Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. It is an 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. 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.

History

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. The architect for the campus was the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.

The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research launched in 2004 through a joint effort by Partners Harvard Medical International and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), HMSDC is part of the Government of Dubai's mission to develop DHCC into a center of excellence for health care delivery, medical education, and research. 1

Major teaching affiliates