[8] In 1975, Dutch Ruppersberger, a young prosecutor and current member of Congress was involved in a nearly fatal automobile accident and had his life saved largely in part to being transported directly to University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center.

The policy of "nearest hospital first" was eventually abandoned, and emergency medical systems across the United States now follow the model first advocated by Cowley.

The helipad at Shock Trauma can accommodate up to four medevac helicopters at one time and has direct elevator access to the resuscitation area several stories below.

[20] Shock Trauma receives over 7500 admissions per year and provides its residents with intensive training in the evaluation and management of both blunt and penetrating injury.

In May 2007, Thomas M. Scalea, physician-in-chief for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, presented a case at the University of Maryland Medical School's annual historical clinicopathological conference in Baltimore on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and whether the world's first center for trauma victims could have improved the outcome had Lincoln's assassination occurred today.

"This could be a recoverable injury, with a reasonable expectation he would survive," Scalea said, noting that the assassin's weapon was relatively impotent compared to the firepower now on the streets today.

[24][25] In 1982, a television movie was produced by Telecom Entertainment and Glen Warren Productions about Cowley, his discovery of "The Golden Hour" and his crusade to establish the first fully dedicated trauma center in the world.

Dr. Cowley chose pink scrubs to conserve money during the trauma center's inception due to them being unpopular among staff, making them less likely to be stolen.