in 1937, and returned to P&S in 1938 as director of the newly formed division of anesthesia. She later received a master's degree in public health at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, graduating in 1959. Work and research Apgar was the first woman to head a specialty division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (now NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital) and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In conjunction with Allen Whipple, she started P&S's anesthesia division. She was placed in charge of the division's administrative duties and was also tasked with co-ordinating the staffing of the division and its work throughout the hospital. Throughout much of the 1940s, she was an administrator, teacher, recruiter, coordinator and practicing physician. It was often difficult to find residents for the program, as advances in the medical field had only recently elevated the practice of anesthesia to anesthesiology, a fully-fledged medical specialty. New anesthesiologists also faced scrutiny from other physicians, specifically surgeons, who were not used to having an anesthesia-specialized in the operating room. These difficulties led to issues in gaining funding and support for the division. With America's entrance into World War II in 1941, many medical professionals enlisted in the military to help the war effort, which created a serious staffing problem for domestic hospitals, Apgar's division included. When the war ended in 1945, interest in anesthesiology was renewed in returning physicians, and the staffing problem for Apgar's division was quickly resolved. The specialty's growing popularity and Apgar's development of its residency program prompted P&S to establish it as an official department in 1949. Due to her lack of research, Apgar was not made the head of the department as was expected and the job was given to her colleague, Emmanuel Papper. Apgar was given a faculty position at P&S. Obstetrics In 1949, Apgar became the first woman to become a full professor at P&S, where she remained until 1959. During this time, she also did clinical and research work at the affiliated Sloane Hospital for Women, still a division of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. In 1953, she introduced the first test, called the Apgar score, to assess the health of newborn babies. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the United States infant mortality rate decreased, but the number of infant deaths within the first 24 hours after birth remained constant. Apgar noticed this trend and began to investigate methods for decreasing the infant