The contributions of W.D. Stevenson to the development of neurosurgery in Atlantic Canada

The establishment of a neurosurgical department in Halifax in January 1948 marked the beginnings of the first dedicated neurosurgical service in Atlan tic Canada. The development of neurosurgery in Halifax occurred in a recept ive place and time. The Victoria General Hospital, the region's largest ter tiary care centre, and the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine were in a period of growth associated with medical specialization and departmental ization, changes inspired in part by the Flexner Report of 1910. Atlantic C anadians during this period were increasingly looking to specialists for th eir medical care. Although this social environment encouraged the establish ment of surgical specialty services, the development of neurosurgery in Hal ifax, as in other parts of Canada, was closely associated with the efforts of individual neurosurgeons, such as William D. Stevenson. After training w ith Kenneth G. McKenzie in Toronto, Stevenson was recruited to Halifax and established the first neurosurgical department in Atlantic Canada. From the outset and over his twenty-six years as Department Head at the Victoria Ge neral Hospital and Dalhousie University, Stevenson worked to maintain the d epartment's commitment to clinical practice, medical education, and researc h. Although Stevenson single-handedly ran the service for several years aft er its inception, by the time of his retirement in 1974 the neurosurgery de partment had grown to include five attending staff surgeons who performed o ver two thousand procedures each year. This paper highlights the importance of Stevenson's contributions to the development of neurosurgery in Atlanti c Canada within the context of the social and medical environment of the re gion.