Louis Gdalman, pioneer in hospital pharmacy poison information services

The role played by hospital pharmacist Louis Gdalman in the development of poisoning information services in the Chicago area is described. In the 1930s, decades before the creation of the Chicago Poisoning Control Program, Louis Gdalman had already established a poison information service at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago. Pharmacists provided poison information to the physicians and nurses working in the emergency room. By the early 1950s, Gdalman had established an extensive library of information on the management of acute and chronic poisoning and had developed a standard form for the collection of data from poison information calls. He personally provided a 24-hour poison information service and often took calls at home. In 1953, the American Academy of Pediatrics initiated the Chicago Area Poisoning Control Program and established treatment and referral centers at 11 hospitals, including St. Luke's Hospital. Louis Gdalman was the only pharmacist involved in this city-wide program. By 1962, the Master Poison Control Center was established at St. Luke's Hospital, which had merged with Presbyterian Hospital in 1956. Today, this center, known as the Chicago and Northeastern Illinois Regional Poison Control Center, is located at the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. Louis Gdalman, a hospital pharmacist, pioneered the area of poison information and established what was perhaps the first hospital-based comprehensive poison control center.