American doctors were hesitant to accept concepts and practices from doctors outside of the United States because in their eyes we were the most progressive and had the best medicine and procedures available to fight illness. Thankfully as medical practices now can be reviewed by any doctor around the world and trained in new procedures that thinking has somewhat diminished thanks to the internet.
Some of the medical advances we have to be thankful for are insulin, penicillin, cancer fighting drugs, and corticosteroids for asthma and breathing difficulties.
I encourage you to read the other book written by this author on the first leprosy hospital in the contiguous United States. This Leper Colony was in Louisiana and helped many people live with leprosy after a very simple solution was found that stopped the disease. The book is entitled: "The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel".