Bertha Van Hoosen

Bertha Van Hoosen (March 26, 1863 – June 7, 1952) was the first president and one of the founders of the American Medical Women's Association in 1915. In 1918, Van Hoosen was the first woman to be head of a medical division at Loyola University Medical School, a coeducational university. She published an autobiography of her medical role and took an interest in women's health issues.

Bertha Van Hoosen grew up in Stony Creek, Michigan on her parent's farm. She went to many public schools, and at the age of 17, graduated high school in Pontiac, Michigan. Dr. Van Hoosen strived to become a surgeon, however, her parents did not support her career choices and did not help her fund her education. As a result, she took various jobs around the area in order to pay for her education.

In 1884, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and enrolled in the medical department. She worked as a teacher and nurse. Van Hoosen graduated with a medical degree in 1888 and underwent 4 years of additional hospital training at the Women's Hospital at Michigan State Asylum for the Insane and the New England Hospital for Women and Children located in Boston before beginning her private practice.

In 1892, Dr. Van Hoosen opened her own private clinic. She taught at the Medical School of Northwestern University and was an assistant at Columbia Dispensary in Chicago, where she continued to learn about surgery and obstetric. In 1902, she became a clinical gynecology professor at the Illinois University Medical School, however, the male faculty was against her employment.

In 1913, Dr. Van Hoosen became head of the gynecological staff at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Though she was a physician at multiple hospitals, she continued her private practice. She taught sex education, and wanted the use of scopolamine-morphine anesthesia for childbirth. She spoke against the medical establishment's discrimination against women and created a meeting among medical women, which led to the American Medical Women's Association in 1915.

Throughout her career, Van Hoosen illustrated and accomplished many medical techniques, such as developing the "buttonhole" appendectomy surgical technique, furthering the use of scopolamine morphine as an anesthetic, and advocating the importance of hygiene and sterilization of medical instruments to prevent infection.