He was part of a team that put the first patient in the world on kidney dialysis and broke ground developing catheters and shunts.
[1] The Hickman catheter is currently used to deliver medication sub-cutaneously, particularly to cancer patients, as well as for the withdrawal of blood for analysis.
In 1991, he took a three-year sabbatical to serve as a mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ.
However a decision was made by higher up leaders to place that mission under a Haitian president due to worsening political instability, and Hickman was transferred to being president of the Raleigh North Carolina Mission.
Seven years later, he took a second sabbatical as the doctor for the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, administering to about 800 students.