Indiana University School of Medicine

In March 1903, William Lowe Bryan, the tenth president of Indiana University, proposed the formation of a department of medicine at IU Bloomington to the university trustees. The new department was established in May of the same year. The IU School of Medicine was admitted as a member of the American Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in 1904.

In addition to its department of medicine in Bloomington, IU's leaders wanted to locate medical training facilities in Indianapolis. Their initial plan was to provide medical students with the first two years of coursework at Bloomington and the final two years at Indianapolis, where students would receive clinically-based training as part of their studies.[11] Prior to 1908, due primarily to the high cost of establishing its own medical facilities in Indianapolis, IU attempted to merge with existing medical schools, but the effort was not successful.[12]

Between 1905 and 1908 there continued to be a debate over which university, IU or Purdue, could establish a state-supported, four-year medical school at Indianapolis.[13] In 1905, Purdue University's Medical Department joined with the Medical Department of the University of Indianapolis (the former Medical College of Indiana), the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Fort Wayne Medical College to form the Indiana Medical College, School of Medicine of Purdue University.[14] Unable to merge with other existing institutions, IU organized a separate medical training facility in Indianapolis. In 1906 a group of IU supporters purchased the building that housed the former Central College of Physicians and Surgeons at 212 North Senate. The building became the site of the State College of Physicians and Surgeons, which offered clinical instructions to IU's third- and fourth-year medical students. State College enrolled 109 students in September 1906. In August 1907 the IU board of trustees agreed to a merger of the IU School of Medicine in Bloomington with the State College of Physicians in Indianapolis but agreed to take financial responsibility for only the school's facilities in Monroe County (Bloomington). The first two years of training continued at Bloomington and the final two years of clinical training were held at the State College site in Indianapolis, with a doctor of medicine degree conferred by Indiana University.[15]

To resolve their ongoing dispute, IU and Purdue leaders, along with their supporters, sought approval from the Indiana General Assembly to operate their own schools of medicine in Marion County. In April 1908, IU and Purdue officials reached an agreement. The resolution consolidated the medical department at IU Bloomington with the State College of Physicians and the Indiana Medical College, School of Medicine of Purdue University, at Indianapolis and retained the name of the IU School of Medicine[16] On February 26, 1909, the state legislature formally authorized Indiana University to operate a medical school in Marion County. With the finalized agreement between IU and Purdue, the two separate medical schools in Indianapolis were consolidated, marking the second founding of the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1908. The state legislature's authorization in 1909 allowed IU to operate its own medical school in Marion County and enabled IU's medical students to complete all four years of their medical education in Indianapolis.[17]

Doctor Allison Maxwell agreed to serve as the first dean of the four-year IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis in April 1908; he remained as its dean until 1911. Maxwell led the fledgling school through a difficult time when financial budgets were an issue and the consolidation of IU's and Purdue's medical school faculties in Indianapolis and Bloomington was completed. The combined faculty would support the four-year medical school at Indianapolis and maintain the two-year, pre-clinical coursework at Bloomington. In addition to Maxwell, other leaders in the IU School of Medicine's early history were drawn from Johns Hopkins University, including Charles P. Emerson who was appointed as the second dean of the IU School of Medicine in 1911 and served in that role until 1931.[18]

Willis D. Gatch became the third dean of the medical school in 1932. In 1909, Gatch had invented the Gatch adjustable hospital bed, which used a crank to raise and lower the patient's head and feet.[19] John D. VanNuys, a 1936 graduate of the IU School of Medicine, became its fourth dean in 1947.[20] Amelia R. Keller, department of pediatrics, was the sole woman on the clinical faculty of the IU Medical School in Indianapolis after the school's consolidation with the Indiana Medical College in 1908.[20]

IU graduated its first class of twenty-seven students and conferred its first Doctor of Medicine degree in May 1907. The first graduation of the consolidated IU School of Medicine and the Indiana Medical College students took place the following year. The IU School of Medicine's first black student, Clarence Lucas, graduated in 1908; Lillian Mueller became its first woman graduate in 1909.[21]

Abraham Flexner, a renowned American educator whose work helped reform many medical schools, visited the IU School of Medicine in November 1909. He noted in his later Flexner Report (1910): "The situation in the state [was], thanks to the intelligent attitude of the university, distinctly hopeful, though it will take time to work it fully."[22]

Flexner also made a recommendation for the progress of the school: "In order to make the school attractive to highly qualified students, it will be necessary (1) to employ full-time men in the work of the first two years, (2) to strengthen the laboratory equipment, (3) greatly improve the organization and conduct of the clinical courses."[23] The IU School of Medicine was one of a few of medical schools in the nation at the time to receive a positive evaluation from Flexner, primarily because of its strong emphasis on college preparatory coursework in the sciences prior to enrolling in medical school and its additional training in the basic sciences as part of its medical school curriculum.[24][25]

In its early years in Indianapolis, the IU School of Medicine used the former Central College of Physicians and Surgeons facilities, erected in 1902 and located at the corner of Market Street and Senate Avenue. After the consolidation of the IU School of Medicine with the State College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Indiana Medical College in 1908, the medical school used the former Indiana Medical College's facilities for about ten years while it secured financing to construct new medical school buildings. Several of the medical school's early buildings in Indianapolis were erected in the 1910s and 1920s on property that would eventually become the site of the IU Medical Center on the present-day IUPUI campus.[26]

In February 1912, IU acquired property on West Michigan Street, near the Indianapolis City Hospital, to erect the Robert E. Long Hospital. Construction on the new teaching hospital began in 1912. Although its cornerstone was laid on November 1, 1912, the Great Flood of 1913 delayed the building's opening until 1914. Long Hospital was dedicated on June 15, 1914, and admitted its first patients the following day. Emerson Hall, another early medical school building, was constructed about 200 feet (61 m) northeast of Long Hospital and completed in the fall of 1919 at a cost of $257,699.[27]

The cornerstone of the Riley Hospital for Children was laid on October 7, 1923, and dedicated on October 7, 1924. The hospital, named in honor of Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley, was erected north of Long Hospital. The James Whitcomb Riley Association (later known as the Riley Children's Foundation) hoped to raise an initial $250,000 in funding to add to the state's appropriation. By 1923 it had received $911,518 in pledges from more than 30,000 citizens,[28] including $45,000 in donations from a mass fundraising event. Significant additions to the hospital were built over the years, including three in the 1930s: a Kiwanis Unit, dedicated in 1930; a Rotary Unit, dedicated in 1931; and a hydrotherapy pool in 1935.[29]

Another of the medical school's early teaching hospitals was the William H. Coleman Hospital for Women. Erected west of Long Hospital and dedicated on October 20, 1927, Coleman Hospital's total cost was about $300,000. Other early buildings erected on the medical school campus in Indianapolis included the Ball Residence for Nurses, dedicated on October 7, 1928;[29] Myers Hall, built in 1937; and Fesler Hall, built in 1939. The school's medical research building was expanded in 1947 with a five-year grant from the Riley Children's Foundation. The VanNuys Medical Sciences Building opened in 1958.[30]

The IU medical school helps train interns and residents in 92 medical and surgical specialties. Students train under the supervision of faculty and staff at IU Health Methodist Hospital, IU Health University Hospital, James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital, Ball Memorial Hospital, the Kenya partnership program with Moi University School of Medicine, Kenya[34] as well as other physician offices and hospitals throughout Indiana.

On the Indianapolis campus, most of the teaching hospitals are within walking distance or adjacent to the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. Methodist Hospital is located a few miles from the main campus. Ball Memorial Hospital is located in Muncie, Indiana.[35]

The school's main facilities are located on the campus of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition, the school maintains eight regional centers on college campuses throughout the state at Bloomington, Muncie, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Terre Haute, Evansville, West Lafayette, and Gary.[36]

First- and second-year medical students attend classes at either the main campus at IUPUI in Indianapolis or at one of the eight regional centers. Students may elect to complete all courseworks and clearships at a regional center.[37]

The school was first in developing the use of echocardiography, a heart imaging technique using ultrasound. In the 1960s, Mori Aprison discovered the inhibitory neurotransmitter glycine. Dr. Paul Stark, another neuroscientist and faculty member at IUSM, led the clinical team at Eli Lilly and Company in the development of Prozac, a widely prescribed antidepressant. In 1984, IUSM established the first DNA "bank" in the world; blood samples from clients were used to extract DNA which could indicate the genetic risk for certain illnesses and conditions. The school researchers also discovered the use of cord blood as an alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells and pioneered their use in the clinic. In the early 1990s, the school was one of the first institutions to study the use of computer systems in reducing the costs of healthcare management.[38]

The IU School of Medicine is the home of a National Cancer Institute—designated Clinical Cancer Center, and the only National Institute of Health—funded viral vector production facility for clinical grade therapeutics.[39] The school is known for establishing a curative therapy for testicular cancer. The school has been a pioneer in establishing a cure for Fanconi anemia (a precancerous condition in children), specific radiation therapy techniques, techniques in a type of nerve-sparing surgery for urological cancers, the development of drugs to stimulate blood cell production, and novel drug therapies for breast cancer. Researchers at the medical school also discovered the cancer-fighting agent in Tamoxifen.[40][41] In 2011, the school announced plans for an institute specializing in personalized medicine, which would pursue an individualized and genomics-based approach to treating cancer, pediatrics, and obstetrics.[42]

In 2012, federal officials designated the IU School of Medicine and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana as a Traumatic Brain Injury Model System site. As one of sixteen sites in the United States, the federally-funded center received a five-year, $2 million grant to research and treat traumatic brain injury and its impact on the lives of patients and their families.[43] The IU School of Medicine is also a leading member of the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Defense CARE Consortium, a $30 million initiative to study concussions among student-athletes and use that knowledge to improve safety and health of athletes, military service members and the general public. CARE Consortium research includes exploration of post-concussive symptoms; the performance and psychological health of student-athletes; and the analysis of data related to biomechanical, clinical, neuroimaging, neurobiological and genetic markers of injury.

• Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Center
• Bowen Research Center
• Center of Excellence in Women's Health
• Diabetes Translational Research Center
• Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine
• Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research
• Indiana Alcohol Research Center
• Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center
• Indiana Center for Musculoskeletal Health
• Indiana University Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases[44]
• Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute
• Indiana Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Center
• Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center
• Indiana University Center for Aging Research
• Institute of Psychiatric Research
• Krannert Institute of Cardiology
• Regenstrief Institute, Inc.[45]
• Stark Neurosciences Research Institute
• Wells Center for Pediatric Research