Medical Firsts
| May 7, 1884 | The cornerstone laid for Cedar Rapids' first hospital: St. Luke's. |
| 1912 | Gas anesthesia used for major surgery for the first time in Iowa at St. Luke's. |
| 1914 | First Caesarean delivery in Cedar Rapids performed at St. Luke's. |
| 1944 | St. Luke's opens a School of X-Ray Technology |
| 1966 | The first intensive Coronary Care Unit in a private hospital in Iowa opens at St. Luke's. |
| 1972 | First total joint replacement performed in Cedar Rapids at St. Luke's |
| 1975 | The Dental Health Center for low-income patients established at St. Luke's. |
| 1977 | The first Level II Regional Neonatal Care unit in Cedar Rapids is established at St. Luke's. |
| June 27, 1978 | The first open-heart surgery performed in Cedar Rapids at St. Luke's |
| 1983 | St. Luke's becomes the first private hospital in Iowa to offer Digital Subtraction Angiography. |
| 1983 | First cardiac rehab facility in eastern Iowa. |
| 1990 | First community hospital to put in an internal cardiac defibrillator. |
| 1995 | First community hospital to put in cardiac stents. |
| 1996 | First hospital in the state to do jet ventilation with air neonatal transport |
| 1999 | First community hospital to use AnjioJetSystem to treat blood clots. |
| 2001 | First in the state to have private Neonatal Intensive Care rooms. |
| 2001 | First eastern Iowa hospital to implement EECP (for angina). |
| 2001 | First in the state to use Beta-Cath System for treating heart disease. |
| 2001 | St. Luke's opens Cedar Rapids' largest outpatient surgery facility. |
| 2002 | First hospital in Iowa to use InFUSE Bone Grafts to treat low back pain. |
| 2002 | First in Cedar Rapids to use Frontrunner Coronary Catheters. |
| 2002- 2003 | First hospital to used medicated stents in treating heart disease. |
| 2005 | First in Cedar Rapids to perform robot-assisted surgery. |
| 2006 | First program in the state to receive the CARF Inpatient Rehabilitation Stroke Specialty Program accreditation. |
| 2006 | First Hospitalist Program in Cedar Rapids began at St. Luke's. |
| 2007 | First patent foraman ovale (PFO) procedure at a Cedar Rapids hospital. |
| 2007 | First hospital in the state to install a Siemens SOMATOM Definition CT scanner, the world's most advanced computed tomography system. |
| 2009 | First program in the state to receive the CARF Inpatient Rehabilitation Brain Injury Program accreditation. |
| 2010 | First hospital in the state to earn the IRPE Gold Award.2011 |
| 2011 | Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center opens. |
Source: Linn County Medical Society, St. Luke's Hospital.
