Clinical History (2 of 3)
After World War II, many immigrants to the United States, including
Holocaust survivors, had physical concerns to deal with such as TB.
National Jewish was one of the few United States medical institutions
to respond to these immigrants’ needs. In 1953, with the assistance of
the United Nations World Health Organization, the hospital became a
clearinghouse for displaced persons suspected of having TB.
Also after the war, National Jewish began to accept new treatment
methods. It embraced a holistic approach that addressed psychiatric
concerns of patients who had been hospitalized for years, in addition
to their physical ailments. And it was one of the first hospitals to
use chemotherapy for treatment of TB when streptomycin first became
available in 1946.
In the 1950s, research at National Jewish influenced another
approach to treating TB. The new treatment approach focused on drug
therapy and eliminated bed rest, substituting it with physical
activity, which helped the drugs work better.
Expansion of Services
In 1948, the National Jewish administration decided to expand the
hospital’s services into cardiology. Within a few years, a surgical
team was created to perform the difficult heart valve operation, mitral
commissurotomy, which until then had been performed only in the East.
Throughout the next few decades faculty produced pioneering work in
open-heart surgery and even had a waiting list of patients. Despite the
programs success, the hospital began to pursue a tight focus on
respiratory disease, and the cardiology program was discontinued in
1968. (Only to be reestablished almost 40 years later in 2007.)
By the mid 20th century, asthma and other allergic diseases were
becoming recognized as an increasing health menace that afflicted
millions. So, as TB treatment improved and the need for TB beds began
to diminish, an asthma and allergy program was introduced to National
Jewish in the mid-1950s. And in 1959, the nation's first large
inpatient adult asthma service was created.
The allergy and asthma programs set the stage for National Jewish to
branch out from TB treatment and eventually become a world-renowned
center for lung disease treatment and research.
NEXT: A Shift to Outpatient Care
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