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EVENT: The acclaimed and innovative string trio, Time For Three, which has performed with the Philly Pops and k.d. Lang, will perform at the 100th birthday celebration for the Department of Urology of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Thomas Jefferson University.

DATE: Saturday, October 30

TIME: 7 -10 p.m.

LOCATION: Hotel Sofitel 17th and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia.

SPECIAL GUEST: Robert L. Barchi, M.D., Ph.D. New President, Thomas Jefferson University

HIGHLIGHTS: Jefferson’s urology department, established in 1904, is one of the oldest departments of urology in the country, with the largest urology group practice in Pennsylvania. The department also has one of the largest full time academic urology programs in the United States. The twenty-something artists, Nick Kendall, Zachary De Pue and Ranaan Meyer, have performed a range of pieces from bluegrass standards such as "The Orange Blossom Special" to the Gypsy-flavored "Csardas" by Vittorio Monti to their own arrangements of a Brahms Hungarian Dance and Bach's Double Concerto.

The urology department will also honor some of its peers (CONT.) and benefactors at the gala. The Jefferson Urology Centennial Awards will be presented to several individuals and organizations “who have done much to foster the growth and development of our Department,” said Leonard Gomella, M.D., chair of Urology and Bernard W. Godwin Jr. Professor for Urology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

BACKGROUND: The Department of Urology at Jefferson has played an important role in training several generations of outstanding urologists and has made significant contributions to the development of the specialty of urology. The urology department was established in 1904 by Orville Horwitz, M.D., who at the time, was clinical professor of Genito–Urinary (GU) Diseases at Jefferson University Hospital. Dr. Horwitz, a dedicated physician, had privately funded the Genito-urinary department, buying equipment at his own expense and obtaining donations from grateful patients. In 1904, a formal department in the Jefferson Medical College was established and Dr. Horwitz was admitted as a full professor to a faculty chair.

In 1935, shortly after David M. Davis, M.D., an authority in urologic surgery, was named department chair, the Department of Genito-Urinary Diseases changed its name to the Department of Urology. The teaching system was also modified by a gradual reduction of lectures and emphasis on small groups with student participation. Under Dr. Davis' leadership, advanced training in urology was established. The first urology residencies at Jefferson Hospital were established in 1939. In 1948, an arrangement with Jefferson surgeon John H. Gibbon, Jr., M.D., provided a year of training in general surgery before beginning three years in the urologic residency.