As early as the 1920s, the founders of St. Luke's Medical Center introduced state of the art x-ray machines and treated cancer patients with new radiation technology.

St. Luke's opened the regions first intensive care unit in 1961, and Presbyterian followed suit shortly after in the same year.

This created an operating environment that could sustain safeguards for the protection of patients during infection-prone orthopedic chest surgeries.

Buoyed by the success of their two-year pilot program, the doctors were able to obtain a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to construct a state-of-the-art Laminar Flow Clean Room, complete with helmets and fully enclosed astronaut-style suits (which are still in use today).

NASA provided the funding; Martin Marietta executed the blueprints and St. Luke's saw a reduction in post-operative infection from 9% to less than 0.5%.