Wonder Woman of the Week: Virginia Apgar

The Wonder Woman this week was a pioneer in the fields of anesthesiology and pediatrics- specializing in the assessment of health conditions of newborn babies. Virginia Apgar grew up in New Jersey where she went to college at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University during the 1930's. At the time, anesthesia was a new technology in treating medical patients, and Apgar's professors encouraged her to enter the new field of medicine.

Virginia Apgar was the first woman at Columbia to be a full professor in their medical wing and in her tenure, the anesthesiologist developed a system for assessing the health of newborn babies now known as the Apgar Score. In 1959, Apgar left Columbia University to pursue a degree in public health and graduated from Johns Hopkins with her new degree on top of partnering with the March of Dimes organization- dedicated to helping mothers of newborn babies and the overall health of both.

Apgar was also an early advocate of universal vaccination in response to a rubella outbreak in the 1960's. Beyond being known for her skill as a medical doctor, Apgar was well-known for her bedside manner. Patients cited Apgar's kindness and willingness to travel thousands of miles to treat them. Apgar is also a major role model for women in medicine as she was the first woman to do a number of things in American Medicine- including in and out of the classroom.