In the late 1860s, James White, president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for more than ten years, insisted that Adventists who wished to be physicians and practice as health reformers should attend the leading medical schools in the country. But at the same time, he wondered what effect the schools would have on their beliefs about healthful living. He was pleased when John Harvey Kellogg and Kate Lindsay (founder of the first Seventh-day Adventist school of nursing) and others successfully earned MD degrees from leading state schools of medicine, yet retained their full confidence in the health principles of the church.
In 1866, James White objected to increasing the size of the Western Health Reform Institute because of its lack of qualified physicians; but he said in 1877, “Now that we have men of ability, refinement, and sterling sense, educated at the best medical schools on the continent, we are ready to build.
Kellogg made a comprehensive study of similar institutions in the country. His plans for expanding the Institute met with unqualified approval from experts in the field. The building—then described as "mammoth"—was to be 130 feet long with an extension in the middle giving it a breadth of 137 feet. Estimated cost—$60,000. It was described as: “the one par excellence of its kind, in America. With an efficient corps of physicians...having a Board of Trustees of tried ability and judgment...with all the facilities that science and long experience can devise—with a wide and enviable reputation, and an ever-increasing patronage...[it] is destined to wield a mighty influence in the world....”
The new building was dedicated April 10, 1878. The Battle Creek Sanitarium and its principles now had the respect of the medical profession. It was, according to physicians of the Michigan State Medical Association, who examined it thoroughly, "entirely rational and 'regular.'"
An advertisement in the December 1881 edition of Good Health identified the Battle Creek Medical and Surgical Sanitarium “everywhere recognized as the Great Sanitarium of the West.”
“The buildings consist of a fine main building and eleven cottages. During the twelve years that the institution has been in operation, it has successfully treated more than 4,000 patients. Recent improvements, in the erection of new buildings and the addition of all the most approved remedial appliances known to the profession, have made it The Most Complete Institution of the Kind in America.”
Thereafter, the Sanitarium experienced a steady increase in patronage until late 1883, when it again was embarrassed by insufficient accommodations. The Board of Directors authorized construction of a new wing to be one hundred feet long and five stories high.
A School of Hygiene opened at the Sanitarium on January 14, 1878, with 75 students. The number soon rose to 150. So thorough was the course of study that any medical college in the United States would accept its certificate of graduation as satisfying part of its regular medical course requirements. On November 1, 1883, the institution started a “Sanitarium training school for nurses.” So great was the demand for qualified nurses that Sanitarium physicians guaranteed placement for all proficient graduates. So many responded who could not come on short notice that registration was postponed for two weeks. Directors lengthened the six-month course to two years at the end of the first six months. Each year the number of applicants increased.
Early in the 1880s, the Sanitarium issued calls for prospective medical students. In 1881, the institution offered a course of lectures for those who wanted "to prepare themselves to enter some first-class medical college."
In 1891, the church opened a two-story building on Jefferson Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to be used as a home for Seventh-day Adventist medical students attending the nearby University of Michigan. Twenty students—thirteen men and seven women—eventually graduated from the program, which combined the medical sciences of the university with the principles of healthful living taught at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg started the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek, Michigan. During its 15 years of operation, the AMMC graduated 193 physicians. It became the forerunner of Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
During 1899 and 1900, the medical missionary work of the church expanded into Switzerland, Denmark, England, Germany, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and the Pacific Islands. In addition to Good Health (a journal with a monthly circulation of 30,000), the church published nine other health journals, some of them reaching lands overseas. A steady demand continued for medical workers. In many parts of the world, the calls came faster than workers could be trained. Because of the high scores that the American Medical Missionary College graduates earned on Illinois State Board examinations, AMMC secured admittance into the Association of American Medical Colleges.