Women’s History Month is an excellent time to pay tribute to the many women who significantly improved our understanding and practice of medicine.
The achievements of the seven women highlighted below are just a small sample of the many whose advancements changed our lives for the better. Presented chronologically and not by measure of influence, each woman’s contribution was massive.
Florence Nightingale is widely considered the first professional nurse, though she was also a statistician and prodigious writer. During the Crimean War in 1853, she proposed hygiene standards that she defined as handwashing, sanitation, ventilation and a clean environment to care for the wounded.
These were new principles and have been cited as significantly reducing the mortality rate of the wounded during the war. We no longer take the act of washing our hands for granted, which was only one of many elements she introduced and trained nurses to comply with.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn her medical degree (1849) at Geneva Medical College in New York. She had been rejected by 29 medical schools before medical students at Geneva voted to admit her — primarily out of curiosity.
Blackwell opened an infirmary for Women and Children in New York, which is now part of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Blackwell promoted the ideas of hygiene and antisepsis (eliminating microorganisms that cause disease) and worked with Florence Nightingale to organize relief efforts and train nurses during the Civil War.
Blackwell had a sister, Emily, who was five years younger and became the third woman to graduate from a U.S. medical school. The sisters later worked together, opening the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women. They died in 1910, within months of each other. By then, there were more than 9,000 women doctors in the U.S.
In 1863, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker became the world’s first female surgeon. She worked in the U.S. Army, often crossing battle lines to care for soldiers and civilians.
During the Civil War, she was captured, imprisoned and treated as a spy. She was later released in a prisoner exchange and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor — the only woman to receive this honor.
Later, the military tried to rescind the honor due to her civilian status, but she would have none of it and wore the medal until her death.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African-American to earn a medical degree. In 1864, Crumpler graduated from the New England Female Medical College in Boston and, as one of the first female physician authors of the 19th century, published “A Book on Medical Discourses.”
Crumpler was raised by her aunt, who assisted the poor as a caregiver in their community. Her aunt’s kindness likely influenced Crumpler, and she eventually moved to Richmond, Virginia, to provide medical care for former slaves.
Dr. Sara Josephine Baker dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates in New York City in the early 1900s by leading a team of 30 nurses into the city’s slums and teaching new mothers basic hygiene skills.
Baker also instituted applying silver nitrate drops to babies’ eyes to prevent blindness, often caused by gonorrhea. She also mandated licensure for midwives to improve treatment standards. Under Baker’s guidance, infant mortality rates substantially fell, leading to the establishment of the Division of Child Hygiene, which she then headed.
Florence Seibert, a biochemist from Yale, isolated a tuberculous protein in 1937, which enabled the development of the first reliable tuberculosis test.
Tuberculosis was one of the three leading causes of death, and this test was instrumental in reducing the incidence and saving lives.
Virginia Apgar was an anesthesiologist by training and headed the first anesthesiology division at Columbia Presbyterian. Anesthesiology had only recently been elevated to a full-fledged specialty.
Then, in 1952, she changed the landscape by introducing the 10-point Apgar score to quickly assess newborn health at the point of delivery by using breathing, skin color, reflexes, motion and heart rate as metrics. This quick assessment brought birth defects out of the “backroom” and led to the field of neonatology.
Ironically, Apgar had wanted to be a surgeon, but her mentor, Allen Whipple, chairman of surgery, had seen too many women fail and believed Apgar had the “energy and ability” to make significant contributions elsewhere. The Apgar score remains a vital tool, unreplaced by new, emerging technologies.
For these women and many more, Elizabeth Blackwell’s words ring true: “None of us can know what we are capable of until we are tested.”
These women were all tested and, with determination and smarts, made our world a healthier place.
Jill Ebstein is the editor of the “At My Pace” series of books and founder of Sized Right Marketing. She wrote this for InsideSources.com. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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