Surgery Reference Chronology

• 1864-1880 Founding Chairman Hugh H. Toland
• 1880-1899 Robert A. McLean, M.D.
• 1899-1912 Thomas W. Huntington, M.D.
• 1912-1929 Wallace I. Terry, M.D.
• 1929-1947 Howard C. Naffziger, M.D.
• 1947-1956 H. Glenn Bell, M.D.
• 1956-1963 Leon Goldman, M.D.
• 1964-1975 J. Englebert Dunphy, M.D.
• 1975-1985 Paul Ebert, M.D.
• 1987-1993 Haile T. Debas
• 1993-1999 Theodore R. Schrock, M.D.
• 1999-present: Nancy Ascher, M.D. Ph.D.

1864-1880 Founding Chairman Hugh H. Toland (1806-1880)
Born on a plantation in South Carolina, Hugh Toland graduated from Transylvania University Medical school in Kentucky in 1828. After several years of practice, he went to the famed Paris Clinical School for two and one half years of postgraduate training. Returning to America, Toland went west in 1852 and followed the gold rush, and after a brief stint at mining he moved to San Francisco and became a leader in the teaching and practice of surgery. Immensely successful in private practice, he founded the proprietary Toland Medical College in 1864. In 1873 the school was affiliated as the Medical Department of the University of California. Dr. Toland served on the faculty as Professor of Surgery until his death in 1880.

1880-1899 Robert A. McLean, M.D. (b.1851, ret. 1899)
Born in Stockton California, Robert McLean attended Toland Medical College and showed early prowess in the study of anatomy. After graduating from the Medical Department of the University of California in 1874, he became professor of anatomy, and succeeded Hugh Toland as chairman of Clinical and Operative surgery in 1880. He later served as dean of the medical school (15 years) and retired in 1899. Asepsis and instruction in bacteriology became a formal part of the curriculum during his tenure.

1899-1912 Thomas W. Huntington, M.D. (b.1849, ret. 1912)
After graduating from Harvard in 1876, and training further at Massachusetts General Hospital, Thomas Huntington went west and developed a private surgical practice contracting with various railroad companies and specializing in treatment of work injuries, hernias, and appendicitis with excellent results. In 1883 he presented a paper to the California Medical Society on "The Methods and Results of Antiseptic Surgery." In 1899 he became Chair of the Surgical branch of the Medical Department of the University of California. Drs. Wallace I. Terry, Harold Brunn, Camillus Bush, and Howard Naffziger were trained during Huntington's administration. The department's first link with Halstedian training occurred when faculty member Dr. Camillus Bush brought his firsthand acquaintance with Halsted's training program at Johns Hopkins to UCSF's training program in surgery. Dr. Howard Naffziger, who was then a young medical student and interne, took Bush's advice and went to Hopkins to expand his training with Halsted and Harvey Cushing.

1912-1929 Wallace I. Terry, M.D. (b. 1868)
Born in Sacramento, Dr. Wallace I. Terry was another California native who rose to prominence at UC. He completed his undergraduate education at UC Berkeley in 1890, got the MD in 1892, and did postgraduate training under Dr. Charles McBurney in New York. He also studied in Germany and in Switzerland with Dr. Theodore Kocher. During his career in San Francisco he maintained his interest in thyroid and abdominal surgery, dominating the specialty of thyroid surgery on the West Coast.

1929-1947 Howard C. Naffziger, M.D. (1884-1961)
Born in Nevada City, California in May 1884, Howard Naffziger grew up in east-central California and was admitted to the University of California in 1902. He quickly completed his premedical and medical training and obtained both bachelor's and master's degrees at Berkeley, graduating in 1909. After a California internship and residency, he went to Johns Hopkins and trained with William Stewart Halsted and Harvey Cushing. He came back and joined the UC faculty in 1912, served with Base Hospital 30 during World War I and began to specialize in neurosurgery, bringing national recognition to the UC Medical School. In 1929 he was appointed Chair of the Surgery Department and built a Halstedian residency program. The Society of University Surgeons noted in 1938 that UC's teaching program was one of ten Halstedian programs in the nation. In 1941 Naffziger made anesthesia a division of the Department of Surgery. When Naffziger moved to chair the new Department of Neurological surgery in 1947, Dr. H. Glenn Bell became Chair of Surgery. In his last years, Dr. Naffziger served as a University Regent from 1953 until his death in 1961.

1947-1956 H. Glenn Bell, M.D. (1893-1981)
A key member of the Surgery Department since 1930, Dr. Bell became chair at UC in 1947 when Dr. Naffziger moved to the chairmanship of the newly formed Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Bell had served as chief resident under Mont Reid at Cincinnati. Reid had been one of Halsted's residents at Johns Hopkins and set up a similar residency training program at Cincinnati. Dr. Bell was hired in 1930 by neurosurgeon Howard Naffziger who wanted a general surgeon with Halstedian training to succeed him as chair of surgery. Bell developed a resident exchange program between Cincinnati and UC, which augmented the Halstedian training in San Francisco. Bell was known for developing excellent technical surgeons who moved into the California community to practice. A Bell resident, William Brock, recalled that "Dr. Bell dedicated himself to the care of his patients and to the development of the training program. His warmth, frankness, honesty and sincerity gained the respect of physicians and patients. He became the ‘doctor's doctor.' He demanded hard work from his residents, long hours, and dedication to the care of the patient. Teaching was by example, by watching and helping in the operating room and on the wards. His technical skill and ability to make crucial decisions during a surgical operation were among his greatest talents. Roughness in the operating room was never tolerated. He was a man of few words. Rarely was a resident praised or admonished, but from the look in his eye and the expression on his face, one had no doubt where he stood....Dr. Bell sincerely felt, and his residents soon learned, that it is a privilege to operate on a patient. By putting his trust in a surgeon's hands, the patient was paying him the greatest compliment he could." One of Bell's top trainees, Edwin "Jack" Wylie was later recruited to the UC surgery faculty in 1958 by Bell's successor Leon Goldman.

1948: A grateful resident formed the Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society, which became the defining organization for surgeons who completed their surgical residency training at UCSF.

1951: Dr. Edwin "Jack" Wylie performed the first aorto-iliac thromboendarterectomy for occlusive disease in the U.S., "the ultimate vascular reconstruction challenge." Wylie's landmark work was published and elaborated in 1952, 1954, and 1955 in the journal Surgery.

1955: Allen Johnson, M.D. [AB 1943,UCB; MD 1946, UCSF; Residency under H. Glenn Bell, 1947-1955; Clinical Faculty Stanford 1955ff.; Clinical Faculty UCSF 1991] completed his UC surgical residency at UCSF and moved into clinical practice in San Jose, serving on the clinical faculty at Stanford.

1956-1963 Leon Goldman, M.D. trained at UC under H. Glenn Bell and did a research fellowship with A. C. Ivy at Northwestern in GI physiology. He served as chair at UC from 1956 to 1963 and became ill in the last years of his chairmanship; he was replaced by acting chair, orthopedic surgeon Verne Inman. Goldman's students (John Najarian, Allen Johnson, William Silen) remember him fondly as "the coach" who they regarded as a surgeon-scientist-internist who incorporated a broad perspective in his treatment of patients. Dr. Goldman described research during his administration in a letter to Provost John Saunders on Feb. 2, 1961, noting , "the impact of the dramatic progress of surgery of the heart and larger arteries." He reported on the "extensive research program in our laboratory" which included the basic mechanisms of transplantation, and basic metabolic aspects of disease, peptic ulcer, cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis and cerebrovascular occlusive disease, with some work in plastic surgery. Dr. Goldman is highly regarded for his excellent choice of recruits.

During his administration Leon Goldman recruited:

1958: Dr. Benson Roe, [AB 1939, UCB; MD 1943, Harvard; Residency 1943-1950 MGH; Research Fellow 1948-1951 Physiology Department Harvard and Univ. of Edinburgh; Assoc. Clin. Prof. Surgery UCSF 1952-1957; Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery UCSF 1958-1976, Co-chief 1976-1987; Emeritus 1989] who joined the faculty to develop a cardiothoracic service at UCSF.

1958: Edwin "Jack Wylie [BS Pomona College, MD Harvard 1943, residency in general surgery at UCSF, under H. Glenn Bell, 1944-1948;] began vascular surgical practice with Norman Freeman and was recruited to the UC faculty by Leon Goldman and served as long-term vice-chair of Department of Surgery, from 1959-1981.

1960: William Silen, [AB 1946, UCB; MD 1949, UCSF; Residency UCSF 1950-1957; Research Fellow 1953, 1957 UCSF; Guggenheim UCB 1973-74; Faculty UCSF 1960; Instructor & Asst. Prof. Of Surgery, University Of Colorado School Of Medicine, 1960; Asst. & Assoc. Prof. Of Surgery UCSF, 1960-1966; Professor Of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, 1966-1994] came to head surgery at SFGH and begin GI physiology research.

1960: F. William Blaisdell, [BS 1948, Stanford; MD 1952, Stanford; Residency 1954-1958 Stanford, SFGH, Peter Bent Brigham Boston; Chief Resident 1958-1959 SFGH & Stanford; Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship 1959-1960 Baylor University Houston TX; Faculty, Chief of Surgical Service UCSF-VA 1960-1966; Chief of Surgical Service, SFGH 1966-1978; 1966-1969 Assoc. Prof., UCSF; 1969-1978 Prof. UCSF; 1978ff. Prof. & Chair Surgery, UC Davis] who was hired to revitalize surgery at the Fort Miley VA Hospital.

1963: John S. Najarian [AB 1948 UCB; UCB 1948; MD 1952 UCSF; Residency 1952-1960 UCSF; Research Fellowship in Immunopathology, University Of Pittsburgh, 60-61 and Tissue Transplantation Immunology At Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation; 61-63; UCSF Faculty, Asst. Prof. & Director Of Surgical Research Labs And Chief Of Transplantation Service 1963-1966; Professor And Vice Chairman Of UCSF Surgery, 1966-1967; Professor And Chair Of Surgery, University Of Minnesota, 1967ff.] who joined the UCSF faculty to start a kidney transplantation program and boost basic surgical research.

1962: F. William Blaisdell did the first axillary-femoral artery bypass, a procedure that became a standard vascular correction in patients unable to withstand conventional surgery. Reported in 1963 in the journal Surgery 54 (1963):563.

1964 to 1975 J. Englebert Dunphy, M.D. (b. 1908, d. 1981)
[BA 1929 College of the Holy Cross; 1929; MD 1933 Harvard Medical School; Residency 1934-1941; Military service, 1940-1946; Sr. Assoc. in Surgery 1945-1948; Faculty: Asst. Prof. 1947-1950 Harvard Medical School; Prof. of Surgery 1955-1959 Harvard Medical School; Prof. & Chair of Surgery, University of Oregon Medical School, 1959-1964 ; Prof. & Chair of Surgery UCSF 1964-1975] After five years as Chair of Surgery at Oregon, Harvard-trained J. Englebert Dunphy, M.D. came to UCSF as chair from 1964 to 1975. His arrival coincided with the crucial years when UCSF became a separate UC campus and major leadership shifts occurred. The Cardiovascular Research Institute and the departments of anesthesiology and biochemistry began to flourish during the Dunphy years. Dunphy introduced the full-time system to surgery, equalized the residency program and surgical services at VA, Moffitt, and SFGH , and expanded activity in all divisions. Under his direction, the number of full-time academic surgeons grew from twelve to twenty-nine. Dunphy's recruits included: Robert E. Allen, Jr., Kent C. Cochrum, Alfred A. deLorimier, William K. Ehrenfeld, Noel H. Fishman, R. S. Jones, Robert C. Lim, Wesley S. Moore, Richard G. Anderson, Ronald J. Stoney, Lawrence W. Way, Folkert O Belzer, L. Henry Edmunds, Thomas K. Hunt, Theodore R. Schrock, and Samuel L. Kountz.

During Dunphy's administration, the following occurred:

1960s: Edwin "Jack" Wylie, a Harvard classmate of Dunphy's developed an independent vascular surgery division at UC and his pioneering work in endarterectomy, autografts and renal vascular surgery caused UCSF to be regarded as the birthplace of vascular surgery.

1964: Alfred deLorimier [AB 1952, UCB; MD 1956, UCSF; Residency UCSF 1957-1962; Fellow, Pediatric Surgery Ohio State; Columbus Children's Hospital 1961-1963; Faculty 1964 UCSF] began defining a separate division of pediatric surgery.

1964 Neurosurgery Otolaryngology were Divisions of the Department of Surgery. In 1966 Otolaryngology became a separate department; in 1969 Neurosurgery again became a separate department. A separate department of cardiothoracic surgery never materialized.

1964: first kidney transplant at UCSF done by John S. Najarian. In 1972 Dunphy would later remark that "Dr. Najarian's early work on humoral factors in transplantation were unique, original and only now are being recognized as of critical, practical importance in the control of organ rejection."

1967: Folkert Belzer and Samuel L. Kountz became co-chiefs of the transplant service at UCSF

1965: Thomas K. Hunt [BA 1952 Harvard; MD 1956 Harvard; Residency Boston City Hospital, University of Oregon; Fellowship 1964, Glasgow, UCSF 1965ff.], came to UCSF from Oregon in 1965 and after participating in the development of the trauma service at SFGH, developed a long-lived research program in wound healing at Parnassus.

1966: F. William Blaisdell moved from the VA in 1966 to SFGH and within two years developed a pathbreaking, nationally recognized trauma service.

1966: Alfred deLorimier began pediatric surgery research in fetal lambs, and studied diaphragmatic hernia, Wilms' tumor, and neuroblastoma.

1966: William Silen moved to Beth Israel at Harvard and as Chair of Surgery revamped the training program there. The resulting void in GI surgery and research left by Silen's departure was filled by Dunphy recruits: 1969: Lawrence W. Way (1933), [AB 1955, Cornell University; MD 1959, University Of Buffalo Med. School; Internship And Residency 1959-1967 UC Affiliated Hospitals; Fellow In GI Physiology Richard Durbin, Julius Comroe; Fellow In GI Physiology Morton I. Grossman, UCLA, 1968-1969; Asst. Prof. Of Surgery UCSF 1969-1972; Assoc. 1972-1975; Prof. 1975ff. Vice Chair 1972ff] who became an expert biliary surgeon, served as chief at the VA, and pioneered the laparoscopic training service at UC &

1971: Theodore R. Schrock [BS 1961 Indiana University and UCSF; MD 1964, UCSF; Residency 1965-1971, UCSF; Research Fellow Harvard 1967-1969; UCSF Faculty 1971-76 Asst. Prof.; 1976-1984 Assoc. Prof.; 1984 Prof.; 1993-1997 Acting Chair; 1997-1999 Chair of Surgery UCSF; 1999 to present Chief Medical Officer UCSF] developed lower GI surgery and brought colonoscopy to UCSF in 1972.

August, 1969: Benson B. Roe and residents did the first UCSF cardiac transplant; the patient survived for seven years.

1960s-1970s: Surgery's alliance with the Cardiovascular Research Institute flourished and surgical residents and fellows frequently trained with basic scientists of the CVRI.

1967: Dr. William K. Hamilton became chair of anesthesia and provided expert service to the VA and SFGH. Anesthesia faculty began to participate in providing care in the pediatric and newborn intensive care units at Moffitt Hospital.

1967-1970s: Folkert Belzer developed a perfusion machine that successfully preserved donor kidneys for 48 hours, and allowed for evaluation of the donated organ's viability. This innovation made UCSF's graft series one of the longest and most successful in the world. (82 percent survival rate in 1972) Dr. Oscar Salvatierra joined the team in the early 1970s and by 1974 became chief of the transplant service.

1970: Edwin "Jack" Wylie and William Ehrenfeld published Extracranial Occlusive Cerebrovascular Disease: Diagnosis and Management.

1972: The journal Contemporary Surgery ranks UCSF's Department of Surgery among the top six in the nation in volume and quality.

1975 to 1985: Paul Ebert, M.D.
[BS, 1954, Ohio State; MD 1958, Ohio State; Residency: 1958-1960, 1962-1966 Johns Hopkins Hospital; Sr. Asst. Surgeon, 1960-1962, NHI; Faculty, Duke University Medical Center 1966-1971; Prof. & Chair of Surgery, Cornell University Medical College, 1971-1975; ; Prof. & Chair of Surgery, UCSF 1975-1986; Director ACS, 1986-1998] With J. Englebert Dunphy's retirement, the department recruited Paul Ebert, M.D. who began a laissez-faire period in leadership. Ebert concentrated on clinical surgery, uniting with pediatric cardiologist Abe Rudolph to shape the field of pediatric cardiac surgery. He also attracted and trained top residents in the nation to this field, for example trainees Frank Hanley and Louis Messina who contemplated a future in pediatric cardiac surgery under Ebert's tutelage

Key recruitments during Ebert's time included Michael Harrison (1978) in pediatric surgery, and Stephen Mathes(1978), who came from Emory University via Washington University to join Louis Vasconez at UCSF to form the first full-time faculty in plastic surgery. Research in the surgery department during the Ebert chairmanship was primarily clinically oriented. Annual reports from those years reveal that Orlo H. Clark was studying thyroid and parathyroid disorders, iodine deficiency, hyperparathyroidism and TSH binding. Noel H. Fishman was examining models of congenital heart disease in fetal lambs, evaluating myocardial protection with cold ischemic potassium cardioplegia and conducting clinical studies on operative closure of the Patent Ductus Arteriosus in premature infants. Orville Grimes was conducting studies on various conditions of the esophagus. Michael Harrison was working on prenatal correction of congenital defects that are irreversible at birth, and at SFGH Frank Lewis was studying acute respiratory failure. Ronald J. Stoney and William Ehrenfeld continued exploration of vascular surgical research problems: including arterial autografts and visceral arterial atherosclerosis. In collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the Departments of Pediatrics and Immunology and Microbiology George Sheldon worked on delineation of the role of glycolytic intermediates and studied the ramifications of total parenteral nutrition. Thomas K. Hunt's Wound Healing Laboratory brought in the bulk of NIH funding during this administration. (Ebert to Harper, "Report of Research Activities: 3-29-79)

1981: First open fetal surgery performed by Michael Harrison: vesicostomy performed on fetus with urinary obstruction.

1982: Edwin "Jack" Wylie, as head of the American Board Of Surgery Vascular Committee, established training standards in vascular surgery. In recognition of his landmark work, the American Board of Surgery awarded the first certificate of general vascular surgery to Dr. Wylie, just two months before his sudden death. In the wake of his untimely death, colleagues David Effeney, William Ehrenfeld, and Ronald J. Stoney published several volumes of Wylies' Atlas of Vascular Surgery.

1986: Paul Ebert left to assume directorship of the American College of Surgeons

1987-1993 Haile T. Debas, M.D. (b. 1937)
[BA, 1958, University College Addis Ababa; MD, 1963, McGill University; Residency: 1964-1969 UBC; Research Fellowship, UBC, 65-66, 69-70; University of Glasgow 67-68; MRC of Canada Fellowship in GI research UCLA, Dr. Morton Grossman 1971-1980; Faculty UBC 1981-1985; Prof. in residence UCLA, 1981-1985; Prof and Chief GI Surgery Seattle, 1985-1987; 1987-1993 Prof. and Chair Department of Surgery, UCSF; 1993 to present Dean School of Medicine, UCSF] Haile Debas was recruited from Seattle by Dean Rudi Schmid over objections of the search committee; became Dean of the School of Medicine in 1993. Under his administration, the department came together as evidenced by regular faculty meetings, a Surgery Foundation, annual retreat, a published newsletter, and a new compensation plan. Most importantly basic research accelerated markedly and by 1990 UCSF's Department of Surgery ranked 9th in the nation in research dollars awarded to surgery departments; up from 98th place out of 125 in the previous decade. By the end of the Debas chairmanship, the department attained (and kept until the present time) the rank of second out of 125. Key recruitments during this period include 1987 Nancy Ascher, John Roberts, and an entire liver transplantation group from Minnesota; also Scott Adzick, Nigel Bunnett, Robert Warren, Sean Mulvihill, and Frank Hanley.

1988: UCSF's new liver transplant program performed its first liver transplant on January 31, 1988, just weeks after Nancy Ascher and John Roberts arrived in San Francisco from the University of Minnesota. As structured it became a joint program administered by the departments of surgery and medicine.

August 1988: First Surgery Retreat at Asilomar "engages the collective intellectual power of the faculty in addressing issues and goals."

1989: Successful open fetal surgery for congenital diaphragmatic hernia

1989: The Center for the Study of GI Motility and Secretion was created to conduct research in GI physiology. It attracted a number of patients with esophageal motility disorders and, as part of the Department of Surgery, it used state-of-the-art manometric devices and a scintillation camera that aided in comprehensive evaluation of gastrointestinal motor function.

1990: UC-trained general surgeon Allen Johnson joins the UC residency training program at the invitation of Dr. Debas.

1989-1992: Robert Duca became the Chief Administrative Officer in the Department of Surgery. The department worked out a new compensation plan with faculty input.

1990: Mount Zion Medical Center formally affiliated with UCSF in June, 1990; by September 1990 Orlo H. Clark became Chief of Surgery at Mt. Zion and the hospital became a major referral center for patients with endocrine and endocrine surgery problems; it is also a preferred rotation for residents seeking experience in surgical oncology and general and thoracic surgery.

1990s: Transplantation service expands:

March 1989: Thoracic organ transplantation program "resumed" in March 1989 after a twenty-one year hiatus. By August 1992 forty-eight transplants had been performed;

November 1989 Pancreas transplant program began in conjunction with treating type I diabetics.

October 1991: Institution of a combined lung heart transplant program; by 1994 sixty nine hearts and eighteen lungs had been transplanted

1992: The UCSF kidney transplant service did its 4,000th kidney transplant

1990s Under the direction of Nancy Ascher, the liver transplantation service became a National Center Of Excellence and participated in the NIH Liver Transplant Data Base. It was chosen as one of five centers to use and test the new imunosuppressive agent, FK506, and continued its collaborative style as an interdepartmental service involving the departments of surgery, medicine, anesthesia, and radiology. By 1994 UCSF had done 630 transplants...with one- and two-year survival rates of 89 and 86 percent respectively

September 1990 J. Scott Rankin briefly joined faculty as Professor and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, replacing Donald J. Magilligan who came from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, but who died suddenly in mid-career. In 1992 Frank Hanley became chief of the Division.

1990: The UCSF Laparoscopic surgery program was started by Lawrence W. Way, Carlos Pellegrino, and Sean Mulvihill. The first laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed in June 1990 and by spring of 1991, 120 had been done. In October 1990 the first UCSF Laparoscopic cholecystectomy course was offered and the laparoscopic repertoire expanded to Taylor vagotomies, appendectomies, esophageal (Heller) myotomies and excisions of liver cysts.

1990: The wound healing lab under the direction of Thomas K. Hunt received a five-year, three-million-dollar grant from the NIH for study of collagen synthesis and angiogenesis; oxygen tension and wound healing; healing in fetuses; protective effect of tissue oxygen vs. wound infection; and development of an optode-based tissue oximeter.

1992-93: The cardiothoracic surgery division underwent clinical reorganization under Frank Hanley's leadership; created four separate sections are created: 1) adult cardiac surgery, 2) congenital cardiac surgery, 3) heart and lung transplantation; and 4) thoracic surgery.

1992: Open fetal surgery for resection of sacrococcygeal teratoma

1992-1993: UCSF Fetal Treatment Center Organized; implementing the Ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) procedure that keeps the baby on the maternal life support via the umbilical cord. The center began an NIH-funded trial of fetal surgery for diaphragmatic hernia and controlling preterm labor; in 1994 fetal treatment center continued: 20 patients are followed at any time. The NIH trial continues, as does work on scarless healing and stem cell transplantation.

1990s: The division of vascular surgery continued as regional resource and referral center; faculty begins to explore minimally invasive approach to treatment of aortic aneurysmal disease; In connection with the CVRI the division participated in a Vascular Blood Flow Lab and a Vascular Biology Laboratory

1993: Mt. Zion which affiliated with UCSF in the early 90s, in 1993-1994 formally joined UCSF; became an NIH-funded Comprehensive Cancer Center and began recruitments in thoracic and oncology surgery; developed a breast care center and vein care center; the new cancer center would have six operating rooms.

1993: Surgery Chair, Haile T. Debas was appointed Dean of the School of Medicine

1993-1999 Theodore R. Schrock, M.D. (b.1939) served first as acting chair (1993-1997) and in 1997 became chair of the department. During his administration key recruitments included Louis Messina, Jeff Norton, Tim Chuter, William Welch, Bell Schecter as Chief of Surgery at SFGH, Diana Farmer, Peggy Albanese, Kim Kirkwood and Mark Welton.

1994: Laparoscopic surgery expanded under the leadership of Lawrence Way. Nissen fundoplication, colectomy, inguinal hernia repair, adrenalectomy, splenectomy and closure of perforated ulcers were done laparoscopically; creation of the UCSF videoscopic center; training courses continued, 240 surgeons trained in the past two years; consultation with bioengineering to develop virtual reality software and robotic devices that will overcome some of the technical limitations of present day instrumentation.

By the mid-1990s, women are seen more frequently among the ranks of UCSF surgeons. The department lagged behind the national average in the mid-1980s, but an influx of women occurred in the early 90s due to the merger with the Kaiser residency; the addition of several women from the "Core" resident pool; and increased matching of women interns. In 1991 three of the seven general surgery interns were women. By the late 1990s 53 percent of the resident class was female, and in 1999 Dr. Nancy Ascher became chair of the department.

1994: Brought a major expansion of The Center For The Study Of Gastrointestinal Motility And Secretion; the facility added diagnostic studies on electrogastrography, small bowel motility, and anorectal motility.

The Elsbach-Richards Endowed Chair for a Distinguished Professor of Surgery in basic science is filled by Schrock's recruit, William Welch.

1995: Robert Warren became head of Surgical Oncology

1995: UCSF vascular trainee Louis Messina was recruited as Professor and chair of the division of vascular surgery.

1997: During Schrock's administration, managed care tightened its grip on the academic medical center, prompting the merger between UCSF and Stanford which became a reality in 1997.

April, 1999: Dr. Schrock became Chief Medical Officer of UCSF/Stanford, and when the merger failed in autumn of 1999, he becameChief Medical Officer of UCSF, taking responsibility in a time of difficult transition.

1999 to present: Nancy Ascher, M.D. Ph.D. (b 1949) was recruited to UCSF from Minnesota in 1987 to develop a liver transplant program. After a highly successful decade at UCSF, she moved from a prodigious career in transplantation research and surgery into a more purely administrative role and became Chair of the Department in February of 1999. At this time the department has approximately sixty-five full-time clinical faculty; eight full-time research faculty (Ph.D.s); 150 residents and fellows and is organized into six specialty divisions:

1. Cardiothoracic
2. General Surgery
3. Pediatric Surgery
4. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
5. Transplant Surgery and
6. Vascular Surgery.

With the failure of the UCSF/Stanford merger early in her administration, the Medical School and the Department of Surgery were forced to face the political and economic realities of the changing American medical care system. In this shifting environment, she is determined to balance support from federal grants, industry, foundations and gifts, giving highest priority to training residents, faculty development, and excellent patient care.