Medical Pioneer. He graduated from Yale University in 1870 and received a medical degree from Columbia University in 1875. Convinced that America's unregulated approach to medicine, with no licensing or training requirements, was ineffective, he studied pathology and other sciences in Europe at the time the work of Louis Pasteur and other scientists transformed medicine. He became the first Medical School Dean at Johns Hopkins University in 1893 and served in leadership roles there until 1930. Welch made Hopkins a preeminent university, enacting rigorous standards, including requiring medical school students to be college graduates, and accepting an endowment from the Women's Fund Committee in exchange for agreeing to admit women. A charismatic leader who served as President of the American Medical Association, the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons and a dozen other professional organizations, his students included Walter Reed and several Nobel laureates, many of whom founded or improved other medical schools. He joined the Army Medical Corps as a Major for World War I, serving in France, advancing to Brigadier General and receiving the Distinguished Service Medal. He was the focal point of a revolution in American medicine that led to breakthroughs and enactment of now standard practices, including acceptance of the discovery that pathogens caused illness, improved vaccines, antiseptics, sterile operating rooms, and the development of cures for numerous diseases, including diphtheria. A lifelong bachelor, he retired in 1930 but remained an active lecturer and writer until his death from prostate cancer.
Medical Pioneer. He graduated from Yale University in 1870 and received a medical degree from Columbia University in 1875. Convinced that America's unregulated approach to medicine, with no licensing or training requirements, was ineffective, he studied pathology and other sciences in Europe at the time the work of Louis Pasteur and other scientists transformed medicine. He became the first Medical School Dean at Johns Hopkins University in 1893 and served in leadership roles there until 1930. Welch made Hopkins a preeminent university, enacting rigorous standards, including requiring medical school students to be college graduates, and accepting an endowment from the Women's Fund Committee in exchange for agreeing to admit women. A charismatic leader who served as President of the American Medical Association, the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons and a dozen other professional organizations, his students included Walter Reed and several Nobel laureates, many of whom founded or improved other medical schools. He joined the Army Medical Corps as a Major for World War I, serving in France, advancing to Brigadier General and receiving the Distinguished Service Medal. He was the focal point of a revolution in American medicine that led to breakthroughs and enactment of now standard practices, including acceptance of the discovery that pathogens caused illness, improved vaccines, antiseptics, sterile operating rooms, and the development of cures for numerous diseases, including diphtheria. A lifelong bachelor, he retired in 1930 but remained an active lecturer and writer until his death from prostate cancer.
Bio by: Bill McKern
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