Before the 1800s, medical education in Ohio was apprentiship-based training, where aspiring doctors learned from practicing physicians. During this period medical care was basic, and the understanding of the etiology of diseases was limited. The importance of sanitation played in the health of the people was totally ignored. All this changed with the establishment of Medical Schools.
The founding of the Medical College of Ohio was the beginning of a new era. Daniel Drake, a prominent figure in the 19th-century American medicine, known for his work as a physician, scientist, educator and author found it. He was the first President of the Medical College of Ohio in 1819, which later changed its name and it is now known as the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
A stimulus towards the establishment of formal medical education was the Cincinnati cholera of 1849. Cholera is an infection of the small intestine. The classic symptom is watery diarrhea. Patients get cholera from drinking water or eating food contaminated with feces from infected patients. The severe dehydration causes the body to take a blue-gray tone, thus it was called "Blue Death". Treatment requires rehydration, orally or intravenously and a course of antibiotics. Although the cholera of 1849 spread throughout Ohio, the city worst hit was Cincinnati, the "Queen City" where some 6,000 Cincinnatians died from cholera that represented 6% of the city's population. In fact during the pandemic Cincinnati suffered more deaths than New York and London combined. Today, an estimated 1 to 4 million people get cholera and between 20,000 and 140,000 die. Although this number is unacceptably high, let's keep in mind that nowadays, all around the world, an overwhelming majority of children reach adulthood. For much of history, almost half did not. Getting were we are required improved nutrition; riding drinking water of sewage; the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines with the last two being among the major advances in medicine of the last 100 years.
Over time, other institutions like The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University also played significant roles in shaping medical education in Ohio. In 1846, the Willoughby Medical University of Lake Erie moved to Columbus and became the Starling Medical College, which later merged with the Ohio State University.
Several medical schools emerged in Cleveland, including those associated with Saint Vincent Charity Hospital, Western Reserve College and Ohio Wesleyan University.
The Medical College of Ohio (MCO) merged with the University of Toledo in 2006, forming the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences.
Ohio University became home to Ohio's only college of Osteopathic Medicine also known as the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. The college was created to address a shortage of family physicians and train doctors for underserved areas.
The Ohio State University College of Medicine implemented several innovations such as an independent study program in 1970s, later reverting to a four-year curriculum. In the posts to follow, I will describe individuals who played key roles in the education of the students and care of the patients and about the OSU Department of Radiology's staff, faculty and innovations during the time, I was Radiology Department's Chairman.
The text was authored by D G Spigos, MD PhD Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University.
This post is dedicated to the early doctors in the State of Ohio who took care of patients with care, even risking their lives, during the "time of the Cholera" in 1849.
