Yale School of Medicine

Yale's medical campus and The Hill neighborhood from the south

The School of Medicine offers the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree and a Master of Medical Science (M.M.Sc.) degree through the Yale Physician Associate Program and Yale Physician Assistant Online Program for prospective physician assistants. Public health degrees are administered through the Yale School of Public Health.[5]

There are also joint degree programs with other disciplines at Yale, including the M.D/Juris Doctor (J.D.) in conjunction with Yale Law School; the M.D./Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in conjunction with the Yale School of Management; the M.D./Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in conjunction with the Yale School of Public Health; science or engineering in conjunction with the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (M.D./Ph.D.); and the M.D./Master of Divinity (M.Div) in conjunction with Yale Divinity School. Students pursuing a tuition-free fifth year of research are eligible for the Master of Health Science degree.

The school employs the so-called "Yale System" established by Dean Winternitz in the 1920s, wherein first- and second-year students are not graded or ranked among their classmates. In addition, course examinations are anonymous and are intended only for students' self-evaluation. Student performance is thus based on seminar participation, qualifying examinations (if a student fails, it is his or her responsibility to meet with a professor and arrange for an alternative assessment - passing grades are not released), clinical clerkship evaluations, and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Prior to graduation, students are required to submit a thesis based on original research.

Original building of Yale School of Medicine, formerly a hotel built by James Hillhouse at the corner of Grove and Prospect Streets. Originally leased by Yale, the building was later purchased with funds from the Connecticut State Legislature.

In 18th century United States, credentials were not needed to practice medicine. Prior to the founding of the medical school, Yale graduates would train through an apprenticeship in order to become physicians. Yale President Ezra Stiles conceived the idea of training physicians at Yale and ultimately, his successor Timothy Dwight IV helped to found the medical school. The school was chartered in 1810 and opened in New Haven in 1813. Nathan Smith (medicine and surgery) and Benjamin Silliman (pharmacology) were the first faculty members. Silliman was a professor of chemistry and taught at both Yale College and the Medical School. The other two founding faculty were Jonathan Knight, anatomy, physiology and surgery and Eli Ives, pediatrics.[6]

One of Yale's earliest medical graduates was Dr. Asaph Leavitt Bissell of Hanover, New Hampshire, who graduated in 1815, a member of the school's second graduating class. Following his graduation, Dr. Bissell moved to Suffield, Connecticut, a tobacco-farming community where his parents came from, and where he practiced as a country physician for the rest of his life.[6] The saddlebags that Dr. Bissell carried in his practice, packed with paper packets and glass bottles, are today in the school's Medical Historical Library.[7]

Yale medical diploma awarded Asaph Leavitt Bissell, Class of 1815, signed by school's four professors and Timothy Dwight IV

The original building (at Grove and Prospect) later became Sheffield Hall, part of the Sheffield Scientific School (razed in 1931). In 1860, the school moved to Medical Hall on York Street, near Chapel (this building was razed in 1957). In 1925, the school moved to its current campus, neighboring the hospital. This campus includes the Sterling Hall of Medicine, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine (1991, designed by Cesar Pelli), Anlyan Center (2003, designed by Payette and Venturi Scott Brown) and the Amistad Building (2007, designed by Herbert Newman).

Before 1845, there was no dean. Nathan Smith, followed by Jonathan Knight, provided leadership in the early years.[6]

• Charles Hooker (1845–1863): Professor of Anatomy and Physiology
• Charles Augustus Lindsley (1863–1885): Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, later the Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
• Herbert Eugene Smith (1885–1910): physician and chemist
• George Blumer (1910–1920)
• Milton Winternitz (1920–1935): pathologist
• Stanhope Bayne-Jones (1935–1940): physician and bacteriologist
• Francis Gilman Blake (1940–1947)
• Cyril Norman Hugh Long (1947–1952): physician and biochemist
• Vernon W. Lippard (1952–1967)
• Frederick Carl Redlich (1967–1972): psychiatrist
• Lewis Thomas (1972–1973): physician and author
• Robert Berliner (1973–1984)
• Leon Rosenberg (1984–1991)
• Robert M. Donaldson (acting) (1991–1992)
• Gerard N. Burrow (1992–1997)
• David Aaron Kessler (1997–2003): pediatrician, lawyer and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
• Dennis Spencer (acting) (2003–2004): neurosurgeon
• Robert Alpern (2004–2020): nephrologist
• Nancy J. Brown (2020–Present)

• List of Yale University people
• List of Ivy League medical schools

• Official site
• Medicine at Yale 1701-1901
• Medicine at Yale 1901-1951
• Medicine at Yale 1951-2001
• Institute of Medicine member list