Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University

Weill Cornell Medical College
Established	1898
Type	Private
Dean	Antonio Gotto
Academic staff	1,049[1]
Students	410[2]
Location	New York, New York, USA
Website	www.med.cornell.edu

Weill Cornell Medical College is the biomedical research unit and medical school of Cornell University. The medical college is currently located at 1300 York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, along with the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. One of the most selective medical schools in the United States (based on average MCAT, GPA, and acceptance rate in a 2009 issue of U.S. News & World Report), Cornell enrolls approximately 100 students per class. In 2008, 5,853 people applied and 753 were interviewed for 101 spots. The average undergraduate GPA and average MCAT score for successful applicants are 3.8 and 35Q, respectively. The college was renamed following an endowment gift by former Citigroup chairman Sanford Weill.

History

See also: History of Cornell University#Medical education

Cornell University Medical College was founded April 14, 1898 with an endowment by Col. Oliver H. Payne. It was established in New York City because Ithaca, where the main campus is located, was deemed too small to offer adequate clinical training opportunities. It was the first medical school in the United States of America to admit women alongside men.

A branch of the school operated in Stimson Hall on the main campus. The two-year Ithaca course paralleled the first two years of the New York City school. It closed in 1938 due to declining enrollment.^[3]

NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell

In 1927, William Payne Whitney's $27 million donation led to the building of the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, which became the name for Weill Cornell's large psychiatric effort. That same year, the college became affiliated with New York Hospital and the two institutions moved to their current joint campus in 1932. The hospital's Training School for Nurses became affiliated with the university in 1942, operating as the Cornell Nursing School until it closed in 1979.^[3]

In 1998, Cornell University Medical College's affiliate hospital, New York Hospital, merged with Presbyterian Hospital (the affiliate hospital for Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons). The combined institution operates today as NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Despite the clinical alliance, the faculty and instructional functions of the Cornell and Columbia units remain distinct and independent. Multiple fellowships and clinical programs have merged, however, and the institutions are continuing in their efforts to bring together departments, which could enhance academic efforts, reduce costs, and increase public recognition. All hospitals in the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System are affiliated with one of the two colleges.

Also in 1998, the medical college was renamed as Weill Medical College of Cornell University after receiving a substantial endowment from Sanford I. Weill, then Chairman of Citigroup.^[3]

Profile

While similar to other medical schools, Weill Cornell is different in some important respects. Weill Cornell's administrative connections are complex. Its primary teaching hospital is NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, which has two medical centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Unlike many similar efforts, the Hospital merger has not only led to the reduction of administrative redundancy but has strengthened academic programs on both campuses.

Weill Medical Center from Rockefeller University

In addition to its affiliations with New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Sloan-Kettering Institute, and Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell is the academic center for the Hospital for Special Surgery, which lies across the street and The Methodist Hospital in Houston, a hospital which had been — until 2004 — the primary private teaching hospital for Baylor College of Medicine. Other affiliates include Lincoln Hospital, New York Hospital Queens, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York Downtown Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Westchester Division.

Weill Cornell has also opened the first American medical school to be located outside of U.S. borders. The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar opened for instruction in 2004. Its facilities are found in Education City, Qatar near Doha. The Qatar campus offers a six-year integrated medical education program primarily focused on patient care. Weill Cornell has also been actively involved in the development of the Weill Bugando Medical College in Mwanza, Tanzania. [1]

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is a member of the Planetree Alliance, a nonprofit association of health-care institutions set up to promote practices to make patients less intimidated and more comfortable with the health care they receive.

Notable alumni

See also: List of Cornell University alumni

• Mike Chang (M.D. '66) Western Blot
• Robert C. Atkins (M.D. '55) The Atkins Diet
• John P. Donohue (M.D. '58) - testicular cancer treatment pioneer
• Anthony Fauci (M.D. '66) - Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health
• Wilson Greatbatch (B.E.E. '50) - inventor of the cardiac pacemaker
• Henry Heimlich (M.D. '43) - promoter of the abdominal thrust (Heimlich maneuver)
• Robert W. Holley (Ph.D. '47) - co-recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for describing the genetic code and how it operates in protein synthesis.
• Mae C. Jemison (M.D. '81) former astronaut, Science Mission Specialist on STS-47, Spacelab-J of space shuttle Endeavour (September 1992)
• C. Everett Koop (M.D. '41) - former Surgeon General
• Henry Masur (M.D.'72, Internship, Residency Internal Medicine) - First description of AIDS in New England Journal of Medicine; described New York City patient cohort; article appeared with matching article from a group describing a similar cohort in San Francisco
• Elizabeth Nabel, President of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Former Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
• Lt. Gen. James Peake (M.D. '76) - former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• Ida S. Scudder (M.D. 1899, Medical Missionary in India; Founder of Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu)

See also

• Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
• Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program
• Ivy League medical schools
• Sanford I. Weill

References

1. ^ "Cornell Facts". http://www.cornell.edu/about/facts/cornell_facts.pdf. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
2. ^ "Medical Division Total Enrollment". http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000207.pdf. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Weill Medical College: Our years of achievement". http://www.med.cornell.edu/about/our_cen_ach.html. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 

External links

• Weill Cornell Medical College
• Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar
• Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional MD/PhD Program
• New York-Presbyterian Hospital
• The Methodist Hospital, Houston

Coordinates: 40°45′52.38″N 73°57′14.93″W / 40.76455°N 73.9541472°W / 40.76455; -73.9541472