Type | Private medical school |
---|---|
Established | September 19, 1782 |
Parent institution | Harvard University |
Dean | George Q. Daley |
Academic staff | 11,694 [1] |
Students | Totals:
|
Location | , , United States 42°20′13″N71°06′14″W / 42.33694°N 71.10389°W |
Website | hms |
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States. [2] Harvard Medical School (HMS) provides patient care, medical education, and research training through its 15 clinical affiliates and research institutes such as Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, McLean Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, The Baker Center for Children and Families, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. [3] [4] Harvard Medical School also partners with newer entities such as Harvard Catalyst, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Center for Primary Care, and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. [5]
Harvard Medical School was founded on September 19, 1782, on the initiative of Harvard President Joseph Willard. The founding faculty were John Warren, Aaron Dexter, and Benjamin Waterhouse. It is the third-oldest medical school in the United States, after the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Lectures were first held in the basement of Harvard Hall, then in Holden Chapel. Students paid no tuition but purchased tickets to five or six daily lectures. [2] [6] The first two students graduated in 1788. [2]
In the following century, the school moved locations several times due to changing clinical relationships, a function of the fact that Harvard Medical School does not directly own or operate a teaching hospital. [7] In 1810, the school moved to Boston at what is now downtown Washington Street. In 1816, the school was moved to Mason Street and was called the Massachusetts Medical College of Harvard University in recognition of a gift from the Great and General Court of Massachusetts. In 1847, the school was moved to Grove Street to be closer to Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1883, the school was relocated to Copley Square. [2] Before this move, Charles William Eliot became Harvard's president in 1869 and found the medical school in the worst condition of any part of the university. He instituted drastic reforms that raised admissions standards, instituted a formal degree program, and defined HMS as a professional school within Harvard University that laid the groundwork for its transformation into one of the leading medical schools in the world. [6]
In 1906, the school moved to its present location in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area. [2] [8]
Harvard Medical School postdoctoral trainees and faculty have been associated with several important medical and public health innovations: [2]
In mid-1847, professor Walter Channing's proposal that women be admitted to lectures and examinations was rejected by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. That year Harriot Hunt became the first woman to apply to Harvard Medical School. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. had recently been made Dean of the school and initially considered accepting her application. He was heavily criticized by the all-male student body [11] as well as the university overseers and other faculty members, and she was asked to withdraw her application. [12] Shortly after Elizabeth Blackwell's graduation from Geneva College in 1849, Hunt applied to Harvard again, but was denied. [13]
In 1866, two women with extensive medical education elsewhere applied but were denied admission. In 1867, a single faculty member's vote blocked the admission of Susan Dimock. In 1872, Harvard declined a gift of $10,000 conditioned on medical school admitting women medical students on the same terms as men. A similar offer of $50,000, by a group of ten women including Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, was declined in 1882; a committee of five was appointed to study the matter. After the medical school moved from North Grove Street to Boylston Street in 1883, professor Henry Ingersoll Bowditch's proposal that the North Grove Street premises be used for medical education for women was rejected.
In 1943, a dean's committee recommended the admission of women, the proportion of men and women being dependent solely on the qualifications of the applicants. [14] In 1945, the first class of women was admitted; projected benefits included helping male students learn to view women as equals, increasing the number of physicians in lower-paid specialties typically shunned by men, and replacing the weakest third of all-male classes with better-qualified women. [15] By 1972, about one-fifth of Harvard medical students were women. [14]
In 1850, three black men, Martin Delany, Daniel Laing Jr., and Isaac H. Snowden, were admitted to the school but were later expelled under pressure from faculty and other students.
In 1968, in response to a petition signed by hundreds of medical students, the faculty established a commission on relations with the black community in Boston; at the time less than one percent of Harvard medical students were black. By 1973, the number of black students admitted had tripled, and by the next year, it had quadrupled. [14] In 2011, HMS appointed its first African American full professor of medicine, Valerie E. Stone. [16] That year they also appointed their first African-American professor of radiology, Stone's former classmate Tina Young Poussaint. [16]
In 2019 LaShyra Nolen was the first black woman to be elected class president of Harvard Medical School. [17]
On June 14, 2023, the morgue manager for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, Cedric Lodge, along with his associates, were criminally charged with theft of human organs by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania [18] 12 lawsuits were subsequently filed against the school by families of Lodge's victims. [19] On January 17, 2024, lawyer representing Harvard urged Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Salinger to dismiss the lawsuits. [19]
Harvard Medical School has gone through many curricular revisions for its MD program. In recent decades, HMS has maintained a three-phase curriculum with a classroom-based pre-clerkship phase, a principal clinical experience (PCE), and a post-PCE phase. [20]
The pre-clerkship phase has two curricular tracks. The majority of students enter the more traditional Pathways track that focuses on active learning and earlier entry into the clinic with courses that include students from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Pathways students gain early exposure to the clinic through a longitudinal clinical skills course that lasts the duration of the pre-clerkship phase. A small portion of each class enters the HST track, which is jointly administered with MIT. The HST track is designed to train physician-scientists with an emphasis on basic physiology and quantitative understanding of biological processes through courses that include Ph.D. students from MIT.
Admission to Harvard Medical School's MD program is highly selective. There are 165 total spots for each incoming class, with 135 spots in the Pathways curriculum and 30 spots in the HST program. [21] While both use a single application, each curricular track independently evaluates applicants.
For the MD Class of 2023, 6,815 candidates applied, and 227 were admitted (3.3%). There was a matriculation rate of 73%. [1] For the Master of Medical Sciences (MMSc) program in Global Health Delivery, the Fall 2020 admissions rate was (8.2%).
For 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Harvard Medical School #1 in Best Medical Schools: Research and tied #22 in Best Medical Schools: Primary Care. [22]
There are nine PhD programs based in Harvard Medical School. [23] Students in these programs are enrolled in the Division of Medical Sciences in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and are part of the HILS (Harvard Integrated Life Sciences) inter-program federation. [24]
Harvard Medical School offers two types of master's degrees, Master of Medical Sciences (MMSc) degrees and Master of Science (MS) degrees. [25]
Harvard Medical School offers several Postgraduate Certificate programs. [26] These graduate-level programs may run up to twelve months. Admitted participants are awarded a Certificate from Harvard Medical School upon successful completion, and are eligible for associate membership in the Harvard Alumni Association. [27]
Harvard Medical School does not directly own or operate any hospitals and instead relies on affiliated teaching hospitals for clinical education. Medical students primarily complete their clinical experiences at the following hospitals. [28] Clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School generally hold a concurrent appointment as a physician or a surgeon at one of the affiliated hospitals. Basic science faculty at Harvard Medical School may hold the primary appointment at the School itself or one of the affiliated hospitals.
There are over 10,425 alumni. [1] It has trained more Nobel Prize winners in Medicine and Physiology than any other medical school.[ citation needed ]
The Warren Alpert Medical School is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established in 1811, it was the third medical school to be founded in New England after only Harvard and Dartmouth. However, the original program was suspended in 1827, and the four-year medical program was re-established almost 150 years later in 1972, granting the first MD degrees in 1975.
Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Hospital houses the world's largest hospital-based research program, the Mass General Research Institute, with an annual research budget of more than $1.2 billion in 2021. It is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States with a patient capacity of 999 beds. Along with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass General is a founding member of Mass General Brigham, formerly known as Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts.
The Tufts University School of Medicine is the medical school of Tufts University, a private research university in Massachusetts. It was established in 1893 and is located on the university's health sciences campus in downtown Boston. It has clinical affiliations with numerous doctors and researchers in the United States and around the world, as well as with its affiliated hospitals in both Massachusetts, and Maine.
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school's principal affiliate.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eight hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, including Mount Sinai Hospital and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
The Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, or HST, is one of the oldest and largest biomedical engineering and physician-scientist training programs in the United States. It was founded in 1970 and is the longest-standing collaboration between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Within the program, graduate and medical students are registered with both MIT and Harvard and may work with faculty and affiliated faculty members from both communities. HST is a part of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and forms the London Society at Harvard Medical School.
The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It was the third medical school in the University of California system, after those established at UCSF and UCLA, and is the only medical school in the San Diego metropolitan area. It is closely affiliated with the medical centers that are part of UC San Diego Health.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the academic medical center whose clinical arm is Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Wake Forest School of Medicine 48th best for research in the nation and 80th best for primary care. The School of Medicine also ranks in the top third of U.S. medical schools in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The University of Sydney School of Medicine, also known as Sydney Medical School (SMS) is the graduate medical school of the University of Sydney. Established in 1856, it is the first medical school in Australia. In 2018, Sydney Medical School joined the newly formed Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. SMS is ranked 19th in the world and second in Australia in the 2021 QS Subject Rankings for medicine.
The State University of New York Upstate Medical University is a public medical school in Syracuse, New York. Founded in 1834, Upstate is the 15th oldest medical school in the United States and is the only medical school in Central New York. The university is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine (CAMED), formerly known as Boston University School of Medicine, is the medical school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston. It was founded in 1848. The medical school was the first institution in the world to formally educate female physicians. Originally known as the New England Female Medical College, it was subsequently renamed Boston University School of Medicine in 1873, then Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2022. In 1864, it became the first medical school in the United States to award an M.D. degree to an African-American woman.
Carola Blitzman Eisenberg was an Argentine-American psychiatrist who became the first woman to hold the position of Dean of Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1990, she was the dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She was a long-time lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS. She was also both a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights and an honorary psychiatrist with the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. After retiring, she was involved in human rights work through Physicians for Human Rights, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and elsewhere. She turned 100 in September 2017 and died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in March 2021 at the age of 103.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, located in Tucson, Arizona, is one of three MD granting medical schools in the state of Arizona, affiliated with the University of Arizona. The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix was initially established as a branch campus in 2007, but became an independent medical school in 2012. The College of Medicine – Tucson campus is located at the University of Arizona Health Sciences (UAHS) center on the campus of the University of Arizona and is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. Traditionally, the college accepted Arizona residents exclusively. However, beginning the 2009–2010 incoming class, the school changed its policy to allow for admission of "highly-qualified," non-residents.
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Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Its influence, wealth, and rankings have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
The Robert Larner College of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Vermont, a public research university in Burlington, Vermont. Established in 1822, it is the nation's seventh oldest medical school. The primary teaching hospital for the Larner College of Medicine is the UVM Medical Center in Burlington.
Jeffrey Karp is a Canadian biomedical engineer working as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the principal faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Affiliate Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He is also an affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute.
Irving M. London was a hematologist and geneticist. He was an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons when he was selected to be the founding chair of the department of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1955. He was recruited to become the founding director of the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology in 1970. Dr. London was the first professor to hold dual roles at both Harvard and MIT.
Joan Y. Reede is an American physician. She is Harvard Medical School's inaugural dean for diversity and community partnership in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnership. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is known for creating programs that mentor and support minority physicians and female physicians. Alumni of her programs have created a 501(c)(3) organization called The Reede Scholars in her honor.
Daniel David Federman, was an American endocrinologist and the Carl W. Walter Distinguished Professor of Medicine and the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School. He helped change medical education at through its New Pathway curriculum around the early 1990s, and his work helped create the field of genetic endocrinology. Federman also worked for over thirty years at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area.