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Worlds Firsts and Innovation:

King’s encourages innovation and research and has been at the forefront of many medical breakthoughs. We are very proud of our staff who have recieved many awards and commendations for their work. We would like to highlight some of the world firsts that have taken place at King’s.

King’s History Timeline

1840
1840

King's College Hospital was established.

1840
1840

Professor of Medicine - George Budd - appointed

His name is perpetuated in the Budd-Chiari syndrome, a disease of progressive liver failure caused by obstruction to the hepatic vein.
1840
1840

Sir William Fergusson appointed

Sir William Fergusson was appointed Professor of Surgery and introduced practice of conservative amputation. In 1867 he was appointed as sergeant-surgeon to HM The Queen.
1860
1860
Florence Nightingale founded the world’s first professional school of nursing.
1877
1877
The pioneer of aseptic surgery, Joseph Lister, performed the world’s first major elective surgery under strict antiseptic conditions.
1923
1923
The Dental School was established at King’s College Hospital.
1966
1966
Professor Roger Williams along with Professor Roy Calne performed the first liver transplants in the UK.
1966
1966
Miss World 1966 was the only Miss World who qualified as a doctor during her reign. She went on to continue her studies at King’s College Hospital.
1970
1970
The world’s first specialist liver intensive care ward was opened at King’s.
1988
1988
Sir James Whyte Black, Professor of Analytical Pharmacology won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
1990
1990
King’s appointed the first Professor of Paediatric Hepatology in the UK. Prof Alex Mowat established the liver transplantation programme in children.
1995
1995
Professor Nigel Leigh established the UK’s first specialist Motor Neurone Disease Care & Research Centre.
1996
1996
The first bone marrow transplant was carried out by Prof Ghulam Mufti and his team. King’s is now one of the leading institutions in the world on mini-transplants for myeloid leukaemias.
1998
1998
King’s started a successful programme of split liver transplantation.
2000
2000
A King’s Consultant made the Guinness Book of Records for successfully transplanting a liver into the youngest child ever at 5 days old.
2006
2006
King’s Consultants repaired the acute rupture of the inner wall of the heart using a device instead of conventional surgery.
2008
2008
King’s haematology department celebrate 1,000 bone marrow transplants.
2009
2009
King’s Health Partner’s was formed bringing together a world-leading university (King’s College London) and three successful hospitals including King’s College Hospital.
2011
2011
The world’s first injection of donor liver cells was undertaken at King’s.
2012
2012
The team at King’s, led by eye surgeon Mr Tim Jackson, successfully carried out retinal implant (microchip) surgery for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition.
2013
2013
King’s undertook the world’s first “warm liver” transplant using an organ that was “kept alive” at body temperature.
2014
2014
The liver team at King’s performed 228 transplants in the year. The most in a year in the history of the hospital.
2014
2014
King’s appointed the world’s first Professor of Metabolic Surgery. Professor Francesco Rubino is an internationally renowned leader in bariatric and metabolic surgery.
2015
2015
A King’s cancer patient become the world’s first person to try a new chemotherapy app on an Apple watch to monitor her condition.
2015
2015
World-first study that could improve lives of people living with long-term neurological conditions commenced at King’s.
2016
2016
The cardiac team became the first in the world to insert a mitral spacer into the heart of a patient giving the heart time to recover before successful conventional surgery.
2017
L
2017
  • King’s becomes the first Hospital in the UK to use CAR-T Therapy to treat adult patients with Lymphoma
  • King’s develops virtual MRI App for children
  • Cancer patients at King’s are among the first to participate in the Government’s “100,000 Genomes Project”
2018
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2018
  • King’s performs Europe’s first combined liver and small bowel transplant from a live donor
  • King’s becomes the first in the UK to perform fetoscopic surgery on babies with spina bifida in utero
2019
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2019
  • King’s become the first in Europe to implant a new generation brain stimulation device to treat epileptic seizures
2020
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2020
  • King’s was the first site in the UK to enrol patients onto the trial of Remdesivir for COVID-19