Harvard Medical School

Infobox_University

---

name = Harvard Medical School
established = 1782
type = Private
dean = Jeffrey S. Flier
city = Boston
state = Massachusetts
country = USA
students = 1,345
627 MD
141 MD-PhD
577 PhD
faculty = 10,458
campus = Urban
website= [http://hms.harvard.edu/ www.hms.harvard.edu]
endowment= US$3.96 Billion cite web|url=http://hms.harvard.edu/hms/facts.asp|title=Harvard Medicine - Basic Facts|accessdate=February 8|accessyear=2008]

Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. It is an American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

As of Fall 2006, HMS is home to 616 students in the M.D. program, 435 in the Ph.D. program, and 155 in the M.D.-Ph.D program. 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").

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.

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 current dean of the medical school is Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, a diabetes specialist and the former Chief Academic Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

History

The school is the third oldest medical school in the US and was founded by Dr. John Warren on September 19th, 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 2 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" with its 5 white marble buildings was established. [cite web|url=http://hms.harvard.edu/public/history/history.html|title=Harvard Medical School - History|accessdate=February 25|accessyear=2007] [cite web|url=http://www.countway.harvard.edu/archives/historyNotes.shtml
title=Countway Medical Library - Records Management - Historical Notes|accessdate=February 25|accessyear=2007] The architect for the campus was the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.

The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research launched in 2004 through a joint effort by Partners Harvard Medical International and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), HMSDC is part of the Government of Dubai’s mission to develop DHCC into a center of excellence for health care delivery, medical education, and research. [http://www.hmsdc.hms.harvard.edu/about_hmsdc.html]

Major teaching affiliates

* Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
* Brigham and Women's Hospital
* Massachusetts General Hospital

These three institutions are often referred to as the "Harvard Trinity" by students and faculty. This is because their affiliations have been in place for the greatest period of time and every department is directly affiliated with the medical school.

Teaching affiliates

* Children's Hospital Boston
* Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
* Mount Auburn Hospital
* Joslin Diabetes Center
* Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
* McLean Hospital
* Cambridge Hospital
* Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
* The Forsyth Institute
* VA Boston Healthcare System
* Schepens Eye Research Institute [http://www.schepens.harvard.edu]

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" [cite web|url=http://www.secondyearshow.com/
title=Class of 2009 Second Year Show|accessdate=March 11|accessyear=2007] to sellout crowds at Roxbury Community College on February 22, 23 and 24. [cite web|url=http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2007/030907/second_year_show.shtml
title=SECOND YEAR SHOW: New Curriculum Debuts in Second Year Show|accessdate=March 11|accessyear=2007]

Societies

Upon matriculation, medical and dental students at Harvard Medical School are divided into five societies named after famous HMS alumni, with the exception of HST. Each has a society master along with several associate society masters who serve as academic advisors to students. 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. HST currently possesses the Pink Flamingo, [cite web|url=http://hst.mit.edu/servlet/ControllerServlet?handler=EventHandler&action=viewOne&eventId=2211
title=HST MD Class of 2009 Wins HMS Society Olympics|accessdate=March 2|accessyear=2007] having won it three years in a row.

* Francis Weld Peabody
* William Bosworth Castle
* Walter Bradford Cannon
* Oliver Wendell Holmes
* Health Sciences and Technology (HST)

In fiction

In Samuel Shem's book, "The House of God", the medical school and its students are referred to as "BMS" (Best Medical School/Students). The novel is set in the famed Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston where the author spent his internship year.

In Erich Segal's book, "Doctors", the main plot is set in Harvard Medical School (HMS) where the main characters attend.

In 21, Ben Campbells goal is to attend Harvard Medical School (HMS) with proper funding.

Notable alumni

*John R. Adler - academic
*Robert B. Aird - academic
*Tenley Albright - figure skater
*William French Anderson - geneticist
*Christian B. Anfinsen - chemist
*Paul S. Appelbaum - academic
*Jerry Avorn - academic
*Herbert Benson - cardiologist
*Thomas Bollier- Neurologist and philanthropist
*Roscoe Brady - biochemist
*Henry Bryant - physician
*Rafael Campo - poet
*Ethan Canin - author
*Walter Bradford Cannon - physiologist
*William B. Castle - hematologist
*George C. S. Choate - physician
*Aram Chobanian - President of Boston University (2003-2005)
*Stanley Cobb - neurologist
*Ernest Codman - physician
*David Tom Cooke - Thoracic Surgeon, UC Davis Medical Center
*Michael Crichton - author
*Harvey Cushing - neurosurgeon
*Elliott Cutler - surgeon
*Yellapragada Subbarao Biochemist
*Fe del Mundo - pediatrician, first Filipino and possibly first woman admitted to HMS (1936)
*Allan S. Detsky - physician
*James Madison DeWolf - soldier; physician
*Peter Diamandis - entrepreneur
*Daniel DiLorenzo - entrepreneur; neurosurgeon; inventor
*Bruce Donoff - HSDM/HMS oral & maxillofacial Surgery
*Thomas Dwight - anatomist
*Edward Evarts - neuroscientist
*Sidney Farber - pathologist
*Paul Farmer - infectious disease physician; global health
*Harvey V. Fineberg - academic administrator
*John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald - Mayor of Boston (1906-08; 1910-14)
*Thomas Fitzpatrick - dermatologist
*Judah Folkman - scientist
*Bill Frist - U.S. Senator (1995-2007)
*Atul Gawande - surgeon, author
*George Lincoln Goodale - botanist
*Ernest Gruening - Governor of the Alaska Territory (1939-53); U.S. Senator (1959-69)
*I. Kathleen Hagen - academic
*Dean Hamer - geneticist
*Alice Hamilton - first female faculty member at Harvard Medical School.
*Michael R. Harrison - pediatrician
*Bernadine Healy - Director of the National Institutes of Health (1991-93); CEO of the American Red Cross (1999-2001)
*Ronald A. Heifetz - academic
*Lawrence Joseph Henderson - biochemist
*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - physician; poet
*Yang Huanming - academic
*William James - philosopher
*Mildred Fay Jefferson activist; first African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School.
*Elliott P. Joslin - diabetololgist
*Nathan Cooley Keep - dentist
*Mohammed Haneef Khatri - Radiologist
*Jim Kim - physician, global health leader
*Melvin Konner - author and biological anthropologist
*Charles Krauthammer - columnist
*Bruce Rusty Lang - U.S. Army Special Forces, international physician
*Aristides Leão - biologist
*Philip Leder - geneticist
*Simon LeVay - neuroscientist
*Joseph Lovell - Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (1818-36)
*Karl Menninger - psychiatrist
*Randell Mills - scientist
*Joseph Betcher - Biochemist
*Joseph Murray - surgeon
*Amos Nourse - U.S. Senator (1857)
*David Page - biologist
*Hiram Polk - academic
*Geoffrey Potts - academic
*Morton Prince - neurologist
*Alexander Rich - biophysicist
*Oswald Hope Robertson - medical scientist
*Wilfredo Santa-Gómez - author
*Alfred Sommer (ophthalmologist) - academic
*Felicia Stewart - physician
*Lubert Stryer - academic
*James B. Sumner - chemist
*Helen B. Taussig - cardiologist
*John Templeton, Jr - president of the John Templeton Foundation
*E. Donnall Thomas - physician
*Lewis Thomas - essayist
*Abby Howe Turner - academic
*Richard Urman - physician
*George Eman Vaillant - psychiatrist
*Milton Viederman - psychiatrist
*Mark Vonnegut - author
*Joseph Warren - soldier
*Andrew Weil - proponent of alternative medicine
*Paul Dudley White - cardiologist
*Robert O. Wilson - surgeon, humanitarian
*Charles F. Winslow-early atomic theorist
*Leonard Wood - Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (1910-14); Governor-General of the Philippines (1921-27)
*Louis Tompkins Wright - World renowned researcher, practitioner, pioneer African American, Chairman of NAACP, among other distinctions
*David Wu - Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1999-present)
*Jeffries Wyman - anatomist

Fictional alumni

*Abbey Bartlet - First Lady of the United States on "The West Wing"
*Major Charles Emerson Winchester III - character on "M*A*S*H"
*John Becker - character on the sitcom "Becker"
*Paris Geller - character on "Gilmore Girls", commits to attending the school at the end of the series after her term as an undergraduate from Yale
*Lexie Grey - character on "Grey's Anatomy", who begins her internship at Seattle Grace Hospital after graduating.
*Wilbur Larch - an obstetrician at The St. Cloud's orphanage in John Irving's classic novel The Cider House Rules. Adapted into film.
*Dr. Elliot Nussbaum from Drake & Josh graduated at age 13 and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine at the age of 15.
*Dr. Frasier Crane, a character on "Cheers", and its successful spin-off, "Frasier".
*Eleanor Abernathy, the Crazy Cat Lady that toss living cats to everyone in The Simpsons
*Father Damien Carrass in "The Exorcist". Psychologist trained at Harvard.
*Edward Cullen, (Edward Anthony Masen Cullen) vampire from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

ee also

* Longwood Medical and Academic Area
* List of Harvard University people
* Harvard School of Dental Medicine

External links

* [http://hms.harvard.edu/hms/home.asp Harvard Medical School]
* [http://www.secondyearshow.com Second Year Show]
* [http://www.hmsdc.hms.harvard.edu/about_hmsdc.html Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC)]

References