Anna Elizabeth Broomall (March 4, 1847 – April 4, 1931)[1] was an American obstetrician, surgeon, and educator who taught obstetrics at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

She worked at the college to cover the costs of her education, doing household labor such as scrubbing floors, building fires, and carrying coal.

Male medical students jeered, catcalled, threw spitballs, and even chased the women from the building during their first visit.

She then traveled to Europe to study obstetrics under Carl Braun in Vienna and train with leading French obstetricians in Paris.

[1][4][5][6] She caused a stir in the spring of 1892, when she arranged mock trials of a hypothetical infanticide case, requiring students to practice presenting medical evidence to juries.

[7] In her thirty years as a physician and professor, Broomall implemented rigorous European-style standards for nurses' training and patient care.

She implemented highly antiseptic clinical environments and utilized and improved on state-of-the-art surgical procedures such as episiotomies, cesarean sections, and symphysiotomies.

[15] Broomall died on April 4, 1931, at her home in Chester, Pennsylvania, from sepsis induced by a chronic urinary tract infection.

Her remains were cremated and the ashes interred in her family plot at Media Cemetery in Upper Providence Township, Pennsylvania.