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Vital Signs

Then & Now

A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from The Journal of William Tully, an account kept during 1808-09 by a Dartmouth medical student:

"This morning, Dr. Smith was to perform the operation for an aneurism, but at 16 or 17 miles distance from Hanover. I felt desirous of seeing it; but to go so far for the purpose would have been . . . skinning a flint for three-pence and spoiling a knife that cost six-pence. Had the patient, however, been within half a mile, I should have felt somewhat sheepish at attending, with such a concourse of students as the good Doctor commonly has with him."

3,000+
Number of miles today's DMS students often travel for clinical rotations—including to California, Alaska, Arizona, and Florida




A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital 1978 Annual Review:

"Good medical care is no longer viewed as a luxury of those who can afford it, but as a service to be provided to all who want it. Wide public concern with the provision of health care, a product of that changing viewpoint, has resulted in significant responses on both the federal and state levels. These responses are concerned with the quality and cost of health care and [its] accessibility and availability."

$3.3 million
Uncompensated and charitable care provided by Hitchcock in 1978

$63.0 million
Uncompensated and charitable care provided by Hitchcock in 2007




A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the Fall 1981 issue of this magazine:

NBC-TV came to town when "cancer researchers from across the nation gathered in Hanover for three days in August to discuss their successes, their failures, and the future." Another article in the same issue pointed out that "cancer no longer invariably kills. More and more cancer patients across the nation are surviving—and leading active, productive lives."

1972
Year Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center opened its doors

$54 million
Current annual research funding to the NCCC

165
Average number of open clinical trials at the NCCC




A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from a book titled Hiram Hitchcock's Legacy:

When Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital opened in 1893, "many citizens were skeptical. Thirty-six beds seemed excessive! . . . There was also a certain amount of fear regarding hospitals—after all, people often went there and died! . . . Others were pleased and impressed with such a large and modern facility. . . . [It] also had gas and electricity."

22
Number of fireplaces in the 1893 MHMH building

14,000
Number of light fixtures in DHMC's Lebanon facility when it opened in 1991

4,000
Approximate number converted to use compact fluorescent bulbs by 2007


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Dartmouth Medical SchoolDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterWhite River Junction VAMCNorris Cotton Cancer CenterDartmouth College