Early Contributions to the Johns Hopkins Hospital by the 'Other' Surgeon: John Shaw Billings

Dr. William Stewart Halsted, the first chief of surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, made many contributions to the field of surgery and played a major role in the early success of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Many consider him to have been the most innovative and influential surgeon that this country has produced. Among his many contributions are the introduction of local and regional anesthesia; the development of the intestinal suture; an operation for advanced breast cancer, an operation for the cure of inguinal hernia, and the first successful resection of a periampullary tumor; and many contributions to thyroid and parathyroid surgery, vascular surgery, and orthopedic surgery. However, his two most important contributions were the introduction of the philosophy of safe surgery and a system for training surgical residents in this country. 1,2 However, there was another surgeon who perhaps made even more basic contributions to the early success of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School and to the field of medicine at large. This individual actually planned the Johns Hopkins Hospital and oversaw its construction, which took 11 years, played an important role in integrating teaching and research into the hospital structure and function, helped recruit its early faculty/staff members, and made important contributions to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In addition to his contributions to Hopkins, he made major pioneering and lasting contributions to the collection, storage, and retrieval of biomedical information. This individual was a member of the American Surgical Association and perhaps one of its most productive and brilliant members. However, even in those cities where he spent most of his career, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and to a lesser extent Boston, he remains relatively unknown. In reviewing his life and his career, there are many lessons to be learned from the incredibly productive and successful career of Dr. John Shaw Billings. 3–5