Tufts University School of Medicine

The Tufts University School of Medicine is one of the eight schools that comprise Tufts University. Located on the university's health sciences campus in the Chinatown district of Boston, Massachusetts, the medical school has clinical affiliations with thousands of doctors and researchers in the United States and around the world, as well as at its affiliated hospitals in Massachusetts (including Tufts Medical Center, Lahey Clinic and Baystate Medical Center). According to "Science Watch", Tufts University School of Medicine rates sixth among U.S medical schools for the impact of its medical research.

Organization and Degree Programs

The Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), established in 1893, is under the supervision of a dean, appointed by the president and the provost, with the approval of the Trustees of Tufts College (the university's governing board). The dean is responsible for all aspects of the school's operations, including medical education, admissions, faculty appointments, clinical relationships, and various affiliated research centers and institutes.

The TUSM faculty is divided into seven basic science departments and eighteen clinical science departments. The clinical faculty have primary staff appointments at the Tufts Medical Center, Baystate Hospital, the VA Boston Medical Healthcare System, and Faulkner Hospital, and seven other teaching hospitals in Massachusetts. The basic science faculty, on the other hand, are full-time members of the Tufts University faculty.

TUSM offers a four year curriculum leading to the degree of doctor of medicine as well as several combined degree programs: MD/MPH, MD/PhD, the MD/MS in engineering, a joint program with the School of Engineering, an MD/MBA in Health Management in collaboration with Northeastern University and Brandeis University, and an MD/MALD with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. A final unconventional degree program is the early acceptance joint BA/MD program offered exclusively to undergraduates at Tufts University, The college of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Brandeis University, and Northeastern. The School of Medicine also offers three free–standing programs: a master of public health degree offered in collaboration with the School of Arts and Sciences and the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and has four tracks that include: a Bachelors/MPH offered with the School of Arts and Sciences, a JD/MPH offered in collaboration with Northeastern University School of Law, an MS in Nutrition/MPH offered with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and DVM/MPH offered with the School of Veterinary Medicine. The school also offers as a master of science in health communication and a master of science in pain research, education and policy in collaboration with the Health Institute/Tufts Medical Center. In fall 2004, TUSM enrolled approximately 700 full-time students in first professional degree programs (MD, MD/PhD, MD/MBA, MD/MALD, and MD/MS) and approximately 40 full-time students in graduate degree programs (MS and MPH). In fall 2007, TUSM began a new masters program (MBS) as part of the Public Health and Professional Degree program, offering a Masters of Science in Biomedical Sciences, with 53 full-time students.

Facilities

The Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences are located in five adjoining research buildings along Boston's Harrison Avenue and a teaching and administrative building, the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Health Communications. The newest addition is the $65 million, nine story, Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences. The Jaharis Family Center provides research laboratories and offices for many Sackler faculty members and their students, postdoctoral fellows and technical staff. The building also includes offices and laboratory facilities for the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Department of Family and Community Medicine in TUSM. TUSM and the Sackler School are adjacent to the Tufts New England Medical Center, the School of Dental Medicine, and Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and across the street from the Jean Meyer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

History

The School of Medicine was established by vote of the Trustees of Tufts College on 22 April 1893. It was formed by the secession of seven faculty from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston, a school which was formed in 1880.These "original seven" faculty members successfully lobbied to establish a medical school under the auspices of Tufts College. The new school, which was designated the Medical School of Tufts College, opened its doors in October 1893 with eighty students. The school was, from the very beginning, coeducational, and of the twenty-two students who graduated that first year, eight were women. When the trustees to change the name of the institution from "Tufts College" to "Tufts University" in 1954, the medical school became the "Tufts University School of Medicine."

The Tufts Medical Center, the principal teaching hospital of TUSM, came into existence in 1930 through the alliance of the Boston Dispensary, the Boston Floating Hospital for Children, and the Trustees of Tufts College. The New England Medical Center (NEMC) was established as a non-profit corporation to coordinate the administrative activities of its constituent organizations. In 1946 the Pratt Diagnostic Clinic, an extension of the Boston Dispensary established in 1938, joined NEMC. In 1950, when the Medical School and Dental School relocated to Harrison Avenue, the NEMC became known as the New England Medical Center Hospital. The name of the institution changed to the Tufts New England Medical Center (T-NEMC)in 1968, to New England Medical Center in the 1980s, back to T-NEMC in 2002, and ultimately to the Tufts Medical Center on March 4, 2008. Over the years, the governing boards of Tufts University and the medical center negotiated a series of affiliation agreements. Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center are separate corporate entities. However, the president and several other senior officers of Tufts University are ex-officio members of the board of directors of the Medical Center.

ee also

*Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences

External links

* [http://www.tufts.edu/med/ Tufts University School of Medicine (official webpage)]
* [http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/ Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences (official webpage)]