1915: Dr. F. Janney Smith, joined Henry Ford Hospital in 1915 and four years later established the Henry Ford Hospital Division of Cardio-Respiratory Diseases. 
1921: Henry Ford Hospital purchased their first electrocardiogram machine in 1921.
1940: Dr. Conrad Lam was one of the first in the nation to administer purified Heparin to treat blood clots in veins.  Drs. Lam and Edward Munnell developed a technique for the correction of mitral valve stenosis, using a special six-finger glove with a knife attached to the sixth mid-palm finger.
1944: Henry Ford Hospital becomes the first hospital to use the now-routine technique of multiple lead electrocardiograms introduced by Dr. Robert F. Ziegler.
1945: Dr. Ziegler establishes one of the first cardiology training programs in the United States, as well as initiating the hospital's first cardiac catheterization studies program.
1950: The residency program in Thoracic Surgery is established.
1952: Dr. D. Emerick Szilagyi, vascular surgeon, performs Michigan's and one of the world's first grafts of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
1954: Dr. Szilagyi established the first homograft blood vessel bank in the state. 
1956: Dr. Conrad Lam performs the hospital's first open-heart surgery using the total cardiopulmonary bypass (Dewell-Liillehei bubble pump oxygen).
Early 1970's:  Dr. Ellet H. Drake headed Henry Ford Hospital's Adult Cardiac Physiology Department, now the cardiac catheterization laboratory. 
1975: the Cardiovascular Research Institute is founded at Henry Ford Hospital under the direction of Paul Stein, M.D.
1983: Dr. Fareed V. Khaja reports the first placebo controlled randomized trial of intracoronary
streptokinase.
1985: Henry Ford Health System announces the creation of the Heart & Vascular Institute (HVI).  The institute formally aligns the Divisions of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Medicine and Hypertension Research.
April 23, 1985:  Henry Ford Hospital staff (Dr. Fraser Keith assisted by Dr. Donald J. Magilligan) performed Detroit's first heart transplant on Mr. David Butts of Portage, Michigan.  Within five years, more than 100 transplants were performed with one of the nation's best survival rates. 
1986: Heart Smart, a community-based program, is introduced in Michigan restaurants and supermarkets to promote heart healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
2005:  The Paul & Lynn Alandt Catheterization & Electrophysiology Center opens with the first electromagnetic navigation suite in Michigan.