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Today, it is completely normal that all doctors have a comprehensive medical education, hold an advanced degree, have plenty of clinical experience, passed a licensing examination, and are deemed fit by their state medical boards to practice. However, in the late 1800s, the field of medicine was a chaotic and unregulated profession filled with quack doctors, frauds, and bogus medical schools that handed out degrees in exchange for a sum of money. How did medical practice turn into the orderly, professional, and respected field that healthcare is in the 21st century? West Virginians, most notably a man named James Reeves, contributed to these developments in medical practice by advocating for and enforcing a strict licensure law that ensured doctors were indeed qualified to take care of their patients.  

56 members (50%) of WVU’s School of Medicine Class of 2027 M.D. Candidates are female.[1] These 56 women, as well as every other woman who has earned an M.D. in America, are all following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Blackwell, who shattered the glass ceiling in American medical academies. 

James Edward Hanger served in the Confederate Army for less than two days. His military experience was cut short after the first land battle of the Civil War, and Hanger holds the “honor” of being the first known amputee of the conflict. Devastated with the loss of his limb, Hanger turned his emotional trauma into ingenuity, creating an artificial limb that revolutionized prostheses and a business that continues to innovate and advance the field of prosthetic limbs.  

One of the founding fathers of medical education in West Virginia, Edward Van Liere’s impact on West Virginia University’s Medical School cannot be understated. As a member of the faculty for 45 years and the Dean of the Medical School for 25 years, Van Liere oversaw dramatic changes in the medical program, most notably the transformation into a four-year program and the establishment of a medical hospital. Indeed, without his capable leadership, it is possible that the Medical School would not have survived through the 1930s, let alone grown into the successful institution it has become today.