Establishment of the Department of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School—1969

•As a specialty, anesthesiology faced many obstacles.•Most departments of anesthesiology began as divisions within the department of surgery.•During the early years, most anesthesia services were provided by nurse anesthetists.•We trace the story of the establishment of the Department of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

BackgroundThe first academic departments of anesthesia were established in the United States at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1927, with Ralph M. Waters named as chairman, and in the UK at Oxford University in 1937, with Robert Macintosh as chairman. Compared to these early departments, more than 3 decades would pass before Harvard Medical School decided it was time to establish a department of anaesthesia, in 1969. We examine the forces on both sides of the issue, for and against, and how they played out in the late 1960s.MethodsPublished articles, books, interviews, and biographical and autobiographical notes as well as primary source documents such as reports of department and medical school committee meetings were examined to obtain information relevant to our investigation.ResultsThe late 1960s were an ideal time for the chiefs of anesthesia at the various Harvard teaching hospitals to make a strong argument in favor of establishment of an independent department of anaesthesia. Although strongly opposed by Francis Daniels Moore, Chief of Surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, an independent department at Harvard was established in 1969.ConclusionsThe recognition of anesthesia as a distinctive specialty at universities across the country as well as the specific concerns over administration, hiring, and the future of the clinical service in the 1960s provided overwhelming support for the establishment of a separate, free-standing department of anaesthesia at one of the most tradition-bound universities in the United States—Harvard.