Trauma Center - History

History

The world's first trauma center - the first hospital to be established specifically to treat injured rather than ill patients - was the Birmingham Accident Hospital, which opened in Birmingham, England in 1941, after a series of studies found that the treatment of injured persons within England was inadequate. By 1947 the hospital had three trauma teams, each including two surgeons and an anaesthesiologist, and a burns team with three surgeons.

The concept of a shock trauma center was developed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in the 1950s(1) and 1960s by heart surgeon and shock researcher R Adams Cowley, who founded what became the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1960.The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center is the first and longest running shock trauma center in the world. Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois claims to be the first trauma center (opened in 1966) in the United States. Dr. David R Boyd interned at Cook County Hospital from 1963-1964 before being drafted into the United States Army. Upon his release from the Army, Dr. Boyd became the first shock-trauma fellow at the Shock Trauma Center,Baltimore,Md. from 1967-1968. Dr. Boyd returned to Cook County Hospital, where he went on to serve as resident director of the Cook County Trauma Unit.