Academic Health Center

The University of Minnesota established its Medical School in 1888, offered classes in Medical Hall on Pleasant Street by 1892, and by the early twentieth century had separate colleges of dentistry and pharmacy as well as the nation's first university-based nursing program, begun on campus in 1909. After World War II, expanded federal investment in biomedical research helped usher in a golden era of medical advances at the University, especially in cardiovascular research and treatment. In 1952, surgeons led by F. John Lewis performed the world's first successful open-heart operation using hypothermia, and in the same decade C. Walton Lillihei implanted the first wearable pacemaker, a device invented by Earl Bakken. In the 1960s, Lillihei successfully implanted an artificial heart valve, and Richard DeWall developed a heart-lung machine that supported longer, more complicated surgery. By the 1970s, the University had unified its health services under one administrative umbrella and created buildings for dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, and outpatient clinics. A new hospital facility opened in 1986, was sold to Fairview Health Services in 1996, and remains a primary teaching facility for University students. Today the University's Academic Health Center includes classrooms and laboratories that educate doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, public health professionals, veterinarians, and physical, respiratory, and occupational therapists, and it educates the vast majority of Minnesota's health care providers while supporting integrated study, research, and practice across the health disciplines.

Minneapolis, Minnesota · United States