John Claxton Gittings, MD
Physician-in-Chief, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, 1924-1930 and 1933-1939
John Claxton Gittings, MD, was the first named Physician-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the first Chair of the newly created Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. He served in these roles from 1924 to 1939, except for a three-year period of temporary retirement. With the support of the Department of Medicine, in 1924 Dr. Gittings established a Department of Pediatrics, in recognition of the importance of child health. In addition, he played a major role in developing a medical education curriculum in Pediatric Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and served as the Vice-Dean for Pediatrics. Despite major obstacles, he also established an affiliation between the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP and arranged for the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics to be the Physician-in-Chief at CHOP.
With these major accomplishments, Dr. Gittings established the academic field of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gittings was also an accomplished and highly renowned investigator. His book, Tuberculosis in Infancy and Childhood, published by Lippincott in 1922, has been selected by scholars as a culturally and historically important contribution to medical literature and is in the public domain in the United States. Dr. Gittings was a national and international leader in the field of pediatric medicine. He left a remarkable legacy, establishing pediatrics as a distinct discipline in medicine and firmly establishing CHOP as a leader in the field.
References:
- Stokes J jr. Memoir of John Claxton Gittings. Trans Stud Coll Physicians Phila. 1950 Jun 18(2):75 PMID 15431265
- Gittings JC, Knowles FC, Ashhurst, APC. Tuberculosis in Infancy and Childhood; JB Lippincott, Philadelphia. 1922.
- Gittings JC and Donnelly, M.D., Clinical Value of Intraperitoneal Injections of salt solution; Am J Dis Child. 1922;23(2):124-131. doi:10.100/archpedi.1922.01910380035003
Summary:
John Claxton Gittings, MD, was the first named Physician-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the first Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1924, Dr. Gittings established a Department of Pediatrics in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and developed an undergraduate medical education curriculum for pediatric medicine. He also established an affiliation between the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP and arranged for the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania to serve as the Physician-in-Chief at CHOP. His leadership established pediatrics as a new discipline and firmly established CHOP as a leader in the field.