Harvard Medical School

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Coordinates: 42.3365° N 71.1036° W

Harvard Medical School
Established: 1782
Type: Private
Endowment: US$3.96 Billion [1]
Dean: Jeffrey S. Flier
Faculty: 10,458
Students: 1,345
627 MD
141 MD-PhD
577 PhD
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Campus: Urban
Website: www.hms.harvard.edu

Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a 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.[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).

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.

Contents

[edit] History

Harvard Medical School quadrangle, view from Longwood Avenue.
Harvard Medical School quadrangle, view from Longwood Avenue.

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.[2][3]

[edit] Major teaching affiliates

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.

[edit] Teaching affiliates

[edit] Harvard Medical School's Center for Mental Health and Media

This center, co-founded by Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, studies the effects of media on behavior. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice asked Olson and Kutner to run federally funded studies of how video games affect adolescents. Among other things, Olson and Kutner found positive and paradoxical dimensions of playing video games with violence in them: these games helped kids grapple with life's scariest experiences. Olson and Kutner also found that video games helped less social or popular children to socialize online. Moreover, they did not find a link between violent video game paying and school shootings. Olson and Kutner's findings are featured in Greater Good magazine, Greater Good Science Center.

[edit] Student life

[edit] 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"[4] to sellout crowds at Roxbury Community College on February 22, 23 and 24.[5]

[edit] 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,[6] having won it three years in a row.

[edit] 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 (novel)", the main plot is set in Harvard Medical School (HMS) where the main characters attend.

[edit] Notable alumni


[edit] Fictional alumni

Father Damien Carrass in "The Exorcist".Psychologist trained at Harvard.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Harvard Medicine - Basic Facts. Retrieved on February 8, 2008.
  2. ^ Harvard Medical School - History. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.
  3. ^ Countway Medical Library - Records Management - Historical Notes. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.
  4. ^ Class of 2009 Second Year Show. Retrieved on March 11, 2007.
  5. ^ SECOND YEAR SHOW: New Curriculum Debuts in Second Year Show. Retrieved on March 11, 2007.
  6. ^ HST MD Class of 2009 Wins HMS Society Olympics. Retrieved on March 2, 2007.
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Schools of Harvard University

Faculty of Medicine: Medical School • School of Dental Medicine