Medical Breakthroughs at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center

Chartered in 1906 and endowed by Henry and Harriet Lane Johnston in memory of their twin sons who died of rheumatic fever, the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children opened its doors in 1912. Known affectionately as the "Harriet Lane," it was the first children's hospital in the nation affiliated with an academic medical center. In its day, the five-story facility was considered innovative, with isolation wings to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, chemistry and bacteriology labs, electric lights and elevators.

One of the Harriet Lane's earliest directors, John Howland, M.D., might be considered a revolutionary. At a time when most physicians relied upon bedside observation for diagnosis, Howland and his residents were in the laboratory, searching for chemical causes of and treatments for childhood illnesses. Laboratory discoveries in areas such as fluid replacement for diarrhea, bone loss due to vitamin D deficiency and symptoms of sickle cell anemia, literally shaped the practice of modern pediatrics.

In the late 1920s, the Harriet Lane's third director, Edwards A. Park, M.D., established the nation's first pediatric sub-specialty clinics in such areas as pediatric cardiology, tuberculosis, endocrinology, seizure disorders and child psychiatry. The young pediatricians whom Park chose to head the specialty clinics were destined to become titans of American pediatrics. In 1944, Helen B. Taussig, M.D., head of the Harriet Lane’s pediatric cardiology clinic, and Hopkins surgeon Alfred Blalock, M.D., developed the technique for the famous "blue baby" operation to correct congenital heart defects. Park encouraged Leo Kanner, M.D., to found a child psychiatry clinic at a time when the specialty wasn’t formally recognized, thus establishing Hopkins as the home of child psychiatry. Lawson Wilkins, M.D., director of the pediatric endocrinology clinic, completed important studies of thyroid deficiency, dwarfism and adrenogenital disorders, work later honored by the naming of the renowned Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society. Samuel Livingston, M.D., and Laslo Kajdi, M.D., completed early studies on the use of the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy, an approach that was ill-received at the time but which Hopkins pediatric neurologists rejuvenated in the 1980s and successfully treat children with today.

The Johns Hopkins Children's Center is internationally known for its ground-breaking medical treatments and initiatives in pediatric care. These historical breakthroughs in medicine include: 

• First successful "blue baby" operation to correct congenital heart defects
• First preventive treatment for rheumatic heart disease
• Discovery of the genes responsible for the most common cranio-facial disorders
• Ground-breaking treatment for the painful crises of sickle cell anemia
• Discovery of one of the first methods of gene therapy for cystic fibrosis