The
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
's School of Medicine (also referred to as
Penn Med), presently located in the
University CityUniversity City is the easternmost neighborhood of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its boundaries, as defined by the non-profit organization and the City of Philadelphia, are: the Schuylkill River to the east; Spring Garden Street, Powelton Avenue, and Market Street to the north;...
section of Philadelphia,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
, was the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's first school of medicine, founded in 1765 at the College of Philadelphia, as the University was then called. It is widely regarded as one of the world's top medical schools, and in 2009, was ranked third overall among research-based medical schools by US News and World Report.
Origins
The school's young founder,
John MorganDr. John Morgan was co-founder of the first medical school in Colonial America and the second "Chief physician & director general" of the Continental Army ....
, was among the school's Edinburgh, Scotland educated faculty. In the autumn of 1765, students enrolled for "anatomical lectures" and a course on "the theory and practice of physick." Modelling the School after the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
, they emphasized the need for supplement medical lectures with bedside teaching, which they had made available to them at
Pennsylvania HospitalPennsylvania Hospital is a hospital in Center City, Philadelphia, currently affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System...
by the practitioners there.
The School of Medicine's faculty was nationally renowned:
Benjamin RushBenjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a devout Christian, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, PennsylvaniaRush was a signatory of the Declaration of...
(medicine),
Philip Syng PhysickPhilip Syng Physick was an American physician born in Philadelphia.-Biography:Physick graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1785, then began the study of medicine under Dr. Adam Kuhn, and continued it in London under Dr. John Hunter, becoming, on January 1, 1790, house surgeon of St....
(surgery), Robert Hare (chemistry) and, around the 1850s,
William PepperWilliam Pepper , American physician, was born in Philadelphia.He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the academic department in 1862 and from the medical department in 1864. In 1868 he became lecturer on morbid anatomy in the same institution, and in 1870 lecturer on...
(medicine) and
Joseph LeidyJoseph Leidy was an American paleontologist.Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore College. His book Extinct Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska contained many species not previously described and many previously...
(anatomy). In 1847, the group of physicians who organized the
American Medical AssociationThe American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated 1897, is the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States. While its membership has declined in recent years, it claims approximately 20% of practicing physicians as members...
effectively gave recognition to the School's fame by naming the AMA's first president
Nathaniel ChapmanNathaniel Chapman was a well-known early American physician.Chapman was born in Summer Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia. He received his early education in six years at the classical academy of Alexandria...
, Professor of Medicine at the School.
Current campus
In the 1870s, the university closed its campus in
Center City, PhiladelphiaCenter City is the "downtown" and Central Business District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Its 2005 population of 88,000 makes it the third most populous downtown in the United States.-Boundaries:...
and established a new one across the
Schuylkill RiverThe Schuylkill River, most often , is a river in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River....
in
West PhiladelphiaWest Philadelphia is a section of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, West Philly is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the...
just north of the
Blockley AlmshouseThe Blockley Almshouse, later known as Philadelphia General Hospital, was a charity hospital and poorhouse located in West Philadelphia. It originally opened in 1732/33 in a different part of the city as the Philadelphia Almshouse...
. As part of this move, the School of Medicine's faculty persuaded the University's trustees to build a teaching hospital on the new campus, the
Hospital of the University of PennsylvaniaThe Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is a hospital affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System located in the University City section of West Philadelphia. The hospital was founded at its current location in 1874 by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,...
(HUP). At the Hospital, the faculty of the School played an integral part in promoting and implementing an important aspect of the
Flexner ReportThe Flexner Report is a book-length study of medical education in the United States and Canada, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation...
of 1910: to have a bedside teaching program specifically conducted by appointed clinical faculty.
In 1993 the Hospital was included in the
University of Pennsylvania Health SystemThe University of Pennsylvania Health System is a diverse research and clinical care organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1993, it currently operates under the direction and auspices of Penn Medicine, a division of the University of Pennsylvania...
(UPHS), the University's response to the changing national climate of health care. The Health System includes a clinical care network in which the professional associates of the Health System provide hands-on teaching for students of the School. This arrangement allows the faculty to address changes in health care delivery in an educational environment. Currently, the University uses the umbrella organization
Penn MedicinePenn Medicine is the governing board that administers and coordinates the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System . The board reports directly to the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania...
to administer and coordinate the School of Medicine and the Health System.
Advancements
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the School of Medicine was one of the earliest to encourage the development of the emerging medical specialties: neurosurgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, and radiology. Between 1910 and 1939, the chairman of the Department of Pharmacology,
Alfred Newton RichardsAlfred Newton Richards was an American pharmacologist,Richards was born in Stamford, New York. He served as chairman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology from 1910 to 1946; thereafter he became Professor Emeritus...
, played a significant role in developing the University as an authority of medical science, helping the United States to catch up with European medicine and begin to make significant advances in biomedical science.
Benchmark changes in the understanding of medical science and the practice of medicine have necessitated that the School change its methods of teaching, as well as its curriculum. Large changes were made in 1968, 1970, 1981, 1987, and 1997. The last significant change in 1997 brought about the institution of Curriculum 2000, "an integrated, multidisciplinary curriculum which emphasizes small group instruction, self directed learning and flexibility."
http://www.med.upenn.edu/history.html Three themes,
Science of Medicine,
Art and Practice of Medicine, and
Professionalism and Humanism, were developed by focus groups consisting of department chairpersons, course directors, and students.
Departments of the School of Medicine
The School of Medicine has departments in the following basic science subjects:
BiochemistryBiochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
and
BiophysicsBiophysics is an interdisciplinary science that employs and develops theories and methods of the physical sciences for the investigation of biological systems . Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms...
,
BiostatisticsBiostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology...
and
EpidemiologyEpidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine...
, Cancer Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology,
GeneticsGenetics, , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding...
,
GenomicsGenomics is the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis, epistasis, pleiotropy and other...
and
Computational BiologyComputational biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies the techniques of computer science, applied mathematics and statistics to address biological problems. The main focus lies on developing mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques...
,
Medical EthicsMedical ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics, the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology.Medical...
,
MicrobiologyMicrobiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes. Viruses, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied...
,
NeuroscienceNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Such studies span the structure, function, evolutionary history, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, informatics, computational neuroscience and pathology of the nervous system.The International Brain Research...
,
PharmacologyPharmacology is the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and exogenous chemicals that alter normal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals...
, and
PhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the functioning of living systems. It is a subcategory of biology...
.
The school also has departments in the following clinical practices:
AnesthesiaAnesthesia, or anaesthesia , has traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away. This allows patients to undergo surgery and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience...
,
DermatologyDermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin and its diseases, a unique specialty with both medical and surgical aspects. The name of this specialty originated in the form of the words dermologie and, a little later, dermatologia...
,
Emergency MedicineEmergency medicine is a medical specialty in which a physician receives practical training to provide patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of...
, Family Practice and Community Medicine,
MedicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
,
NeurologyNeurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
,
NeurosurgeryNeurosurgery is the surgery discipline focused on treating the central nervous system, peripheral nervous systems and spinal column diseases amenable to surgical intervention....
,
ObstetricsObstetrics is the surgical specialty dealing with the care of women and their children during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal. Midwifery is the non-medical equivalent...
and Gynecology,
OphthalmologyOphthalmology is a branch of medicine which deals with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, hairs, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids. The term ophthalmologist is an eye specialist for medical and surgical problems...
(See
Scheie Eye InstituteThe Scheie Eye Institute is the department of ophthalmology of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It is located within the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and is a leading center for research and treatment of disorders of the eye. In 2007, Scheie was the leading recipient of...
), Orthopaedic Surgery, Otorhinolaryngology,
PathologyPathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through examination of organs, tissues, bodily fluids, and whole bodies...
& Laboratory Medicine,
PediatricsPediatrics is a branch of medical care that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The upper age limit ranges from age 12 to 21, depending on the country....
(See
Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaThe Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the largest and oldest children's hospitals in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Parents Magazine in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for...
), Physical Medicine &
RehabilitationPhysical therapy is a health care profession which provides services to individuals in order to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout life...
,
PsychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
,
Radiation OncologyRadiation therapy is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells . Radiotherapy may be used for curative or adjuvant cancer treatment...
,
RadiologyRadiology is the branch or specialty of medicine that deals with the study and application of imaging technology like x-ray and radiation to diagnosing and treating disease....
, and
SurgerySurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
.
Centers and Institutes
- Abramson Cancer Center
- Cardiovascular Institute
- Center for AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus ....
Research
- Center for Bioethics
- Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Biostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology...
- Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health
Women's health refers to health issues specific to human female anatomy. These often relate to structures such as female genitalia and breasts or to conditions caused by hormones specific to, or most notable in, females. Women's health issues include menstruation, contraception, maternal health,...
- Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology
- General Clinical Research Center
- Institute for Diabetes, Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, and MetabolismMetabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter,...
- Institute for Medicine and Engineering
- Institute for Translational Medicine
Translational Medicine is an emerging view of medical practice and interventional epidemiology, as a natural 21st century progression from Evidence-Based Medicine...
and Therapeutics
- Institute on Aging
- Leonard Davis Institute
- Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences
- Pennsylvania Muscle Institute
- Abramson Institute
- Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease , also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was...
Center
- Center for Cognitive Therapy (Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging (Depts. of Radiology and Neurology)
- Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research (Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Disease (Dept. of Medicine)
- Center for Neurobiology and Behavior (Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)
- Center for Psychotherapy Research (Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Center for Studies of Addiction
The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction The...
(Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (Dept. of Psychiatry)
- Deafness and Family Communication Center (Dept. of Pediatrics)
- Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation (Dept. of Biochemistry/Biophysics)
- Institute for Environmental Medicine (Dept. of Physiology)
- Metabolic Magnetic Resonance Research and Computing Center (MMRRCC) (Dept. of Radiology)
- Penn Lung Center (Dept. of Medicine)
- Smell and Taste Center (Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology)
Trivia
- As of June 8, 2005, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine ranks second nationally in terms of total research awards to academic medical schools For the 2004 fiscal year, Penn received 947 research and training grants and other awards, totalling more than $393.6 million. press release