1862–1865 1872 Portsmouth Grove is the site of the largest hospital that Anita Tyng, MD, is admitted to membership in RIMS. She has ever stood on soil. The 1400-bed military is the second woman in America to gain membership in a hospital receives thousands of Civil War casualties from state medical society. The first was Dr. Francena R. Porter, both the North and South. Francis L. Wheaton, MD, of who joined the Kansas Medical Society five months earlier. Both women were alumnae Providence, is the founding superintendent of the hospital. of the Women’s Medical 1863 College of Philadelphia. RIMS and the Providence Medical Association initiate the founding of Rhode Island Hospital, the first non-military 1877 Anita Tyng, MD, serves as general hospital in Rhode Island. It opened its doors to ilestones � �overs 1847 a member of the delegation admit its first patient on October 1, 1868. Butler Hospital opens on December 1, with Dr. Isaac Ray that represents RIMS at the 1812 as its first superintendent. AMA’s annual meeting. The Rhode Island General Assembly enacts a charter for the incorporation of the Rhode 1848 1878 Island Medical Society on February 25. Amos The Providence Medical Association is founded Years of advocacy by RIMS lead to the establishment of Throop convenes the organizational meeting (for the third time since about 1810) on January 31. the state Board of Health, which assumes responsibility for on April 22 and is elected president of RIMS. collecting, analyzing and publishing vital statistics for the 1852 state, a task RIMS had previously initiated and executed 1820 RIMS’ advocacy succeeds in making since 1852. RIMS is one of eleven state medical societies represented at Rhode Island the fourth state to collect, the founding of the U.S. Pharmacopeia in Washington, DC. analyze and publish vital statistics on 1882 births, marriages and deaths on an annual The Newport County Medical Society is founded. 1825 basis. RIMS performs this arduous task for RIMS maintains two libraries for the use its members, 26 years until the state Board of Health is 1884 one in Providence for the “Northern District”and one created and assumes the work in 1878. 1868 RIMS’ tenacious advocacy leads to passage of the Medical in Newport for the “Southern District”of the Society. RIMS gives its library collections, including books, periodi- Examiners Act and reform of the coroner system. The 1859 cals and medical instruments, to Rhode Island Hospital. Washington County Medical Society holds its first meeting 1835 RIMS begins annual publication of its on January 31 in Westerly. Dr. Caleb Fiske bequeaths his substantial library to RIMS own official proceedings and clinical 1870 along with monies that fund an annual Fiske Essay Prize for papers in the Transactions of the Rhode RIMS’ persistent advocacy succeeds in making Rhode Island 1885 more than 150 years. He was RIMS’ fourth president in 1823–1824. Island Medical Society. one of the first states to establish a Board of Pharmacy. Women & Infants Hospital (Providence Lying-In) opens.

1663 1782 1812 1813 1818 1846 1847 1847 Dr. John Clarke “physician Dr. Levi Wheaton, former On April 22 the Rhode Island Dr. Usher Parsons, surgeon Dr. Solomon Drowne, founding James W.C. Ely, MD attends Dr. Theophilus C. Dunn and Dr. Isaac Ray becomes the of Newport” secures Rhode naval war surgeon, establishes Medical Society holds its aboard Oliver Hazard Perry’s member of RIMS and professor the first demonstration of Dr. David King (above), both first superintendant of the Island’s uniquely liberal Royal a smallpox hospital in Provi- organizational meeting and flagship, becomes a hero in the of materia medica (pharma- ether anesthesia at Massa- of Newport, represent RIMS newly opened Butler Hospital. Charter, which guarantees dence. He was later a professor elects Dr. Amos Throop as Battle of Lake Erie, performing cology) at , chusetts General Hospital. in founding the American He became RIMS’ 19th freedom of conscience “in in Brown University’s first its first president. numerous life-saving surger- is appointed to represent RIMS He later became a founder Medical Association. president in 1856. religious concernments” for medical program, a founding ies. He became RIMS’ eighth at the founding of the U.S. of the Providence Medical the first time in world history. member of RIMS, and the president in 1837 and was a Pharmacopeia, which took Association and in 1868, It was the state’s constitution Society’s fifth president. Vice President of the American place in Philadelphia in 1820. RIMS’ 25th president. for 180 years. Medical Association.

6 7 1889 1900 1911 1938–1939 RIMS hosts the House The Providence Medical Association On June 1 the cornerstone of the RIMS Library Building is RIMS is instrumental in establishing the Hospital Service of Delegates of the begins bi-monthly publication of laid at the corner of Francis Street and Hayes Street across Corporation of Rhode Island (Blue Cross). American Medical the Providence Medical Journal. from the south lawn of the Rhode Island State House. Association in New- Dr. George D. Hersey is the editor. 1946 port, photographed at 1912 The Bristol County Medical Society is formed on the Newport Casino 1904 RIMS observes its centennial October 22. (Bristol was previously included in the PMA.) (Tennis Hall of Fame). The Woonsocket District Medical Society is founded. with the opening its new It is only time the The Kent County Medical Society is founded on March 2. Library Building on June 12. 1949 AMA House has ever The RIMS House of Delegates meets for the first time RIMS founds the Rhode Island Medical Society Physicians met in Rhode Island. on June 2. 1917 Service (Blue Shield). The merged Transactions 1890 1908 and Providence Medical 1955 Henry Dorr, Esq., grand-nephew of Dr. Amos Dr. Mary S. Packard and Dr. Ellen Journal become the Rhode Island Medical Journal. RIMS’ committee on child and school health initiates plans Throop, presents the 1795 Ralph Earl portrait A. Stone, two women Fellows with the Department of Health to allocate and administer On December 7 a Red Cross train leaves Providence with of Throop to RIMS as a gift from the family. of RIMS, launch a nationwide Salk polio vaccine. about 100 Rhode Island doctors and nurses aboard, headed movement when they open the 1895 for Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are volunteers in an inter- first fresh-air school for tubercular 1962 Many years of advocacy by RIMS culminate on national relief effort following a massive explosion in RIMS celebrates its sesquicentennial with a nine-day children in Providence. May 14 in the passage of a medical practice act, Halifax harbor the previous day caused by the collision “Exposition of Health Progress” held in the Cranston requiring examination and licensure by the state of two munitions ships. The disaster killed 1138 people Street Armory. 82,200 persons attend the free event. for the practice of medicine. 1910 and left thousands injured and homeless. Physician volunteers inoculate thousands against polio. Transactions of the Rhode Island 1895 Medical Society is merged with 1919 The Pawtucket Medical Association is founded. the Providence Medical Journal; With a quarter of the medical community and much publication continues as the of the RIMS’ key leadership involved in the war effort, 1900–1912 Providence Medical Journal RIMS is forced to suspend publication of the Rhode RIMS’ library collection resides at the Providence until 1917. Island Medical Journal for slightly more than one year. Public Library. It had previously been housed at Publication resumes with the January issue, 1920. 54 North Main Street in Providence in the rooms of the 1910 Franklin Society, where both RIMS and the Providence City Hospital opens in Providence; it is later renamed in 1931 Medical Association held most of their business and honor of Dr. Charles V. Chapin. The building is now part RIMS establishes its Maternal Health Committee. Today it educational meetings. of the campus of Providence College. is the oldest such state medical society committee in the US.

1856 1872 1878 1879 1884 1895 1896 1903 Edwin M. Snow, MD becomes Anita Tyng, MD becomes the Edward T. Caswell, MD George D. Hersey, MD Charles V. Chapin, MD Marcus Wheatland, MD is Professor Hermon C. Bumpus, Lucius F.C. Garvin, MD, the first superintendant of first woman admitted as a becomes the first surgeon in reorganizes RIMS’ library, succeeds Edwin M. Snow, the first African-American head of the biology department a family physician from health for the city of Provi- Fellow of RIMS. In 1877 she Rhode Island and one of the and over 32 years, builds the MD, as superintendant of physician to join RIMS. He at Brown University, demon- Lonsdale, is elected to the dence. He became RIMS’ represented RIMS as a delegate first in the to collection from 130 volumes health for the city of Provi- was the first radiologist on strates the first x-ray machine first of two terms as Governor 30th president in 1876. to the annual meeting of the use Joseph Lister’s antiseptic to 30,000 volumes. He was the dence. He became RIMS’ Aquidneck Island and became in Rhode Island at a RIMS of Rhode Island. He was the American Medical Association. techniques exclusively in first editor of the Providence 47th president in 1907. the 11th president of the meeting in Brown’s Rhode first and only physician to 1876 was the first year a all his surgeries. He became Medical Journal and became National Medical Association. Island Hall. He was later made hold that office to date. woman physician served as RIMS’ 32nd president in 1878. RIMS’ 43rd president in 1899. A street in the center of an honorary member of RIMS. a delegate to the AMA. Newport is named for him.

8 9 1963 Rhode Island. The MMJUARI remained the sole option for 1984–1986 1995 RIMS introduces an ambitious campaign to administer most Rhode Island doctors for the next 15 years. No rated Rapidly rising medical liability premiums create a nation- RIMS founds Rhode Island Quality Partners (renamed oral Sabin vaccine in a series of free clinics throughout the medical professional liability insurer offered insurance in wide crisis of affordability. RIMS conducts a major campaign Healthcentric Advisors in 2011), which wins the Medicare state in an effort to eradicate polio. Nearly 2 million doses Rhode Island again until 1994, when RIMS invited NORCAL for reforms, including several patterned after California’s Professional Review Organization contract and prevents of vaccine are administered, and Rhode Island becomes the Mutual Insurance Company of San Francisco (rated A+ for successful Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975. that contract from going to an out-of-state entity. first state to immunize all its citizens. strength and stability by A.M. Best) to come to Rhode Island. 1987 RIMS establishes its Medical Review Advisory Committee In December, the Rhode Island Delegation to the American 1979 RIMS establishes its Commit- as a resource for defense attorneys in defending physicians. Medical Association’s House of Delegates introduces a In response to three physician suicides in Rhode Island tee on Physician Competence, resolution calling upon the AMA to deny membership to the previous year, RIMS establishes its Physician Health which remains unique in the 1996 any doctor who belongs to any state society that does not Program, initiated and led by Dr. Herbert Rakatansky. nation to the present day. RIMS’ monthly journal, Rhode Island Medicine, becomes accept black physicians as members. After long debate, The Program today serves the entire population of Rhode RIMS gives its 50,000-volume Medicine and Health Rhode Island. the Rhode Island resolution is defeated. Island physicians, dentists, podiatrists and Physician library collection to Brown Assistants. It also mentors the Medical Student Health University along with its col- 1965 Council of the Warren at Brown. lection of medical instruments. RIMS introduces an End Measles 1981 1992 Campaign and RIMS founds the Rhode Island Medical Society Insurance RIMS plays a leading role in transforming the state’s immunizes over Brokerage Corporation to provide high-quality, professional Workers’ Compensation system from a disaster to a 35,000 children service to physicians. national model. The Rhode Island Medical Journal in the nation’s first becomes Rhode Island Medicine. state-wide effort to 1983 eradicate measles. RIMS establishes the Rhode Island Medical Society 1993 Cartoon: Providence Foundation, a 501(c)(3) entity under the IRS Code. RIMS acquires a third parcel of land at the corner of Hayes Sunday Journal and Francis Streets in an advantageous DEPCO auction. January 23, 1966 1984 (The Depositors’ Economic Protection Corporation was The US Supreme Court decides the “Barry Case” in favor formed to manage Rhode Island’s credit union crisis.) 1975 of Rhode Island doctors, who had sued St. Paul, Aetna and The insurance companies St. Paul, Travelers and Aetna Travelers for conspiracy in their precipitous departure from 1994 abandon the Rhode Island medical professional liability Rhode Island’s medical liability market in 1975. The class RIMS welcomes the NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company market, precipitating a major crisis of availability. In action was spearheaded by RIMS members David Barry, to Rhode Island. With the advent of NORCAL, Rhode Island response to the emergency, the General Assembly creates MD; Paul J.M. Healey, MD; Walter Cotter, MD; and others. physicians have access to a top-rated, licensed and admitted 2003–2005 the Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association of Attorney Leonard Decof argued the physicians’ case. liability carrier for the first time in 19 years. Rapidly rising medical liability premiums create a second nationwide crisis of affordability. The crisis is intensified for doctors in Rhode Island by spiking health insurance premiums, stagnant fees, a Medicare cut and additional reductions threatened by other third-party payers. RIMS founds the Patients First Coalition and the Protecting Patients’ Access to Care Coalition, made up of health professionals and allied institutions and organizations. On March 12, 2003, hundreds of doctors participate in a State House protest rally organized by RIMS. As a result, Blue Cross abandons plans to cut physician fees by 7 per- cent across the board, and other reforms for doctors gain momentum. The multi-year campaign succeeds in bring- 1943 1972 1980 1991 1995 2008 ing welcome changes in the leadership and philosophy of John Edward Farrell, Sc.D Stanley M. Aronson, MD, RIMS inaugurates the Dr. Kathleen C. Hittner, MD, RIMS’ 136th President David RIMS inaugurates the Dr. the state’s largest health insurer. In addition, ripple effects becomes RIMS’ first executive becomes Brown University’s Charles L. Hill Award for becomes RIMS’ 133rd Carter, MD, completes the Herbert Rakatansky Award from RIMS’ campaign trigger a series of state and federal director. Dr. Farrell had been first Dean of Medicine. He outstanding service to medi- president, the first woman reorganization of the RIMS for medical professionalism, investigations, resignations, fines and incarcerations of executive director of the Provi- served as Dean until 1981 cine and the community. to hold the office. She served Council, incorporating major medical ethics and humani- public figures.RIMS ’ advocacy brings about the creation dence Medical Association and as editor-in-chief of RIMS’ The award is named for as president of The Miriam specialties and deemphasizing tarian service. Dr. Rakatansky of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner. since 1938 and held both titles monthly journal 1989–1998. RIMS’ 121st president, who Hospital in 2000–2009. geographic representation. was RIMS’ 127th president from 1943 until his retirement died in office and was the The House of Delegates voted and is the founding chair of in 1973. first recipient of the Award itself out of existence two RIMS’ 33 year-old Physician posthumously. years later. Health Program.

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