Revolutionary impact: Historian, innovator, and philanthropist
Alumnus and medical historian Ronald S. Gibbs, MD, has studied infection risk in pregnancy, authored historical fiction novels, and supported scholarships.
Throughout his career as both a physician and a medical historian, Ronald S. Gibbs, MD, has authored defining chapters in both maternal health and Revolutionary War history. With a recent gift to the Medical Class of 1969 Scholars Fund, he joins a community of Perelman School of Medicine alumni whose generosity has benefited more than a dozen students over the past 18 years. By supporting this enduring fund, Gibbs empowers future medical students to begin writing their stories in the pages of medical history.
Looking up
The prologue to Gibbs’ own story began on his first day of medical school in September 1965, when he stepped into the John Morgan Building—then a central hub for the Perelman School of Medicine. Inside the rotunda, Gibbs was struck by the sight of the great Biomedical Library, and above its entrance a commanding painting: The Agnew Clinic by Thomas Eakins. Commissioned by Penn’s Medical Class of 1889 to honor professor and surgeon Dr. David Hayes Agnew, the painting depicts Agnew performing surgery in an amphitheater surrounded by male students, their heads tilted at various angles observing the operation.
Like the young men in the painting, Gibbs also wore a suit, dress shirt, and tie. Standing beneath the canvas with its life-size figures, he contemplated the next four years of medical school. “This is the last time today I am going to know what to do,” he said to himself.
A life-changing fellowship
It was in the spring of 1968 when Gibbs was walking past the dean’s office and a flyer posted on the bulletin board caught his eye. It advertised a traveling fellowship to study the history of medicine. As a history buff who had spent much of his youth exploring the state’s historical sites and reading about the Revolutionary War, Gibbs could not resist the opportunity. He applied to the national competition, won the $1,000 award, and went on to spend the following summer in London studying 18th century British medicine. That experience landed him the History of Medicine Prize at Penn’s graduation a year later—and kicked off what would become a side career as a medical historian.
Beer, sandwiches—and rewriting the rules of obstetrics
While the fellowship in London ignited his passion for medical history, a different event set the narrative for Gibbs’ clinical career in motion. In the 1970s, Gibbs was a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). One evening, he and a few other residents were gathered at the home of his medical mentor for a journal club meeting. Over beer and sandwiches, they discussed a paper Gibbs was assigned on the use of prophylactic antibiotics to prevent infection after cesarean delivery.
“The prevailing thinking at the time was you would never use antibiotics in a preventative way,” he recalled. “It would just make for a more resistant infection and wouldn't work.” Still, Gibbs was intrigued. With his close friend and fellow resident, Alan Decherney, MD, Gibbs designed a randomized, blind study to test the idea. When the study concluded, the pair gathered in a small conference room at HUP. Using four giant sheets of accounting paper taped together, and marking data with either a red or blue pencil, they discovered a breakthrough: One of the regimens reduced infections dramatically. “I still get goosebumps thinking of that moment,” Gibbs recalled. “That was the seminal event that launched my interest and career.”
Gibbs, who is currently Clinical Professor and Knowles Distinguished Scholar at Stanford University and former chair of OBGYN at University of Colorado (1989-2009), has transformed the field of obstetrics in other ways. He played a pivotal role in the development of the Gibbs criteria, a set of clinical signs used to diagnose chorioamnionitis, an amniotic fluid infection that can lead to severe complications for both mother and child. This diagnostic framework has become a cornerstone in obstetric care, facilitating early detection and prompt treatment of infections during labor.
The impact of Gibbs’ research became deeply personal when his daughter, while in labor with her first child, developed an infection and was treated with antibiotics. “When I looked at her chart,” said Gibbs, “it referred to the Gibbs criteria. So, my daughter and granddaughter both benefitted from my research.”
There have now been 50 subsequent trials all confirming the benefits of antibiotic use in labor to prevent infection after Cesarean delivery, Gibbs noted.
Reimagining history and medicine through fiction…
After leading revolutionary discoveries that improved women’s birth outcomes, Gibbs’ later works in his “side job” explore the birth of America’s independence. Drawing on insights from his Penn experiences, Gibbs authored two novels set during the American Revolution. Published in 2020, The Long Shot: The Secret History of 1776 imagines how history might have shifted had General George Washington been critically wounded by a British bullet. The protagonist is a faculty member and surgeon at the Medical College of Philadelphia whose advanced medical techniques alter the war by saving Washington’s life.
In his most recent book, published in 2024, The Rogue’s Plot: The Untold Story of 1777, Gibbs blends together historical medical research and his long-standing fascination with cartography to explore a British officer’s plot to spread smallpox among General Washington’s army. When asked about his historical fiction, Gibbs said cheerfully, “I want readers to enjoy the rich history of the United States, to understand how medicine was practiced in the 18th century, and to appreciate the early cartography of America.”
…And giving back to the future
Gibbs’ deep appreciation of the past is matched by his commitment to shaping the unwritten future of medical leaders. He credits the Perelman School of Medicine’s innovative curriculum and hands-on mentorship for his remarkable success. “My education and residency at Penn opened opportunities that I probably would never have had anywhere else in the world,” he said. “As I reflected on this, I wanted others to have the same opportunities.”
Thanks to the loyalty and leadership of alumni like Dr. Ronald S. Gibbs, future Perelman School of Medicine students can pursue their passions and cultivate their talents. Amid the headwinds facing higher education, scholarships provide dedicated support that allows tomorrow’s medical pioneers to pin new discoveries to the map of clinical innovation and chart their own narrative arcs within the annals of medicine.
To learn about how you can transform lives through scholarship support, please reach out to Associate Director of Development Shavy Benyehudah at nbeny@upenn.edu.