care delivery and patient access to care under the new law.
2014 – Illinois is among 23 states to legalize use of medical cannabis. Although still not put into
practice in Illinois, ISMS works with the physician community to establish resources for when the
law is finally implemented.
2014-15 – Although Illinois averts the Ebola crisis, preparedness efforts include the designation of
four Chicago hospitals as emergency treatment centers. ISMS provides physicians the opportunity
to learn more about the crisis with an online course, “The Ebola Crisis and Infectious Disease:
Lessons Learned from the Front Lines.”
2015 – Governor Bruce Rauner proclaims June 9 as “Illinois State Medical Society Founders Day,”
recognizing the dedication of Illinois physicians to public health since the Society’s founding in
1840.
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