Elsevier

Urology

Volume 51, Issue 4, April 1998, Pages 671-674
Urology

Names in Genitourinary Surgery
The Invention of the Modern Uroflowmeter by Willard M. Drake, Jr at Jefferson Medical College 1

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-4295(97)00203-3Get rights and content

Abstract

The uroflowmeter is perhaps the most important and certainly the most commonly used urodynamic instrument currently employed in urologic practice. The modern uroflowmeter was invented by Willard M. Drake, Jr., in 1946 at the Jefferson Medical College. The original manuscript, entitled “The uroflometer: an aid to the study of the lower urinary tract,” appeared in Journal of Urology in 1948. Drake obtained a US patent for the device, entitled “Uroflometer,” in 1953. The flowmeter, originally manufactured by van Beek Industries, was more recently manufactured and distributed by Grewe Plastics. Drake is now retired and living in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Section snippets

Willard M. Drake, Jr

Willard M. Drake, Jr. was born on March 8, 1913, in Flagstaff, Arizona. After graduation from Erskine College in South Carolina in 1937, he pursued the study of medicine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, receiving his M.D. degree in 1941. Drake’s internship was completed at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, in 1942. He returned to Jefferson for a 1-year unpaid urology fellowship from 1946 to 1947 and then continued there with formal urology residency training. David M. Davis

Flowmeter Development

Drake was motivated by three goals when he set out to study urinary flow. The first was to design an apparatus that could reliably measure the time/volume relationship of micturition. His second goal was to establish normal values—a nomogram—for urinary flow rates. These first two efforts would enable him to persue a third objective—that of investigating the variations from normal flow due to diseases of the bladder and urethra. As a result of his investigations from 1946 to 1952, Drake

Uroflow Interpretation

After performing uroflowmetry in hundreds of patients with normal and abnormal flow, Drake attempted to establish parameters of normal and abnormal flow and constructed a simple nomogram. In a letter to the Urologist’s Letter Club, Drake noted that residual urine is most commonly found when the maximum flow rate drops below 60% of normal levels or 10 cc/s (Drake WM Jr., personal communication). Von Garrelts[6]constructed a uroflowmeter that plotted a flow rate derived electronically from the

Production

Drake obtained a US patent entitled “Uroflometer” in August 18, 1953 (No. 2,648,981). He had intended to give the patent to Jefferson Medical College; however, the medical school refused. The flowmeter was originally manufactured and distributed by van Beek Industries, Newark, New Jersey, and was then sold to Grewe Plastics, Newark, New Jersey, which continues to manufacture it. The device was still being advertised in the Journal of Urology in 1996 by Grewe Plastics.

The company sold the

Conclusions

The invention of the modern uroflowmeter by Willard M. Drake, Jr., 50 years ago was an important contribution to urology. Drake not only created the first simple nomogram and the concept of using uroflow parameters to diagnose and prognosticate urologic abnormalities, but he also established that an abnormal flow rate can be caused by either urethral obstruction or bladder dysfunction.[9]Drake continued to teach urology at Thomas Jefferson University and trained urology residents where he

Acknowledgements

To Dr. David Bloom at the University of Michigan, the “historian of urology,” for encouraging us to contact Drake and undertake this project.

References (12)

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1

We dedicate this work to Ms. Rae Zigerman who served under Dr. David M. Davis and all subsequent chairmen at Jefferson Medical College. Ms. Zigerman lived the history of the Department of Urology at Jefferson Medical College.

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