The Academic Health Center, consisting of the colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health sciences, Hoxworth Blood Center, UC Barrett Cancer Center at University Hospital, Genome Research Institute and UC Physicians, serves as the gateway into UC's scientific corridor. As a major source of medical care in Greater Cincinnati, the center has a distinguished reputation for training prominent health care professionals and providing leading-edge research and patient care.

Teaching, research and patient care affiliates include University Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, VA Medical Center, Shriners Hospital for Children, Christ Hospital and Jewish Hospital. 

The academic health center concept - one organization that includes a medical school, one or more teaching hospitals and other health professional colleges - originated with frontier physician Daniel Drake, who in 1819 founded the Medical College of Ohio, precursor of the UC College of Medicine.

Drake, however, foresaw not just a free-standing medical school, but an integrated medical school system and teaching hospital. From the start, the College of Medicine, the institution that eventually evolved into University Hospital, and a growing number of affiliates have worked closely together in the spirit that Drake envisioned.

For most of its history a municipally owned college, in July 1977 the University of Cincinnati joined Ohio's higher education system. In 1982 its teaching hospital, known as the General Hospital and in its present location since 1915, was renamed the University of Cincinnati Hospital. In 1994, the hospital became one of the then six hospitals (now seven) in the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, and later changed its name to University Hospital.

The Academic Health Center's national reputation for biomedical research includes development of the first live, attenuated polio vaccine by Albert Sabin, MD, who worked on the project at both UC and the affiliated Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, as well as definitive studies of the health effects of lead in children and development of the popular antihistamine Benadryl by George Rieveschl, PhD, who was working in the UC chemistry department during the time of his discovery. 

UC also started the first emergency medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation residency programs in the United States, and was also one of the first medical schools in the country to introduce a family practice residency program, pioneering the return of the "family doctor" to U.S. health-care delivery.

Academic Health Center Inventions & Firsts 

First Effective Antihistamine "Benadryl" - George Rieveschl
George Rieveschl, PhD, is the inventor of Benadryl, the first antihistamine. He earned three degrees at the University of Cincinnati: AB (1937), MS (1939), and PhD (1940). While conducting research at UC, he developed a number of potential antispasmodic compounds. Benadryl, one of these compounds, showed promise as an anti-allergy drug and was first marketed in 1946 by Parke Davis & Co., now owned by Pfizer. Rieveschl was named to the International Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 1995.

First Oral Polio Vaccine - Albert Sabin
Albert Sabin, MD, developer of the oral, live-virus polio vaccine, began his career in biomedical research in 1926 while still a student at New York University where he received his MD degree. He worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research from 1935-1939. From 1939 through 1969, Sabin was successively associate professor of pediatrics, professor of research pediatrics, and distinguished service professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the Children's Hospital Research Foundation.

More Historical Information

1819: Founding of the Medical College of Ohio, precursor to the UC College of Medicine. School becomes the oldest medical school west of the Alleghenies.

1821: Founding of the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum, first teaching hospital of the Medical College of Ohio. It later drops "Lunatic Asylum" from its name in 1861.

1850: Founding of the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, the first pharmacy school west of the Alleghenies.

1852: Miami Medical College founded.

1869: Cincinnati Hospital opens to replace the Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati.

1889: College of Nursing founded.

1896: Medical College of Ohio officially becomes a part of UC.

1908: Miami Medical College and the Medical College of Ohio merge to form the Ohio-Miami Medical College.

1919: Ohio-Miami Medical College renamed the UC College of Medicine.

1938: Hoxworth Blood Center founded.

1954:  Cincinnati College of Pharmacy affiliates with UC.

1960: UC given executive control of Cincinnati General Hospital.

1967: UC Medical Center created and includes the colleges of medicine, nursing and pharmacy, and University Hospital, Christian R. Holmes Hospital and the Health Sciences Library.

1982: Cincinnati General Hospital renamed University of Cincinnati Hospital.

1994: Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati assumes management of UC Hospital and later renames it University Hospital.

1997: Cardiovascular Research Center opens.

1998: College of Allied Health Sciences founded.

1999: Vontz Center for Molecular Studies opens.

2003: The Genome Research Institute opens. Construction breaks ground on the Medical Sciences Building/Center for Academic Excellence (CARE)-Crawley project. Phase I slated to open in 2007.

2006: UC Medical Center adopts the name "Academic Health Center" to better reflect its scope of services.  

2007: The College of Pharmacy is renamed the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy.