The History and Development of the Department of Urology
By Duncan E. Govan, M.D.
Professor Emeritus
The History of the Stanford School of Medicine actually began in 1908 when Stanford University (located in Palo Alto, California since 1894) bought out the Cooper Medical College and Lane Hospital in San Francisco.
It's first medical school class began in 1909 and as early as 1916 Professor Rigdon, a specialist in genito-urinary diseases enlarged his urology staff to include Dr. James Root Dillon and Dr. Frank Hinman, Sr. from John Hopkins Hospital.
By 1926, the formal Medical School Departments had been formed to include a Department of Surgery chaired by Dr. Emil Holman and a Department of Medicine chaired by Dr. Arthur Bloomfield. At the same time Dr. Dillon became Chief of the Division of Urology, a post he held until after the war in 1948. Dr. Holman then appointed Dr. Henry Weyrauch as Chair of the Division of Urology. During the next eleven years, Dr. Weyrauch established a formal Urology Resident Training Program, which included research projects as part of the residency.
IIn 1959, Stanford University opened a new university medical center on the Stanford University Campus in Palo Alto. This center included a new medical school building and the Stanford University Hospital. During the ensuing next three years, the basic science departments were organized followed by the development of the clinical departments and divisions.
In 1961, the Chair of Surgery, Dr. J. Garrett Allen appointed Dr. Thomas A. Stamey from Johns Hopkins as Chair of the Division of Urology and at the same time appointed Dr. Duncan E. Govan as his associate. Dr. Govan hailed from University of Manitoba in Canada.
The first resident appointed in Urology was Dr. Jack Palmer in July 1962 and at that point the new Residency Program began. In the first 14 years of this new program, four of the graduate residents became Chairs of their own department of urology and two additional residents became Chairs of a department of surgery.
Over the next 20 years ñ 1975 through 1995, seven more of our graduate residents became Chairs of departments of urology in this country or Europe, and ten additional graduate residents became Chiefs of a Service of Urology, (i.e., Pediatric Urology, Urological Oncology, etc.) This new residency program began in 1962, since which time the program has graduated 80 residents.
From the beginning, the training program has stressed an academic approach, coupled with an obligatory laboratory research in the fourth postgraduate year. This experience has clearly laid the groundwork for academic careers as attested to by the fact that eleven of the residents have become Chairs of urology. However, it is important to realize that equal attention was placed on clinical teaching and clinical research and of course, surgery. The preceptor method of surgical training and indeed a clinical training has been adhered to. In surgery this proved to be advantageous for our residents in training. Indeed the whole Department of Surgery and its subspecialties at Stanford has adhered to that method of teaching.
All of our Urology Faculty over the years have involved themselves in either clinic and/or laboratory research on subjects as diverse as; renal function problems, renal vascular hypertension, urinary tract infection, bladder and smooth muscle physiology of the upper and lower urinary tract, in addition to the biology of carcinoma of the prostate and its relationship to PSA biochemistry. Many protocols on carcinoma of bladder, testes, and Wilm's Tumor have been participated in on a local and national basis.
The Department of Urology has worked very closely with Stanford Department of Radiotherapy, Nuclear Medicine and some of the outstanding basic science departments of the school.
Our faculty in the laboratories at the moment include, three Ph.D's and a full time clinical research pathologist, each of whom is working on projects in association with clinical faculty and urology residents in his or her lab year.
Our department has a nationally respected Spring Seminar, which gathers together several leaders in urology along with our faculty residents.
In addition, each year a Northern California Urological Resident Seminar is held involving the residents from Stanford, UC San Francisco, UC Davis and up to four or five years ago the Army and Navy Residency Programs. This is a highly successful venture as 50% of the residents from each program each year give a paper on biological research, clinical investigation, or case reports. It is a superb conference and over the course of the four to six years of residency training, each resident has two or three opportunities to present a paper before his or her peers. The best papers are generally accepted as a podium presentation at the AUA or an AUA Sectional Meeting.
As you can see, our laboratories are a major part of our program. Several clinical and research conferences are held each week and with at least three full-time faculty at each of our outlying hospitals, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center; and six great faculty at Stanford, the residents are usually juxtaposed with the faculty for a good portion of his or her time.
As mentioned above, we have now graduated 80 residents since the program began. Each year we appoint two new residents to our six-year program, which includes the year of internship, a year of general surgery, and three years of clinical urology plus the obligatory laboratory year.
Our current Chair of the department is Dr. Linda D. Shortliffe, a Pediatric Urologist.
