Mission/History

Our Mission & Values

The UC Department of Internal Medicine is recognized with one of the nation’s top GME programs in categorical and medicine-pediatrics, and as being a leader in quality patient care.

In addition to its reputation in superior teaching, the department aims to be a leader in improving the overall health of the local and global community based upon its tripartite mission of education, research and patient care.

Representing the largest department in the UC College of Medicine, faculty and staff are making an impact on the health care field by providing experience-driven education for students, fellows and residents as well cutting-edge, evidence-based treatment to patients.

Through award-winning education and academic medicine, UC’s Department of Internal Medicine faculty, actively engage in the growth and progression of basic and translational science and health care innovation.

Our History

The UC Department of Internal Medicine has a rich history that begins with its formation in 1819, when the UC College of Medicine was also established.

Below is a timeline providing highlights about the department, its former chairs and some of the influential occurrences that have made the department what it is today.

• 1819: The charter to establish the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati is granted and Daniel Drake, MD, & becomes the first professor of medicine (professor of the theory and practice of physics, later changed to professor of the practice of medicine.)
• 1864: James Graham, MD, serves as chair. Simultaneously, the old Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati is rebuilt at the site of the parking garage of Music Hall and is called Cincinnati Hospital. Also, the Miami Medical School is reopened and operated separately at 12th and Plum streets.
• 1874: Dr. Robert Bartholow, who correctly theorized about how cholera was spread, was appointed Chair of Medicine. He suggested that the City purchase the Medical College of Ohio and give it to the University of Cincinnati.
• 1901: Dr. Frederick Forchheimer became chair of medicine. He was the first professor to be recognized as an "internist". 
• 1908: In anticipation of the Flexner Report, the Miami Medical College joined the Medical College of Ohio in the University of Cincinnati to become the oldest college of the University of Cincinnati and begins offering medical degrees. The Flexner Report, published in 1910, called on American medical schools to enact higher admission and graduation standards. Many medical schools closed that did not meet the protocols of mainstream science.
• 1915-1936: Roger S. Morris, MD, becomes chairman of the department of medicine. Morris founds the Central Society for Clinical Research, becomes the first Gordon & Helen Taylor Professor of Medicine, established by Gordon Taylor, secretary of the Eagle-Picher Company, and begins a medical residency training program for internal medicine physicians.
• 1923: Cincinnati General Hospital opens as a pavilion system type hospital, similar to other institutions in Europe.
• 1928: Holmes Hospital opens due to significant “ town gown” challenges pre-empting the need for the Cincinnati General Hospital pavilions being designated a hospital for private patients.
• 1936-1956: Marion A. Blankenhorn, MD, serves as the second Taylor Professor of Medicine and fourth chair of the department of internal medicine. Several divisions are established during this time frame to include infectious diseases, established under Dr. Morton Hamburger; metabolism/nephrology, headed up by Harvey Knowles, MD; cardiology, which was started by Johnson McGuire, MD; gastroenterology and liver is established by Leon Schiff, MD; and hematology, nutrition and cellular metabolism, established by Richard Vilter, MD.
• 1956-1979: Vilter serves as the third Taylor Professor of Medicine and fifth chair of the department of internal medicine. During this time frame, Medical Immunology was founded under the direction of Dr. Evelyn Hess; Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine was established under Dr. Richard Witt; and the dialysis program was developed by Dr. E. Gordon Margolin, and was given divisional status under Dr. Victor Pollack.
• 1969: The new Cincinnati General Hospital opens.
• 1982: Cincinnati General Hospital is renamed University of Cincinnati Hospital.
• 1988-2004: Robert Luke, MD, a nephrologist recruited from the University of Alabama, serves as the fifth Taylor Professor of Medicine and seventh chair of internal medicine, after Dr. Martin Goldberg who served from 1980-1987.
• 2001: UC Physicians, Inc., opens the University Pointe medical office building in West Chester.
• 2004-2011: Bradley Britigan, MD, an infectious disease specialist recruited from the University of Iowa, serves as the eighth chair of medicine and is the sixth Taylor Professor of Medicine.
• 2010: UC Health is established as the clinical partner of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and the College of Medicine.
• 2011-Present: Gregory Rouan, MD, serves as the ninth chair of medicine and is the seventh Taylor Professor of Medicine.