Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School
Established 1782
Type Private
Endowment US$3.0 Billion [1]
Dean Jeffrey S. Flier
Academic staff 10,884
Students 1,345
627 MD
141 MD-PhD
577 PhD
Location Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Campus Urban
Website hms.harvard.edu

Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

HMS is home (as of Fall 2006) to 616 students in the M.D. program, 435 in the Ph.D. program, and 155 in the M.D.-Ph.D program.[1] HMS' M.D.-Ph.D program allows a student to receive an M.D. from HMS and a Ph.D from either Harvard or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see Medical Scientist Training Program). Prospective students apply to one of two tracks to the M.D. degree. New Pathway, the larger of the two programs, emphasizes problem-based learning. HST, operated by the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, emphasizes medical research.

The school has a large and distinguished faculty to support its missions of education, research, and clinical care. These faculty hold appointments in the basic science departments on the HMS Quadrangle, and in the clinical departments located in multiple Harvard-affiliated hospitals and institutions in Boston. There are approximately 2,900 full- and part-time voting faculty members consisting of assistant, associate, and full professors, and over 5,000 full or part-time non-voting instructors. HMS is currently ranked first among American research medical schools by U.S. News and World Report, and ranked 20th among research medical schools in the amount of competitive grants received from the NIH.[2]

The current dean of the medical school is Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, an endocrinologist and the former Chief Academic Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who succeeded neurologist Joseph B. Martin, M.D., Ph.D on September 1, 2007.[3] Sanjiv Chopra, M.B.B.S, MACP is the Faculty Dean for the Continuing Education Department.

Contents

History

The school is the third oldest medical school in the U.S. and was founded by Dr. John Warren on September 19, 1782 with Benjamin Waterhouse, and Aaron Dexter. The first lectures were given in the basement of Harvard Hall and then in Holden Chapel. The first class, composed of two students, graduated in 1788.

It moved from Cambridge to 49 Marlborough Street in Boston in 1810. From 1816 to 1846, the school, known as Massachusetts Medical College of Harvard University, was located on Mason Street. In 1847, the school relocated to North Grove Street, and then to Copley Square in 1883. The medical school moved to its current location on Longwood Avenue in 1906, where the "Great White Quadrangle" or HMS Quad with its five white marble buildings was established.[4][5] The architect for the campus was the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.

The three major flagship teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School are Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Teaching affiliates

Student life

Second Year Show

Every winter, second year students at HMS write, direct and perform a full length musical parody, lampooning Harvard, their professors, and themselves. 2007 was the Centennial performance as the Class of 2009 presented "Joseph Martin and the Amazing Technicolor White Coat"[6] to sellout crowds at Roxbury Community College on February 22, 23 and 24.[7]

Societies

Upon matriculation, medical students at Harvard Medical School are divided into five societies named after famous HMS alumni. Each society has a master along with several associate society masters who serve as academic advisors to students.[8] In the New Pathway program, students work in small group tutorials and lab sessions within their societies. Every year, the five societies compete in "Society Olympics" for the famed Pink Flamingo in a series of events (e.g. dance-off, dodgeball, limbo contest) that test the unorthodox talents of the students in each society. In 2010, Cannon Society possessed the Pink Flamingo temporarily, seemingly finally breaking HST's long winning streak. HST, however, proved to still be The Best society on May 6, 2011, at the Class of 2014 Society Olympics.

Notable alumni

Fictional alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Harvard Medicine - Basic Facts". http://hms.harvard.edu/hms/facts.asp. Retrieved February 25, 2010. 
  2. ^ "NIH Awards by Location and Organization: Schools of Medicine". NIH RePORT. National Institutes of Health. 2010. http://report.nih.gov/award/organizations.cfm?ot=MS&fy=2010&state=US&ic=&fm=&orgid=&view=stateorg&sumcol=fun&sumdir=desc. Retrieved 22 November 2011. 
  3. ^ "Dean of Harvard's Faculty of Medicine". http://hms.harvard.edu/public/news/new-dean.html. 
  4. ^ "Harvard Medical School - History". http://hms.harvard.edu/public/history/history.html. Retrieved February 25, 2007. 
  5. ^ "Countway Medical Library - Records Management - Historical Notes". Archived from the original on September 1, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060901175511/http://www.countway.harvard.edu/archives/historyNotes.shtml. Retrieved February 25, 2007. 
  6. ^ "Class of 2009 Second Year Show". http://www.secondyearshow.com/. Retrieved March 11, 2007. 
  7. ^ "SECOND YEAR SHOW: New Curriculum Debuts in Second Year Show". http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2007/030907/second_year_show.shtml. Retrieved March 11, 2007. 
  8. ^ "Medical Education at Harvard Medical School". http://hms.harvard.edu/pme/societies.asp. 
  9. ^ "Dr. Harold Amos, 84; Mentor to Aspiring Minority Physicians". Los Angeles Times. 2003-03-08. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/08/local/me-passings8.2. Retrieved 2011-02-19. 
  10. ^ Pearce, Jeremy. "Dr. Ira B. Black, 64, Leader in New Jersey Stem Cell Effort, Dies", The New York Times, January 12, 2006. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  11. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang. "Hallowell Davis, 96, an Explorer Who Charted the Inner Ear, Dies", The New York Times, September 10, 1992. Accessed July 19, 2010.
  12. ^ a b Menand, Louis (2001), The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 7–9, ISBN 0374528497 .
  13. ^ Murray, Joseph E. M.D., http://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Fulltext/2004/10001/Bob_Goldwyn.4.aspx Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, October 2004, Volume 114, accessed March 20, 2011.
  14. ^ Biography page for Pam Ling at mtv.com
  15. ^ Medicine: Negro Fellow. Time Magazine, 29th October 1934

External links