Sampling of Medical Firsts at California Pacific

The American West's first medical school (Pacific Campus, 1857) and first nursing school (California Campus, 1880).

The first iron lung west of the Mississippi (California Campus, 1928).

The world’s first extra-anatomical bypass graft (Davies Campus, 1951).

The first use of the term "nuclear medicine.” (By Robert Newell, M.D., Pacific Campus, 1950s).

The first dialysis unit in Northern California (Davies Campus, 1961).

The world’s first membrane heart-lung machine (artificial heart) ( Pacific Campus, 1965).

The first computerized respiratory monitoring system in any hospital (Pacific Campus, 1972).

The nation's first successful microsurgery “toe-to-hand” transplant (Davies Campus, 1972).

The first CT scanner west of the Mississippi (Davies Campus, 1972).

The nation’s first heart transplant outside of a university research setting (Pacific Campus, 1984).

The first complementary therapies in a major American medical center (Pacific Campus, 1997).

The first successful re-attachment of a human tongue (Davies Campus, 1997).

The first federally approved liver dialysis in Northern California (2000).

The first capsule endoscopy in the Bay Area, whereby the patient swallows a tiny disposable camera to search for complex GI diseases (2001).