Medical Center Firsts

When the fledgling Bowman Gray School of Medicine and N.C. Baptist Hospital entered into a partnership in 1941, it created the foundation for the nationally renowned academic medical center that exists today.

Throughout the decades, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has set high standards in its clinical work, research, administration work and education. The timeline that follows highlights some of the key achievements through those years that have brought national, and even international, recognition.

Year Accomplishment
1941 Wake Forest Recruits World Renoun Lipid Chemist

1959

Merging Clinical Practice and Faculty
1965 Reattaching Severed Human Hand
1968 Kidney Stone Removal Process Invented
1972 Using Ultrasound to Detect Prostate Cancer
1979 Toll-Free Hotline for Epilepsy is Established
1983 Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Used to Measure Atherosclerotic Buildup
1984 Team Devises Surgical Solution to Wounds Caused by Lye Ingestion
1986 The Birth of Wrist Arthroscopy
1986 Lithotripsy Used to Break up Common Duct Gallstones
1988 Early Novel Efforts to Cure AIDS
1988 A Device to Help Epileptics
1990

Invention of Vacuum-Assisted Wound-Closure Device

1992 Theories of Kidney Disease Confirmed
1997 WFBMC Opens Unique Aging Center
1999 Discovery of Two World-First MRI Uses
1999 New Brain Cancer Treatment Discovered
2002 First Live Internet Broadcast of Deep Brain stimulation Procedure
2002 Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health Opens
2004 Commitment to Developing Replacement Organs and Tissues
2004 Debunking Long-Held Menopause Beliefs
2004 LASIK Surgery Made More Effective
2007 Showing the Dangers of Energy Drinks
2007 Using Botox to Treat Spasticity After Stroke
2007 WFBMC Launches Comprehensive Pediatric Obesity Program
2008 Using Genomics to Predict Prostate Cancer
2010 Pioneering Robotic Surgery
2010 Development of Protein to Destroy Brain Cancer Cells
2011 Partnership in Automotive Safety
2012 ADHD Drug Research Breakthrough
2012 Studying Head Injuries in Young Football Players
2013 Nurse Anesthesia Program Earns Distinction
2014 Guidelines to Prevent Stroke in Women Authored
2014 High Blood Pressure Belief Disproved