NYMC Faculty Publications
Thomas Drysdale Buchanan, MD, and the Birth of Academic Anesthesiology
Author Type(s)
Faculty
Journal Title
Anesthesia and Analgesia
First Page
888
Last Page
895
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2022
Department
Health Sciences Library
Second Department
Anesthesiology
Abstract
Thomas Drysdale Buchanan, MD (1876-1940), founding president of the American Board of Anesthesiology, was the first person in the United States to hold the title "Professor of Anesthesiology" in a medical school faculty position dedicated exclusively to the specialty. An 1897 graduate of New York Medical College, Dr Buchanan joined the faculty of his alma mater in 1902 in response to demands by medical students and recent graduates for a dedicated instructor in anesthesia. Within a decade, the instructorship had become a professorship, and Dr Buchanan was on his way to distinction as one of the founders of academic anesthesiology. This chapter in Dr Buchanan's early career illustrates how anesthesiology took shape as a distinct body of knowledge during the formative decades of modern medical education at the turn of the century, laying the groundwork for its recognition 30 years later as a specialty in its own right.
Recommended Citation
Webb, N. B., Burcescu, B., Abramowicz, A. E., & Weber, G. (2022). Thomas Drysdale Buchanan, MD, and the Birth of Academic Anesthesiology. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 135 (4), 888-895. https://doi.org/10.1213/ANE.0000000000006030
