Innovation at UW Health and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health isn’t just starting with the Isthmus Project. Both institutions have a long history of innovation. At the Isthmus Project, we continue making history. Here we reflect on where we’ve been to give us the motivation to advance this tradition.
1930s
Fredric Mohs
Mohs surgery, the “gold standard” technique for microscopic skin cancer surgery today, was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Frederic Mohs, a general surgeon at UW.
1941
Karl Link
Development of anticoagulant warfarin and a drug called Coumadin, which is used as a blood thinner to treat heart patients and prevent blood clotting.
1956
Harry Waisman
Screening at birth and treatment of Phenylketonuria; saved thousand from developmental disability.
1957
Charles Heidelberger
Synthesized 5-fluorouracil (anti-cancer agent)
1968
Fritz Bach
Test that identified the family member who would be the closest match for a bone marrow recipient making possible the first two successful bone marrow transplants in the world — one of them at UW Hospital.
1969
Judy Faulkner
Created a call schedule for the UW Hospital using a computer.
1970
Chuck Mistretta
Created a digital subtraction angiography for imaging vascular system.
1974
Derek Cripps
UW dermatologist Derek Cripps helped develop the SPF (sun protection factor) scale for rating sunscreen lotions.
1975
Howard Temin
Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine: discovered reverse transcriptase that explains viral cause of cancer and AIDS.
1987
Folkert Belzer & James Southard
Revolutionized transplant surgery with organ preservation solution.
Early 1990s
Thomas ‘Rock’ Mackie
In the early 1990s, UW professor Thomas “Rock” Mackie and his research group including senior scientist Paul Reckwerdt developed tomotherapy radiation systems to deliver a precisely configured field of radiation to the tumor while sparing surrounding tissue from harm. The system was also the first to integrate CT image guidance into daily radiotherapy practice.
1998
James Thomson
James Thomson and his UW research team became the first in the world to derive a human embryonic stem cell line.