Clinical Department

Radiology

History of innovation

Not long after the X-ray was discovered in 1895, Boston Children's Hospital became the first hospital in the United States to open a radiology department just for children. In these earlier days, the hospital's physicians made substantial contributions toward establishing pediatric radiology as a specialty.

The Department of Radiology has since become the largest and one of the most respected pediatric radiology programs in the world and has continued to be a leader in innovation.  Click here to read about recent innovations. Here are some highlights in our history:

  • 2005: MRI unit in the operating room allows surgeons to operate under imaging control.
  • 2004: Boston Children's Hospital becomes the first hospital in the New England region to acquire a PET scanner devoted exclusively for use in children.
  • 2003: Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Voice Recognition (VR) application brought online, eliminating the need for film and enabling doctors in and outside of the hospital to view images and reports immediately.
  • 1990: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging unit arrived.
  • 1980s: Digital radiography and transmission of images becomes available over telephone lines.
  • 1975: Computed Tomography arrived.
  • 1970: The Division of Nuclear Medicine was created.
  • 1964: Percutaneous arteriographic techniques were introduced.
  • 1949: Boston Children's Hospital offered the first fellowship program in the world in pediatric radiology.
  • 1911: Harvard Medical School students were offered the first course in radiology of childhood taught by physicians at Boston Children's Hospital.
  • 1910: Boston Children's Hospital doctors author the first published text on pediatric radiology: Living Anatomy and Pathology: The Diagnosis of Diseases in Early Life by the Roentgen Method.
  • 1901: Dr. Codman logged 300 cases at Boston Children's Hospital, initiating the first pediatric radiology department in America.
  • 1899: Four years after the X-ray was discovered, a young Boston Children's Hospital surgeon, Ernest Amory Codman began producing X-ray images on glass plates.