Our History

Robert W. Anderson, MD;
Danny O. Jacobs, MD;
David C. Sabiston, Jr., MD

Trinity College opened in Durham on September 1, 1892, celebrating the fulfillment of Washington Duke’s vision. Mr. Duke was the patriarch of a prominent family of industrialists and philanthropists in North Carolina. In the post-Civil War era, the Duke family had enjoyed successes in the tobacco and textile industries. In 1905, the Dukes founded what is now known as Duke Power, the major supplier of electricity to the Piedmont region. James Buchanan Duke, son of Washington Duke and the wealthiest member of the family, established the Duke Endowment in 1924, and set aside $40 million (equivalent to approximately $400 million today) to establish an institute of learning centered on Trinity College. In honor of Washington Duke and his family, the college was re-chartered as Duke University. Founded on four cornerstones: religion, law, medicine, and education, the trustees declared the school would, "be concerned about excellence rather than size and aim at quality rather than numbers—quality of those who teach and quality of those who learn."¹

J. Deryl Hart, MD

The rich history and high standards that bore Duke University are also deeply rooted within the Department of Surgery. Duke Hospital’s first dean, Dr. Wilburt Davison, appointed a Johns Hopkins surgeon, Dr. J. Deryl Hart, to be Professor of Surgery and the first Chairman of the Department in 1930 (Dr. Hart had the unique privilege of having been selected by Dr. William Stewart Halsted to join the surgical training program at Johns Hopkins University). After stepping down as Chairman in 1960, Dr. Hart served as President of Duke University. During his tenure as Chairman, Dr. Hart expected faculty members to assume major clinical and teaching responsibilities and to pursue laboratory research. He recruited the founding members of the surgical faculty and established Duke’s surgery residency. Dr. Hart is also credited with originating the use of ultraviolet radiation to control airborne infections in surgical operating rooms – a technique that, ultimately, was widely accepted across the country.

The emphasis Dr. Hart placed on achieving excellence in patient care and teaching by integrating research with development laid the foundation for an institution that remains one of the top medical centers in the country. His philosophy was central to the Department’s mission in 1930 and continues to be so today. Under the leadership of the successive chairs -- Drs. Clarence E. Gardner (1960-1964), David C. Sabiston, Jr. (1964-1994), and Robert W. Anderson (1994-2003) the model system of integrating the fundamental missions of academic medical centers: patient care, education, research and administration, was enhanced within the Department of Surgery at Duke. Dr. Gardner was Dr. Hart's first Chief Resident and continued on as a Duke faculty member after completing his surgical training. Dr. David C. Sabiston, Jr., who was also a product of the Johns Hopkins system, finished their surgical residency program in 1953 and remained on their faculty under Dr. Alfred Blalock until he was recruited to Duke. Dr. Sabiston had a profound effect on surgical education both nationally and internationally, and made major contributions to the laboratory investigation and clinical therapy of diseases of the coronary arterial circulation.

Clarence E. Gardner, MD

Dr. Robert W. Anderson followed Dr. Sabiston as chairman and returned to the site of his surgical training. Social and economic influences were rapidly altering the face of academic medicine in 1994. Dr. Anderson successfully led a department seeded as the epitome of traditional education and training, research and clinical excellence while addressing the major changes in practice reimbursement that had occurred.

Many pioneering medical firsts occurred at Duke, beginning in 1936 with Dr. Hart's introduction of the first germicidal ultraviolet lamps into operating rooms. The nation's first brain tumor program was established in 1937 and is now a key component of one of the world's foremost research and treatment centers. A Duke physician was one of the country’s first to use chemotherapy to treat brain tumors. It was also a Duke cardiac surgeon that performed the first operation to treat Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW) in 1968. Duke faculty began collecting clinical information about cardiac patients in 1968 and chronicled their progress. This nascent outcomes research project expanded nationwide and became the foundation for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' national database in 1988. The dataset was also used to help initiate Duke's Clinical Research Institute—which today is the largest academic program of its kind in the world. In 1972, Duke surgeons were the first to reattach a severed thumb successfully more than eight hours after it was traumatically amputated. Microsurgical procedures were facilitated by the introduction of specific and unique surgical instrumentation in the 1960s and 1970s and many of these tools were developed at Duke.

The early 1990s heralded major changes in the health care environment. The continued viability of DUMC depended upon the creation of an economic engine that could attract and retain outstanding surgical faculty and support our core endeavors. Dr. Anderson was instrumental in guiding the efforts of our faculty practice plan to ensure that it was maximally efficient and effective and that its governance and other infrastructural systems were appropriately developed and fully realized. These actions were crucial for the success of the Private Diagnostic Clinic and DUHS.

Today, our mission remains unchanged: pursue excellence in patient care and strive to train future surgeons, while we further our understanding of human disease, with the same rigor and dedication.

Danny O. Jacobs, MD, MPH
David C. Sabiston Jr. Professor

Chair, Department of Surgery

Surgeon-in-Chief
Duke University Medical Center