Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School
Coat of arms of Harvard Medical School
Established	September 19, 1782 (1782-09-19)
Type	Medical school
Parent institution	Harvard University
Academic affiliation	See list for affiliations
Location	Boston, Massachusetts, United States Coordinates: 42°20′09″N 71°06′18″W / 42.335743°N 71.105138°W / 42.335743; -71.105138
Dean	George Q. Daley
Academic staff	12,426
Doctoral students	Totals: MD - 726 PhD - 803 DMD - 145 MMSc - 127 DMSc - 37
Alumni	9,813
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.

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.

History[edit]

Harvard is the third-oldest medical school in the United States (after Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons) and was founded by John Warren on September 19, 1782, with Benjamin Waterhouse, and Aaron Dexter, "professor of chemistry and materia medica (pharmacology)."^[1]

Lectures were first held in the basement of Harvard Hall, then later in Holden Chapel. Students paid no tuition, but purchased tickets to five or six daily lectures.^[1][2] The first two students graduated in 1788.^[1]

In 1810 the school moved to Boston – first to what is now downtown Washington Street; then Mason Street (1816–1846, during which time it was sometimes referred to as the Massachusetts Medical College); North Grove Street (1847); Copley Square (1883); and finally its current location (the Longwood Medical Area) in 1906. In the Longwood campus there are five original marble-faced buildings of the quadrangle, which are used for laboratories, amphitheaters, and research space.^[3][4]

When Charles William Eliot became Harvard's president in 1869, he found the medical school in the worst condition of any part of the university; his reforms laid the groundwork for its transformation into one of the leading medical schools in the world.^[2]

Innovations[edit]

Harvard Medical School faculty have been associated with a number of important medical and public-health innovations:

Broadening admissions[edit]

Women[edit]

Massachusetts Medical College at Mason St. (Old building)

Harvard Medical School quadrangle in Longwood Medical Area.

In mid-1847, Professor Walter Channing's proposal that women be admitted to lectures and examinations was rejected by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Nonetheless, Harriot Kezia Hunt was soon after giving permission to attend medical lectures, but in 1850 this permission was withdrawn.

In 1866 two women with extensive medical education elsewhere applied but were denied admission. In 1867 a single faculty member's vote blocked the admission of Susan Dimock. In 1872 Harvard declined a gift of $10,000 conditioned on medical school admitting women medical students on the same term as men. A similar offer of $50,000, by group of ten women including Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, was declined in 1882, a committee of five was appointed to study the matter. After the medical school moved from North Grove Street to Boylston Street in 1883, professor Henry Ingersoll Bowditch's proposal that the North Grove Street premises be used for medical education for women was rejected.

In 1943 a dean's committee recommended the admission of women, the proportion of men and women being dependent solely on the qualifications of the applicants.^[6] In 1945, the first class of women was admitted; projected benefits included helping male students learn to view women as equals, increasing the number of physicians in lower-paid specialties typically shunned by men, and replacing the weakest third of all-male classes with better-qualified women.^[7] By 1972 about one fifth of Harvard medical students were women.^[6]

African-Americans[edit]

In 1850 two black men, Daniel Laing, Jr. and Isaac H. Snowden, were admitted to the school, but they were later expelled under pressure from faculty, and other students, who objected.

In 1968, in response to a petition signed by hundreds of medical students, the faculty established a commission on relations with the black community in Boston; at the time less than one percent of Harvard medical students were black. By 1973 the number of black students admitted had tripled, and by the next year it had quadrupled.^[6]

Teaching affiliates[edit]

Curriculum and student life[edit]

Medical School participates in the Harvard Graduate Council (HGC), a university-wide student government

In the early 20th century, the "block system", under which "each subject was treated intensively for a period and then dropped entirely", was eliminated.^[2] In addition to the objective to test knowledge over memory, time was reduced.^[2]

In 2015, Harvard introduced a new "Pathways" curriculum, intended to "foster active learning and critical thinking; earlier clinical experience; and advanced clinical and student-tailored basic/population science experiences that will provide customized pathways for every student."^[8]

The Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) offers an alternative MD program with a stronger emphasis on biomedical research. The HST MD program is significantly smaller than the Pathways program, accepting only 30 applicants every year.^[9][10]

Despite the demanding curriculum, HMS students are actively involved in dozens of student organizations across Harvard. Traditionally, HMS sends one or several first-year students as delegates to the Harvard Graduate Council (HGC), a university-wide student government. Participation in HGC is part of an effort to bridge the physical, social and cultural divides that exist between various Harvard graduate schools, which is particularly relevant given the Medical School's physical separation from Harvard's main Cambridge campus.

Partners Harvard Medical International[edit]

Harvard Medical School (HMS) has a medical-consulting arm, Partners Harvard Medical International (PHMI). PHMI has long-standing collaborative relationships with medical faculties at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, Lebanon. Other long-standing relationships include PHMI's work with Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan. In 2007 PHMI began a 10‑year collaboration with Lebanese American University; in October 2009 LAU opened a new medical school with assistance from PHMI.^[11]

Notable alumni[edit]

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See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website