Ephraim McDowell
E885948
Ephraim McDowell was an early 19th-century American surgeon renowned for performing one of the first successful abdominal surgeries, specifically the removal of an ovarian tumor.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ephraim McDowell canonical | 2 |
| Ephraim McDowell Commonwealth Cancer Center | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10788547 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ephraim McDowell Context triple: [Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, namedAfter, Ephraim McDowell]
-
A.
James Addison Halsted
James Addison Halsted was the third husband of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, the daughter of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt.
-
B.
George Crile
George Crile was an American journalist and producer best known for his investigative work on U.S. foreign policy and intelligence, including the book "Charlie Wilson's War."
-
C.
Crawford Long
Crawford Long was a 19th-century American physician best known for pioneering the use of ether as a surgical anesthetic.
-
D.
George W. Crile
George W. Crile was an influential American surgeon and medical researcher known for pioneering surgical techniques and co-founding major medical institutions and organizations in the early 20th century.
-
E.
John Harvey
John Harvey was a 19th-century distiller and entrepreneur best known for establishing the Bruichladdich whisky distillery on the Scottish island of Islay.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ephraim McDowell Target entity description: Ephraim McDowell was an early 19th-century American surgeon renowned for performing one of the first successful abdominal surgeries, specifically the removal of an ovarian tumor.
-
A.
James Addison Halsted
James Addison Halsted was the third husband of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, the daughter of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt.
-
B.
George Crile
George Crile was an American journalist and producer best known for his investigative work on U.S. foreign policy and intelligence, including the book "Charlie Wilson's War."
-
C.
Crawford Long
Crawford Long was a 19th-century American physician best known for pioneering the use of ether as a surgical anesthetic.
-
D.
George W. Crile
George W. Crile was an influential American surgeon and medical researcher known for pioneering surgical techniques and co-founding major medical institutions and organizations in the early 20th century.
-
E.
John Harvey
John Harvey was a 19th-century distiller and entrepreneur best known for establishing the Bruichladdich whisky distillery on the Scottish island of Islay.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American surgeon
ⓘ
human ⓘ surgeon ⓘ |
| contributedTo |
development of abdominal surgery
ⓘ
development of gynecologic surgery ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1771-11-11 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1830-06-25 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
University of Edinburgh
ⓘ
medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland ⓘ |
| era | early 19th century ⓘ |
| familyName | McDowell ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
abdominal surgery
ⓘ
gynecologic surgery ⓘ surgery ⓘ |
| givenName | Ephraim ⓘ |
| hasMemorial | statue in the United States Capitol ⓘ |
| hasMonument | Ephraim McDowell House in Danville, Kentucky ⓘ |
| influenced |
acceptance of abdominal surgery as a viable procedure
ⓘ
later surgical practice in gynecology ⓘ |
| knownAs | father of ovariotomy ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | Kentucky medical community ⓘ |
| notableFor |
first successful abdominal surgery for ovarian tumor
ⓘ
first successful ovariotomy ⓘ |
| notableWork | pioneering ovariotomy operation on Jane Todd Crawford ⓘ |
| occupation |
physician
ⓘ
surgeon ⓘ |
| patientSurvived | yes ⓘ |
| performed |
one of the first successful abdominal surgeries without anesthesia
ⓘ
removal of a large ovarian tumor ⓘ |
| performedOn | Jane Todd Crawford ⓘ |
| performedSurgeryWithout |
anesthesia
ⓘ
antisepsis ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Rockbridge County, Virginia ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Danville, Kentucky ⓘ |
| practicedIn | Danville, Kentucky ⓘ |
| religion |
Presbyterianism
ⓘ
linked to:
Presbyterian
|
| residence | Danville, Kentucky ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| surgeryLocation | Danville, Kentucky ⓘ |
| usedTechnique | abdominal incision for tumor removal ⓘ |
| yearOfNotableSurgery | 1809 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ephraim McDowell Description of subject: Ephraim McDowell was an early 19th-century American surgeon renowned for performing one of the first successful abdominal surgeries, specifically the removal of an ovarian tumor.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Ephraim McDowell