1751

American statesman Benjamin Franklin helps open Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first, setting in motion Philadelphia’s role in medical innovation.

1765

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine becomes the first medical school in the 13 American colonies.

1803

Philadelphia physician John Otto publishes a study tracing the history of several family “bleeders,” thus identifying hemophilia.

1813

Friends Hospital opens as the nation’s first exclusively mental hospital.

1820

Seen as a marvel, the Fairmount Water Works gives Philadelphia a supply of uncontaminated drinking water to protect public health and prevent epidemics.

1821

The nation’s first college of pharmacy opens as Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, now University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. The school helps establish Philadelphia as a premiere pharmaceutical center. The founders of Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, McNeil Labs, and others go there.

1832

Wills Eye becomes the country’s first eye hospital. It thrives today, treating and managing half of all the retinoblastoma cases in the U.S.

1850

The world’s first medical school for women opens (Female Medical College of Pennsylvania).

It became Medical College of Pennsylvania, and now is part of Drexel College of Medicine.

1855

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia becomes the nation’s first medical center for children.

1892

Wistar Insitute, the nation’s first independent biomedical-research facility, opens. It grows into a hotbed for vaccine development, among other advances.

1902

Albert Barnes establishes a firm to make drugs including Argyrol, a silver-based compound that fights infections. His drug fortune finances a legendary art collection and museum that is now relocating to Philadelphia.

1906

Wistar creates the first standardized laboratory animal. WISTARAT is the actual trademark.

1948

Charles Bailey of Hahnemann University Hospital performs the world’s first successful heart surgery, cutting open the chest to repair a mitral valve.

1953

John H. Gibbon Jr. of Jefferson conceives and develops (but refuses patent rights on) the world’s first successful heart-lung machine.

1959

Researchers Peter Nowell at Penn and David Hungerford at Fox Chase discover the Philadelphia chromosome — an abnormal chromosome found in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The discovery has led to targeted therapies for cancer, including imatinib (sold as Gleevec), which keeps many CML patients alive.

1963

Microbiologist Maurice R. Hilleman swabs the throat of his daughter, Jeryl Lynn, 5, and uses it to isolate the mumps virus. Hilleman and his team at Merck’s West Point, Pa., plant go on to create nearly 40 vaccines, including nine typically given to children. Hilleman is credited with saving more lives than anyone in history.

1968

The Monell Chemical Senses Center in West Philadelphia is chartered. It’s the world’s only independent institute for basic research on the senses of taste and smell.

1968

The nonprofit now called ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting opens. It evaluates medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes to improve patient care.

1969

Stanley Plotkin, working at Wistar, develops the rubella (German measles) vaccine after a large U.S. outbreak.

1970

Jonathan E. Rhoads and Stanley J. Dudrick at Penn develop intravenous nutrients to sustain patients who are unable to eat.

1972

Jefferson professor Norman Lasker invents the Jefferson Cycler, the first at-home self-treatment device for dialysis patients.

1979

Wistar first patents a method for creating monoclonal antibodies, which lead to many of the targeted therapies seen today.

1993

After the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office reports 118 heat-related deaths — far more than in other cities — based not just on the body’s temperature when found but on environmental factors such as closed windows and no air-conditioning, a federal review agrees, and guidelines change around the country.

1998