housed the clinic from 1923 to 1950. The clinic was established in 1922 by William Randolph Lovelace (1883–1968) and his brother-in-law Edgar T. Lassetter (1875–1948), both of whom had originally moved to New Mexico to recover from
tuberculosis. In 1946,
William Randolph Lovelace II, a nephew of both Lovelace and Lassetter, joined the practice. He had previously worked at the
Mayo Clinic and had connections in the aviation industry, which helped turn the Lovelace Clinic into a leader in
aerospace medicine. Lovelace II quickly took on a leadership role at the clinic and was instrumental in its 1947 reorganization as a nonprofit under the control of the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Another notable physician,
Clayton Sam White, was hired as the foundation's first director of research. , 1943 In 1950, the clinic moved from its original location on the third floor of the
First National Bank Building to a new purpose-built facility at Gibson and Ridgecrest in the Southeast Heights designed by office of
John Gaw Meem. By the 1950s, the Lovelace Clinic was considered one of the "Big Six" group practice clinics in the United States along with the Mayo Clinic,
Lahey Clinic,
Cleveland Clinic,
Ochsner Clinic, and
Henry Ford Hospital. At Lovelace II's suggestion, the clinic also administered testing for an unofficial "women in space" program, during which 13 women—later nicknamed the
Mercury 13—were named as prospective astronauts, though they never traveled to space. In 1972, the Lovelace Clinic partnered with the neighboring Bataan Memorial Hospital to launch one of the first two
health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in New Mexico, and in 1973 the clinic and hospital merged as the Lovelace Center for the Health Sciences. In 1985, seeking funding to remodel and expand its aging hospital complex, Lovelace reorganized as a for-profit company, Lovelace Inc., which was jointly owned by the
Hospital Corporation of America and the Lovelace Foundation. In 1990, HCA's 80% share of the company was acquired by
Cigna, which then bought the remaining 20% in 1991. At the time of the sale, Lovelace operated a 235-bed hospital, 16 clinics, and the 120,000-member HMO. Afterwards, the company was no longer affiliated with the Lovelace Foundation, which remains in operation as the
Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute. In 2002, the company was purchased by
Ardent Health Services, which effected a merger between Lovelace and St. Joseph Hospital. This changed Lovelace's structure from its previous self-contained group practice model to a conventional hospital system, and increased the number of hospitals under its control from one to five. The former
St. Joseph Regional Medical Center became the flagship hospital of the system and the original Lovelace hospital closed in 2007. ==Hospitals==