William R. Willard, M.D., dean of the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical Center, becomes the founding vice president for the UK Medical Center and first dean of the UK College of Medicine. His planning committee consists of: Howard L. Bost, Ph.D.; Robert Straus, Ph.D.; Richardson K. Noback, M.D.; Alan Ross, Ph.D.; and Richard Wittrup. Willard’s planning process involves the development of a philosophy of medical education that can guide architectural design, visits by one or more of the planning staff to many of the 65 existing medical schools seeking advice as to what they would do differently if ‘starting from scratch,’ and recruiting chairs for each of the basic science and clinical departments. Under Willard’s leadership, the colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry and Allied Health are developed; the University Hospital is designed and opened; and the College of Pharmacy becomes part of the medical center. Among his innovations while at UK, Willard establishes the nation’s first departments of Community Medicine and Behavioral Science and leads the national movement to establish Family Practice as a recognized specialty in medical education and practice. In 1972, he will receive the Abraham Flexner Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges in recognition of his many significant contributions as a pioneer in medical education. After his retirement from UK that same year, Willard is recruited by the governor of Alabama to establish another new medical school in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama.

After receiving more than 400 applications, the UK College of Medicine admits its first class of 40 students. The group includes 39 men and 1 woman; 33 are Kentuckians, the other seven represent five different states; 14 completed their undergraduate work at UK, the remaining 26 graduated from 19 different colleges located in nine states. The group ranges in age from 19 to 33. Tuition is $500 per year for Kentucky residents and $950 for out-of-state students. Each student is given a key to the Medical Center building. In 2009, the College will admit 115 students after receiving nearly 2,100 applications.

Jacqueline A. Noonan, M.D., UK Pediatrics, becomes internationally known for her description of a genetic disorder now called Noonan Syndrome, characterized by distinct facial traits, short stature and congenital cardiac defects. Noonan will become the first woman chair of a UK College of Medicine department in 1974 and she will later help establish the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. In 2008 she will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. National Physician of the Year Awards in New York City. The award is for her 50 years of caring for children with heart disease.

The American Board of Family Practice is founded by Nicholas J. Pisacano, M.D., UK Internal Medicine, after years of effort to gain recognition of Family Practice as one of the major specialties. He will become the organization’s executive director, and in 1978 he will leave the University to work full time for the Board until January 1990.

A member of the first graduating class, William R. Markesbery, M.D. '64, UK Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, goes on to become an extraordinary researcher, clinician and director of the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. In 1974, he is the first to describe a rare form of heredity tardive distal muscular dystrophy, now called Finnish-Markesbery Disease. In 1981, he along with collaborators will publish the first of several studies to disprove the once-popular theory that an accumulation of toxic metals, such as aluminum, play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Later in 1991, Markesbery and collaborators will publish the first of several pioneering studies proving that oxidative stress is an important part of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and is present early in the disease. In the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Markesbery will receive the National Alzheimer’s Association Khachaturian Award for Outstanding Achievements in Advancing Alzheimer’s Science. In the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Markesbery will be ranked 23rd among the top researchers in the world for the productivity and impact of their scientific study of Alzheimer’s disease.

Robert Straus, Ph.D., chair UK Behavioral Science, is named a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the highest honors bestowed in medicine. He is the first UK faculty member to be named a member of IOM. This honor comes after a long line of achievements. In 1966 he was appointed chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Alcoholism by John W. Gardner Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under President Lyndon B. Johnson. The committee advised the federal government on ways to combat alcoholism in America. Straus was a pioneer in the study of alcoholism, writing numerous monographs and books associated with alcohol and dependency behavior. Straus was instrumental in the development of the UK College of Medicine and the UK Albert B. Chandler Medical Center. In 1956, he was part of the five-person group selected by William R. Willard, M.D., to spearhead the creation and development of the medical center. He served as the first Coordinator of Academic Affairs for the College of Medicine and in 1959 was appointed professor and founding chair of the Department of Behavioral Science where he will be later named professor emeritus. Another milestone in Straus’ distinguished career includes helping to write the guidelines for the Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation legislation. Straus remains a strong advocate for research that challenges the barriers between the biological and the behavioral sciences. In 1996 he will write, "A Medical School is Born: A history of the conception, gestation, and the infancy of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine by one who assisted in the delivery." This book details the first days of the College of Medicine along with the unique challenges of creating a medical school from scratch.

The popular "Clinician’s Pocket Reference," also known as the “Scut Monkey Book,” comes to fruition after being based on UK’s original "So You Want to Be a Scut Monkey: Medical Student’s and House Officer’s Clinical Handbook" used during the first ever Scut Monkey Program. This program, unique to UK, is intended to alleviate the transition from preclinical to clinical years for third-year medical students and is developed by the Class of 1980. The program will become an established event at UK for third-year medical students and will be emulated by other medical schools across the nation. “The Scut Monkey Book,” which gets its moniker from what some may consider the derogatory term often given to new medical students during their clinical rotations, is a guide to basic patient and clinical care. It becomes the “go-to” manual for medical students, residents, nurses, physicians and other health care professionals. The "Clinician’s Pocket Reference" will be used worldwide and will be translated into many languages including, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean, and is currently in its 11th edition. The book will gain such recognition that Warner Brothers will ask permission to feature it in the popular TV series “ER.” Leonard Gomella, M.D. '80, FACS, Residency '85, and Steven Haist, M.D. '81, MS, FACP, are co-editors of the "Clinician’s Pocket Reference." As of 2009, Gomella, the lead author, is professor and chair of the Department of Urology at Jefferson Medical College. He serves as associate director of the Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia. His bibliography includes more than 250 publications in the field of urology and more than 40 published books. He has served on a number of editorial boards, including Journal of Urology and Journal of Laparoendoscopic Surgery. As of 2009, Haist is the associate vice president for Test Development, National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Prior to joining the NBME he was a UK Internal Medicine faculty member for 21 years, the last five as the Residency Program Director. Previously he was the course coordinator for the Physical Diagnosis and Introduction to the Medical Profession courses for nine years and the director for the Primary Care Internal Medicine Clerkship for six years. Additionally, he started the standardized patient program at UK. He has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals with a majority on educational innovations and evaluation.

The Sanders-Brown Center on Aging opens under the direction of William Markesbery, M.D. '64, funded in part by a generous donation to study aging from the Eleanor and John Y. Brown Jr. Foundation. The center goes on to develop as a national leader in efforts to improve the quality of life for the elderly through research and education. Starting with funding of $250,000, 30 years later the center will have $8.3 million from National Institutes of Health grants and $17.8 million in endowments.

After teaching medicine at Harvard University, Boston University and the University of Massachusetts, Gilbert H. Friedell, M.D., joins UK as the first director of the Markey Cancer Center. Throughout his career, Friedell's focus was on the control of cancer and other chronic diseases in the poor, rural population of Kentucky. Friedell was also the director of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) National Bladder Cancer Project, founding director of the Kentucky Cancer Registry, the principal investigator of the NCI Mid-South Cancer Information Service and co-director of a statewide cancer control outreach program, called the Kentucky Cancer Program. He will start the Mountain Scouts program, which helps to promote regular health screenings for women in Eastern Kentucky. This program is a precursor to the 1994 Kentucky Homeplace program developed at the UK Center for Rural Health, a lay health worker program funded by the Kentucky General Assembly to facilitate access to health care services for the underserved.

The UK Board of Trustees formally accepts a gift of $4,877,776 from the Lucille Parker Markey Charitable Trust. At that time, it was the largest single cash gift ever received by the University. The gift is part of a $5 million matching-fund grant from the estate of Lucille Parker Markey and will be used for the construction of the Markey Cancer Center building, which became a center in 1979. Gifts to the UK College of Medicine as a result of Markey’s generosity total $10,712,021.

UK medical students, under the direction of Abner Golden, M.D., UK Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and David L. Cowen, M.D., UK Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, begin delivering free medical services in a "walled-off corner" of the dining room at the Salvation Army. In 1992, John Gurley, M.D., Residency '87, Fellowship '88, takes over the responsibility of the clinic and expands its efforts to provide care to the needy. In 1998, under the leadership of Wanda Gonsalves, M.D. '84, Residency '87, UK Family Practice, a medical course is created to address the health care issues and social services available for the underserved. Under her guidance, physical therapy and pharmacy students are included to expand the clinic services. The success of the Salvation Army Clinic gains national attention in 2004 when Gonsalves is recognized by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) with the Exemplary Teacher of the Year Award for her efforts with the clinic. Throughout all the years, the Salvation Army Clinic is run and managed by medical students. Everything from procuring supplies to organizing the shifts is managed by medical students. Today, the clinic occupies approximately 500 square feet with three curtained exam rooms, a basic on-site laboratory and pharmacy, and a separate room devoted to physical therapy.

John R. van Nagell Jr., M.D., Residency '71, UK Obstetrics and Gynecology, starts the UK Ovarian Cancer Screening Program, the first of its kind in the United States. The first results, published in 1991, demonstrate that annual screening with ultrasound improves early detection of ovarian cancer. Over the next two decades, van Nagell and his team screen 35,000 women. As of 2009, the ongoing study is the largest institutional ovarian screening trial in the country. In 1993, van Nagell, serves as president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

Two UK medical students, Scott Black, M.D. '90, Residency '92, and Robert Bratton, M.D. '90, draw national attention when they ask the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council to pass an ordinance requiring businesses that sell alcohol to display signs warning pregnant women of the dangers of drinking. After hearing the students’ presentation on fetal alcohol syndrome, the No. 1 cause of preventable birth defects, the council unanimously approves the ordinance. The students’ action receives the backing of the American Medical Association (AMA), and New Jersey considers using their awareness program as a model for legislation in that state. Two months later, federal legislation is passed requiring warning labels on alcohol bottles. After serving many years as a Community-Based Faculty Member, Black will become a faculty member in the UK Family and Community Medicine Department. Bratton will go on to become chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona and in 2008 will become the chief medical officer of Lexington Clinic.

The UK Board of Trustees appoints Wayne Myers, M.D., UK Pediatrics, as the director of the Center of Excellence for Rural Health, which will be located in Hazard, Ky. Earlier in 1990, the Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill 239, which was sponsored by Senator Benny Ray Bailey. This health care package aimed at easing the shortage of doctors and health professionals in rural Kentucky. As a result, UK was given a key role in implementing this effort. The Center is designed to offer master's of science degrees in nursing and bachelor’s programs for physical therapy and lab technology. The Center is also set up to start a residency program in Family Medicine, study rural health policy to determine if changes are needed in the state’s health care laws and regulations, and provide continuing education for health care professionals.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants UK $2.5 million to completely redesign its medical school curriculum to focus more on primary care, disease prevention, wellness, ethics, social issues and cost containment. In the new curriculum, students spend more time in small-group discussions and patient interaction and less time in lecture. The new core curriculum becomes known as the "Kentucky Curriculum" and attracts significant national attention. Highlights of the new program include: moving away from traditional lecture format into small group, problem-based learning; the introduction of block scheduling allowing students to immerse themselves into a single focus of study; a fourth-year anesthesia pharmacology course, which becomes recognized internationally as a model of early basic science/clinical science integration; an integrated obstetrics and pediatrics course in order to follow a pregnancy through delivery into pediatric care; a Young Parents Program where a student was assigned a teenager soon-to-be-parent to follow throughout the year; the Mechanisms of Disease and Treatment course, which is an early integration of organ system lines; an integrated Internal Medicine and Surgery clerkship, which becomes a forerunner of multidisciplinary integrated clerkships; and other courses, such as Patients, Physicians and Society, Healthy Human, and Introduction to the Medical Profession. UK is one of just eight medical schools selected for this grant. Others include Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, Hawaii, New Mexico, Rochester and Oregon.

Linda and Jack Gill donate $5 million, matched by the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund, to establish a unified, comprehensive academic program in cardiovascular science. As a result, UK's heart institute becomes known as the Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute. The gift also includes three endowed chairs and 10 professorships to support patient care and research. The gift is one of the largest individual gifts ever given to UK. In 2000, ground is broken on the $25 million building and the Gill Heart Institute opens on April 23, 2004.

The UK Children’s Hospital celebrates its grand opening and marks another milestone in the UK Chandler Medical Center’s commitment to excellence in health care for Kentucky’s children. The 64,000-square-foot facility is dedicated to meeting the medical needs of children from infancy to adolescence. Representing a cornerstone of health care in Kentucky, the family-centered setting will offer health services from routine primary care to advanced inpatient care. The $10.6 million hospital within a hospital was financed through funds generated by the University Hospital with no allocations from the state. Vipul N. Mankad, M.D., UK Pediatrics chair, is a driving force behind this state-of-the-art hospital. UK Children’s Hospital includes a 12-bed pediatric intensive care unit, a newly designed neonatal intensive care unit, and a designated entrance, elevator and lobby. It also has parent sleeping rooms, laundry facilities, family kitchen, and contains 38 private, acute-patient care rooms with sleeping and shower facilities for parents. Additionally, the hospital features a new outpatient area for children who need to be admitted for less than 24 hours, and has a state-of-the-art nurse communication center as well as playrooms, a library and a multimedia room for child-life activities.

UK ophthalmologist Jayakrishna Ambati, M.D., and his team develop the first animal model for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in older adults. Ambati is recognized internationally for his research in macular degeneration in 2006, with the Lew R. Wasserman Award by Research to Prevent Blindness, and again in 2007 as one of 11 recipients nationwide of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. He is the first UK researcher ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2009, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology presents Ambati with its 2009 Cogan Award for his contributions to research in ophthalmology.

Academic Medicine features the UK College of Medicine as one of eight medical schools having exceptional medical education research programs. The UK case study is written by Carol Elam, Ed.D., associate dean for Admissions and Institutional Advancement, and includes the various ways that UK has produced a successful medical education research program. Curricular reforms, the formation of the Center on Excellence in Medical Education and institutional culture are some of the factors highlighted that have attributed to the success of the UK program. Other medical schools featured include: Dartmouth Medical School; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine; University of Maastricht; University of Michigan Medical School; The University of Toronto; and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Eight departments in the College of Medicine rank in the Top 20 nationally for National Institutes of Health funding. The Department of Behavioral Science ranks first; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation ranks ninth; Anatomy and Neurobiology ranks tenth; Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology ranks eleventh; Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry ranks twelfth; Obstetrics and Gynecology ranks seventeenth; Physiology ranks eighteenth; Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics ranks twentieth.

UK officials unveil a bold plan for the "Medical Campus of the Future" that will house the six medical colleges and will help fuel the university’s plans to become a Top 20 public research institution by 2020. Construction will occur on the medical campus of the future beginning with the College of Pharmacy building and will continue in increments over the next 15 to 20 years. UK is one of a handful of academic medical centers in the nation that have Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Sciences colleges all on one campus. The "Medical Campus of the Future" will help UK leverage that by having students in those colleges educated together, with the assumption that these students will be better equipped to work as a team after entering the workforce. Much of the group learning will take place in a Health Sciences Learning Center that will house a shared library, bookstore, classrooms, auditoriums and simulation labs. The plan is developed by a task force led by Jay A. Perman, M.D., dean and vice president for clinical affairs.

Researchers in the Department of Radiation Medicine, led by UK molecular biologist Vivek Rangnekar, Ph.D., create a cancer-resistant mouse by introducing the gene that codes for the tumor-suppressor protein Par-4 in a mouse embryo. This mouse lives longer than control mice, indicating that the Par-4 protein is nontoxic to normal cells and tissues but prevents the growth of cancer cells. In 2009, Rangnekar’s team discovers that Par-4 is secreted by human cells and can induce programmed cell death selectively in cancer cells by binding to a receptor on the cell surface. These discoveries hold promise for the development of new, more effective cancer treatments.

UK College of Medicine announces plans to address the acute shortage of physicians by increasing its enrollment and recruiting and training physicians in the state's medically underserved rural areas. In June 2008, the College launches its Rural Physician Leadership Track program with its first site being in Morehead, Ky. Under the new program, students will receive enhanced exposure to rural medicine, community medicine and leadership training during the first two years of medical school, which will take place at the UK Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. During the third and fourth years of medical school, students will receive an enriched exposure to rural health care systems while training at St. Claire Regional Medical Center and Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky. The College also announces that once funding becomes available it will develop another rural site in Murray, Ky. in order to address the needs of the western part of the Commonwealth.

Ardis D. Hoven, M.D. ’70, UK Internal Medicine, is voted chair-elect of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. She previously served as secretary for the board. The AMA Board of Trustees ensures that the AMA remains focused on its essential reason for being: to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.

Accomplished surgeon, scientific investigator and administrator, B. Mark Evers, M.D., is named director of the Markey Cancer Center and professor of surgery in the UK College of Medicine. In addition, Evers is appointed as physician-in-chief of the oncology service line and will hold the endowed Markey Cancer Foundation Chair. Evers comes to UK from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston where he was professor of Surgery, director of the UTMB Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology and the Robertson-Poth Distinguished Chair in General Surgery. An internationally recognized gastrointestinal and endocrine surgeon, Evers is also a prolific researcher. Evers has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the past 17 years for his basic science research into the mechanisms of cancer at the molecular and cellular levels. Total grant funding for the research program Evers will bring to Kentucky is expected to be about $14 million at the outset. More than a dozen members of Evers' laboratory team came to UK with him, along with several other cancer investigators who brought their own independently funded lab teams. Evers plans to help the Markey Cancer Center achieve its long-term goals, including designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center. In August of 2009, the National Cancer Institute will award the UK Markey Cancer Center a Specialized Program in Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in gastrointestinal cancers. The three-year grant is for $1.5 million. The Markey Cancer Center has one of six GI SPOREs in the nation. The SPORE is led by Evers.

Accomplished surgeon, scientific investigator and administrator, B. Mark Evers, M.D., is named director of the Markey Cancer Center and professor of surgery in the UK College of Medicine. In addition, Evers is appointed as physician-in-chief of the oncology service line and will hold the endowed Markey Cancer Foundation Chair. Evers comes to UK from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston where he was professor of Surgery, director of the UTMB Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology and the Robertson-Poth Distinguished Chair in General Surgery. An internationally recognized gastrointestinal and endocrine surgeon, Evers is also a prolific researcher. Evers has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the past 17 years for his basic science research into the mechanisms of cancer at the molecular and cellular levels. Total grant funding for the research program Evers will bring to Kentucky is expected to be about $14 million at the outset. More than a dozen members of Evers' laboratory team came to UK with him, along with several other cancer investigators who brought their own independently funded lab teams. Evers plans to help the Markey Cancer Center achieve its long-term goals, including designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center. In August of 2009, the National Cancer Institute will award the UK Markey Cancer Center a Specialized Program in Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in gastrointestinal cancers. The three-year grant is for $1.5 million. The Markey Cancer Center has one of six GI SPOREs in the nation. The SPORE is led by Evers.