The founding of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine fundamentally changed medicine in America. In the blink of an eye, medicine was transformed from a trade practiced by poorly educated craftsmen, to a science practiced by highly educated physicians. While this transformation may seem perfectly obvious in retrospect, the challenges were significant. This four-part, lecture-based course will tell the story of the founding of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and will be told through the lives of nine extraordinary individuals- John Shaw Billings, Mary Elizabeth Garrett, William Halsted, Jesse Lazear, William Osler, Helen Taussig, Vivien Thomas and William Welch. Each faced enormous challenges and had unimaginable impact. There are many lessons to learn from the way they each lived their lives.

For those of you with a deeper interest in the history of medicine, Dr. Hruban suggests that you consider a unique on-line program offered by the Department of the History of Medicine here at Johns Hopkins (https://hopkinshistoryofmedicine.org/content/online-program-history-medicine). They offer individual on-line courses as well as Certificate and MA Degree programs. The faculty are simply fantastic, the best in the world, and since these are on-line offerings, these courses are ideal ways to do something productive during the pandemic!

Join Dr. Ralph Hruban, Director of Pathology and Distinguished Alumnus, as he guides you through the inspirational journeys of these early Hopkins leaders. Together, share in their personal stories and discuss the ways in which the lessons of history can prepare us to face life's challenges.

Dr. Ralph Hruban is a Professor of Pathology and Oncology and the Baxley Professor and Director of the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and is a 1985 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumnus. He completed his residency training at Hopkins and he spent one year as a Fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. After completing his fellowship, Dr. Hruban returned to Johns Hopkins in 1990 to join the faculty.

Dr. Hruban is also currently the Director of The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins. The pancreatic cancer research team at Johns Hopkins contains many of the world’s leading experts in pancreatic cancer. Through their extensive research, they have discovered many of the fundamental genetic changes that drive pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Hruban has received numerous awards including the PanCAN Medical Visionary Award, the Team Science Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (2013, 2017, and 2020), the Frank H. Netter Award for Special Contributions to Medical Education, the Ranice W. Crosby Distinguished Achievement Award for scholarly contributions to the advancement of art as applied to the sciences, and the 2013 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2013 he was elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Dr. Hruban has also received five teaching awards from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including the Educational Innovation Award.

Event page: https://events.jhu.edu/form/HAHNineGreats