Ohio State College of Medicine

In 1907, the Ohio Medical University merged with Starling Medical College to form the Starling-Ohio Medical College. In 1914, the institution became affiliated with The Ohio State University and the Ohio State College of Medicine was established.  Three years later, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees and State legislators appropriated funds for the construction of a new 296-bed hospital.  It was named Starling-Loving to honor Mr. Starling, a community leader, and Dr. Loving, the Dean of the OSU Medical School.  

In 1951, the new University Hospital was built. Two years later, two existing buildings—the Tuberculosis Hospital, which was renamed Means Hall, and the Psychiatric Hospital—were added to the Medical Center.  In 1959, the Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital was given to OSU by the State. Then, Rhodes Hall was built in 1980, connecting University Hospital (which was renamed Doan’s Hall) with the Means’ Hall, the old tuberculosis hospital.

In 1990, the James CancerHospital opened its doors.  The National Cancer Institute had designated the James as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

In the last fifty years, several other buildings were added: Wiseman Hall, a research building, in 1959, and the Prior Medical Library, built in 1967, being among them.  In 1968, two buildings- Meiling and Graves Halls- were added to the Medical Center as part of the Medical School. The Cramblett Outpatient Clinic was completed the very next year. In 1993, the new Psychiatric replaced the old one. University Hospital East was acquired in 1999.  Finally, the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital began its operations as a dedicated heart hospital in 2002.

In 1999, the Tzagournis Research Facility was named to honor Manuel Tzagournis, MD, who served as the Dean from 1980-1995 and as Vice President of Health Sciences until 2000.  This building, together with the Davis Heart and Lung Institute that was built in 1995, and the Biomedical Research Tower that was completed in 2006, is the troika for the conduction of advanced medical research.

In 2012, the Medical Center was renamed “The Wexner Medical Center,” in honor of Mr. Les Wexner, a civic leader, philanthropist, and a great friend to the University at large.  

The new James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is the largest building in the Midwest that is strictly dedicated to diagnosis, effective treatment, and—hopefully—the complete eradication of cancer in the future. 

The Ohio State Medical Center had a phenomenal growth that has not abated and a new University Hospital is scheduled to open in 2026 being the largest building by far at the University.

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The new therapies and innovations originating among the Wexner Medical Center’s highly skilled staff are listed at College of Medicine Centennial Celebration site.  Therefore, I will limit my discussion to faculty members who made major contributions and select significant advances that took place in the field of Radiology from 1992 to 2004, when I served as the Chair of the Department.

Dr. W. Myers who is considered the godfather of the medical use of cyclotrons, during his 30-year tenure at OSU introduced 11 isotopes for use in therapy and diagnosis.  Among other major contributions were the introduction of afterloading therapy, the pivotal suggestion to Dr. R. Yalow (Nobel laureate) of the most suitable isotope for radioimmunoassay and the application of several sort lived isotopes for PET scanning.

Dr. William Molnar one of the early pioneers in the interventional radiology and Dr. Alfred Stockum who succeeded Dr. Molnar worked in our department from 1965 to 1995.  It was during this time that Dr. Stockum developed his expertise in the evolving field of Interventional Radiology.  His calm demeanor, positive attitude, and quiet, caring nature were great qualities his patients appreciated.  Dr. Stockum offered the ultimate service to the medical students, he did not know but cared about, by offering his body after death for them to learn anatomy on.

 

The following are defining contributions by the many talented faculty of the department:

·      In 1994, we introduced 24 hour attending coverage and real time reporting.  It was a major shift in the modus operandi of a radiology department.  Our paradigm has been adopted in this country and overseas¹.

·      In 1996, we established a teleradiology connection with a rural hospital in Barnesville, OH a first in the State of Ohio.  Only the military had implemented transfer of images from afar earlier. Our model is now widely practiced².   

·      In 1997, the Department of Defense funded our affiliate Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic and four other hospitals in the country to study the efficacy and implementation of digital/filmless radiology.  Following the success at the VA, and with the support of two key individuals—Drs. M. Tzagournis and H. Mekhjian, who were the Dean and Medical Director, respectively—I converted our department from analog to digital. In 2000, the department and the hospital became filmless.

·      In 1998, in collaboration with Dr. William Farrar, we opened the first Comprehensive Breast Center in Ohio.  Dr. John Olsen was the first director of breast imaging and intervention.  The oncologic surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists and technologists worked in the same building and in an outpatient environment.  The Breast Center is currently located in a new building, named the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center.

·      On February 10, 1998 Dr. Pierre Robitaille and his team acquired a brain scan on the first ultra high field MRI (8 Tesla).  It should be noted that this was accomplished without industry support and despite of doubts by the scientific community that it was possible^3,4.

·      With the opening of James, Dr. R. Gahbauer and his team in our Division of Radiation Oncology, introduced novel approaches such as dedicated CT and 3D conformal radiation therapy and intra-operative radiation therapy.  In collaboration with Dr. A. Wambarsie and ICRU they contributed to the concepts and standardisation of 3D volume delineation of photons, electrons, IMRT and protons.  

·      In 1998, they wrote the first non-cadaver based CT lymph node atlas for treatment planning.

·      In 2002, the first patient in Central Ohio was treated with IMRT therapy at OSUMC.  

In In closing, I was very fortunate to have the assistance of Tonda Robinson and Heidi Brenner during my tenure as Chairman, both of whom have become life long friends.

References 

1. Spigos DG, Freedy L, Mueller C: 24 Hour Attending Coverage; A New Paradigm:  AJR 1996, 167, 1089-1090

2. Spigos DG, Porter R, Cleto E et al:  Rural Teleradiology Initiative:  Accuracy of Interpretation in the Emergency Setting.  Emergency Radiology, 1996, Nov/Dec, Vol3, 1-4,pp274-278

3. Robitaille PM, Warner R, Jaqadeesh J, Abduliallil AM, Kangarlu A, Burgess RE, Yu Y, Yang L,

Zhu H, Jiang Z, Bailey RE, Chung W, Somawiharia Y, Feyan P, Ravner D. Design and assembly

an 8 tesla whole-body MR scanner.  J Comput Assist Tomogr 1999, Nov-Dec 23(6) 808-20

4. Bourekas EC, Christoforidis GA, Abduljaillil AM, Kangarlu A, Chakeres DW, Spigos DG Robitaille PM:  High Resolution MRI of the deep Gray Nuclei at 8 Tesla.  J Comput Assist Tomogr 1999, Nov/Dec 23(6) 867-74