Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Established: 1875
Type: Private
Endowment: US$551 Million[1]
Dean: Steven Gabbe
Faculty: 2,718 (1,630 full-time, 996 part-time/voluntary, and 92 emeritus)
Students: 990 Total
434 MD
501 PhD
49 MD-PhD
4 MD-MBA
1 MD-JD
1 MD-MPH
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
Campus: Urban
Website: www.vanderbilt.edu/medschool

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine is a medical school located in Nashville, TN. Currently ranked 16th in the U.S News & World Report rankings, the school of medicine has a reputation as a center of research and high-quality clinical care. The school of medicine is located in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center on the southeastern side of the Vanderbilt University campus.

Contents

[edit] History

The first diplomas issued by Vanderbilt University were to 61 Doctors of Medicine in February of 1875, thanks to an arrangement that recognized the University of Nashville's medical school as serving both institutions. Thus, Vanderbilt embraced a fully-organized and functioning medical school even before its own campus was ready for classes in October of that year. The arrangement continued for 20 more years, until the school was reorganized under control of the Board of Trust. In the early days, the School of Medicine was owned and operated as a private property of the practicing physicians who composed the faculty and received the fees paid by students—a system typical of medical education in the United States at the time. Vanderbilt made no financial contribution to the school's support and exercised no control over admission requirements, the curriculum, or standards for graduation. After reorganization under the Vanderbilt Board in 1895, admission requirements were raised, the course was lengthened, and the system of instruction was changed to include laboratory work in the basic sciences.

The famous report of Abraham Flexner, published by the Carnegie Foundation in 1910 and afterward credited with revolutionizing medical education in America, singled out Vanderbilt as "the institution to which the responsibility for medical education in Tennessee should just now be left".[citation needed] Large grants from Andrew Carnegie and his foundation, and from the Rockefeller-financed General Education Board, enabled Vanderbilt to carry out the recommendations of the Flexner Report. (These two philanthropies, with the addition of the Ford Foundation in recent years, have contributed altogether more than $20,000,000 to the School of Medicine since 1911). The full benefits of reorganization were realized in 1925 when the school moved from the old South Campus across town to the main campus, thus integrating instruction in the medical sciences with the rest of the university.

[edit] Medical Center

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a vital component of the university and is the only Level I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee.[2] VUMC comprises the following units:[3]

The 11-story Doctor's Office Tower of the Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital, which was completed in 2004.
The 11-story Doctor's Office Tower of the Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital, which was completed in 2004.
  • Vanderbilt University Hospital
  • Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
  • Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
  • The Vanderbilt Clinic
  • Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center
  • Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
  • Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
  • Eskind Biomedical Library
  • Vanderbilt Sports Medicine
  • Dayani Human Performance Center
  • Vanderbilt Page Campbell Heart Institute
  • Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
  • Vanderbilt University School of Nursing

With over 21,500 employees (including 2,876 full-time faculty), Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest in the state (after FedEx, headquartered in Memphis). Approximately 74% of the university's faculty and staff are employed by the Medical Center.[2]

In 2003, the medical center was placed on the Honor Roll of U.S. News & World Report's annual rating of the nation's best hospitals, and 17 of the faculty were members of one of the National Academies. In 2004, the university reported that 24.1% of non-Medical Center faculty were women, while 14.4% were of a racial or ethnic minority.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vanderbilt Medicine - Basic Facts. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Vanderbilt University News Service (January 2008). RE:VU: Quick Facts about Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
  3. ^ Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Visitors. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved on 2007-07-02.

[edit] External links

Languages