1796: The Boston Dispensary is established as the first permanent medical facility in New England and the third in the United States
1803: First public health vaccination campaign for smallpox began
1814: The Boston Dispensary became the first medical facility to assign nurses to needy patients
1856: A first of its kind permanent clinic founded at Bennett and Ash Streets
1873: The first U.S. clinic for venereal disease opened at the Boston Dispensary
1873: The first dental clinic in the country for the poor was established
1883: The first U.S. scientific use of Swedish massage and the beginnings of rehabilitative medicine begins at the Boston Dispensary
1886: The first Visiting Nurse Association established
1894: Boston Tufts Medical Center is inaugurated
1899: The Boston Dispensary opens the first U.S. lung clinic
1908: A general admission fee of 10 cents was established
1908: The country’s second oldest medical social service department opened
1911: Tufts Medical Center started hospital-based human milk collection for sick babies
1913: The Boston Dispensary featured the first evening pay clinic to serve the working poor and one of the earliest examples of employer-paid clinic treatment for employees
1913: “Well Child” and preventative health clinic established
1918: The Boston Dispensary opened the first nutrition clinic of its kind in the world
1919: An artificial milk product is invented at Tufts Medical Center, that is later successfully marketed as Similac
1927: Modern diagnostic test for syphilis discovered at the Boston Dispensary
1930: The world’s first experiment in group psychotherapy takes place at the Boston Dispensary
1929: The Boston Dispensary begins an affiliation with Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine
1938: 100-bed Pratt Clinic, the largest diagnostic clinic in the world, is constructed at the Boston Dispensary
1947: First children’s playroom established to apply recreational therapy
1956: Cineradiographic equipment, which takes x-ray moving pictures, is installed at the Boston Dispensary; the first in Massachusetts
1958: Maurice Raben, MD a pediatric endocrinologist at Tufts Medical Center purified hormones from human pituitary glands to create the first growth hormone treatment
1958: The Rehabilitation Institute is established at the Boston Dispensary, the first in New England
1958: Immunosuppression therapy is developed to aid in successful organ transplants
1963: The Family Participation Unit is established at Tufts Medical Center, allowing parents to stay overnight with their children
1965: The first neighborhood health center is founded by Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston’s Columbia Point housing project
1965: Tufts Medical Center officially merges with Boston Tufts Medical Center
1981: The world's first pediatric trauma center established at Tufts Medical Center
1987: Staff at Tufts MC create the practice of case management, the first hospital to do so
1992: Becomes the first in New England and only one of six clinical sites in the U.S. to pioneer Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), know as the Gamma Knife. It used in conjunction with high-powered computers to customize the distribution of radiation beams. This results in the maximum possible dose to the diseased areas and minimum possible dose to the surrounding normal tissues and organs.
1992: The first, full-service private teaching hospital in Boston is created with the addition of a maternity service
1997: Neely House is established; first-of-its-kind bed and breakfast-style home within the hospital to host cancer patients and their families
1997: Rooftop helipad opened for pediatric and adult Medflight patients
2001: First-in-the-nation transplant exchange program, “Hope Through Sharing,” is established
2007: Paul Pierce Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery is established with funds from Boston Celtics great, Paul Pierce
2008: Tufts-New England Medical Center is re-named Tufts Medical Center
