Profile
Established in 1807, the University of Maryland School of Medicine is the fifth oldest - and first public - medical school in the United States. It is also the first to build its own teaching hospital and the first to institute a residency-training program. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland, and today it is an integral part of the 13-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine serves as the foundation for a large academic health center that combines medical education, biomedical research, patient care and community service. While its traditional excellence remains constant, the School of Medicine and its national reputation continue to grow.
The School of Medicine boasts the oldest building in the Western hemisphere in continuous use for medical education, the meticulously restored Davidge Hall, built in 1812. Two major classroom and laboratory buildings, the fourteen-floor Bressler Research Building and the nine-floor Medical School Teaching Facility, were completed in the mid-1970s. The mid-rise Biomedical Research Facility was completed in late 1992. Health Sciences Facility I (HSFI), an interdisciplinary research and teaching facility, was completed in 1995. HSFI provides clinical and basic science departments and animal care facilities with approximately 80,000 additional net square feet. HSFI also provides a much-needed indoor connection from the Medical School Teaching Facility to Howard Hall and the Bressler Research Building. Health Sciences Facility II (HSFII), a 101,000 square foot state-of-the-art biomedical research facility, opened in 2003. This six-story research building houses laboratories, research offices and conference rooms. All but one major medical school research building is physically linked to the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The University of Maryland campus in Baltimore continues to expand as well. The 137-bed Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center, immediately adjacent and connected by bridge to the University, joined the campus in 1993. Gudelsky Tower, the new high-tech University of Maryland Medical Center patient tower opened in 1994, and was followed in 1995 by complete restructuring and enhancement of the two-block hospital facade and main lobby. In 2002 the medical center opened the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building. This spacious 380,000 square foot building includes a new surgical facility with 19 state-of-the-art operating rooms, called the "OR of the Future," adult and pediatric emergency departments, an expanded diagnostic imaging department, a cafeteria and food court, a chapel, a patient resource center to access health information and community resources, and an employee learning center.
Completed in late 1995, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's Medical Biotechnology Center occupies a 196,000 square foot facility. The center focuses on medical biotechnology research and training and serves as a catalyst for economic development in health-related aspects of molecular biology and medical biotechnology at the basic, applied and clinical levels. The Health and Human Services Library opened in 1998; it provides cutting-edge service and amenities to its users and also serves as a Regional Medical Library of the National Library of Medicine.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), is the founding campus of Maryland's public university system. It is a thriving center for education, patient care, research and community service. Seven graduate and professional schools-the Graduate School, the Dental School and Schools of Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Work-together with the University of Maryland Medical Center, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's Medical Biotechnology Center-educate physicians, research scientists and many of the region's health care, law and social work practitioners.
With $339 million in sponsored program support in FY04, UMB is one of the fastest growing biomedical research centers in the country. The University of Maryland, Baltimore is ideally configured to maximize collaborative opportunities with government agencies in tackling complex health care, public policy and societal issues. Its location within the Baltimore-Washington-Annapolis triangle-at the hub of one of the greatest concentrations of health care institutions, research facilities, government agencies and professional associations in the nation-offers a unique combination of strengths to comprehensively address regional problems with the resulting conclusions having the potential for global implications. Areas of multidisciplinary research, scholarship and community action include AIDS, aging, vaccine development, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, hypertension, cancer, child abuse and homelessness, offering students a wide selection of field experiences.
Partnerships among university components and with the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center continually strengthen interdisciplinary research, education and service endeavors.
Milestones
The foundation of the School of Medicine dates back to 1789 with the organization of the Medical Society of Baltimore and Baltimore physicians' awareness that their numbers were decreasing following the Revolutionary War. Foreseeing a potential opportunity for charlatans to "practice" the art of medicine, founders of the medical society began to train prospective physicians in their own homes, offering instruction in anatomy, surgery and chemistry. Soon faced with strong citizen protest of anatomical dissection, the physician-teachers petitioned the Maryland State Legislature to establish a college of medicine on a firm basis and under the protection of the law. A charter incorporating the College of Medicine of Maryland was approved by the Maryland General Assembly on December 18, 1807.
The fledgling College of Medicine of Maryland was in urgent need of a proper building, and a lottery was authorized-not to exceed $40,000-to benefit the medical college's building fund. Over the next 15 years, seven more lotteries were authorized to benefit the school.
Dr. John Beale Davidge, a native Marylander trained in Scotland, became the first dean and took the chair in surgery. His founding faculty were Dr. James Cocke (anatomy and physiology), Mr. James Shaw (chemistry) and Dr. Nathaniel Potter (theory and practice of medicine). From Col. John Eager Howard, a Revolutionary War hero and former Maryland governor, Davidge, Shaw and Cocke purchased land that was "quite some distance from town" to protect against unruly mobs who had demolished the doctors' first anatomical theater in violent opposition to the dissection of human cadavers.
From the school's very beginning there was strong emphasis on bedside teaching. The first class of seven received clinical instruction at the Baltimore Almshouse, a warehouse, a theater and infirmary for the poor.
Completed in 1812, Davidge Hall was built by Robert Carey Long, Sr., and modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. The first classes were held in the new building in 1813, the same year the College of Medicine of Maryland became the University of Maryland. In addition to its two expansive circular amphitheaters constructed one atop the other, Davidge Hall was built with dissecting cubbyholes, secret stairways and hidden exits that afforded early students and their professors safe passage from angry mobs. It is said that the 1812 British bombardment of Fort McHenry was viewed from the veranda of Davidge Hall, while in the harbor a few miles away Francis Scott Key was writing the "Star Spangled Banner." Davidge Hall was meticulously renovated in the early 1980's and recognized as a National Historic Place. In 1998 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Baltimore Infirmary, forerunner of the University of Maryland Hospital, was built opposite Davidge Hall in 1823, on the site of the present Baltimore Student Union. It was the first hospital founded by a medical school for the express purpose of clinical instruction. It was also the site of the first intramural residency program established in the United States. Senior medical students lived in the hospital while helping to care for patients. The building was still in active use until 1973, when its clinics were moved into the newly constructed north-wing addition to the University of Maryland Hospital (circa 1934) and the old building razed.
In curriculum development, the University of Maryland School of Medicine enjoys a long and proud tradition as an innovative leader. Maryland was the first school to recognize the value of the basic sciences. In 1800, Dr. John Crawford was the first to vaccinate Baltimoreans against smallpox. As early as 1810, he had presented evidence of the contagious character of tuberculosis. The gift of Dr. Crawford's personal library became the nucleus of Maryland's extensive medical library.
In 1833 the school introduced the nation's first preventive medicine course. The techniques of auscultation and percussion were taught at the School of Medicine for the first time in Baltimore as early as 1841, and in 1844 Dr. David Stewart, the nation's first professor of pharmacy in the United States, initiated his lectures at Maryland. In 1848, Maryland became the first school to require anatomical dissection, followed six years later by the introduction of compulsory courses in gross and microscopic pathology. Compulsory courses in experimental physiology and microscopy were introduced six years later. A milestone in cancer research occurred in 1853, when Maryland's Dr. Francis Donaldson became the first person in America to advocate biopsy and microscopic diagnosis of malignancy. Maryland was the first to establish chairs in the diseases of women and children (1867) and diseases of the eye and ear (1873).
Mergers with the Baltimore Medical College in 1913 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1915 enabled the school to expand its clinical facilities and faculty. Early in the twentieth century, Drs. James Rowland and Louis Douglas initiated off-site obstetrical care and home delivery, prenatal clinics and an Rh blood-typing laboratory, significantly improving infant and maternal health.
The School of Medicine has had its share of medical breakthroughs, including in more recent decades the first successful antibiotic treatment of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the first cure for typhoid fever and the first laparoscopic ulcer surgery. In 1967, the school began one of the first formalized family practice residency programs in the country. In 1994, Maryland became the first medical school in the nation to integrate medical informatics into its curriculum.
The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, which opened in 1961, serves as a worldwide model for emergency medical treatment. The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center is a strong participant in new drug development and research, and virtually every important drug used in oncology has been tested in this program.
Today's University of Maryland School of Medicine is an exciting, vibrant institution where medical history continues to be written.
Education
The current medical student curriculum differs from more traditional curricula in several respects. During the first two years, the basic sciences are no longer taught as discipline-specific "courses" but are integrated and taught as "blocks," using interdisciplinary teaching with both basic and clinical science teachers. Lectures are limited to allow small group discussion and integration of basic material. Ample time is provided for independent study and the exploration of clinical and research opportunities outside of the classroom. Introduction to Clinical Medicine, which runs throughout the first two years includes areas such as Interviewing, Physical Diagnosis, Medical Ethics, Human Sexuality, and Health Economics. The third and fourth years of the medical student curriculum consist of clerkships, sub-internships, and electives designed to prepare the student to become an excellent clinician, as to well as to introduce specialties across the spectrum of medicine. Particular emphasis is placed on competence in both inpatient and ambulatory settings and preparation for the first year of postgraduate training.
The ties between the medical school and the hospital enrich and enhance both medical education and health care. All physicians practicing at the University of Maryland Medical Center and at the Faculty Professional Building have School of Medicine faculty appointments. All faculty members actively participate in the educational process of medical students and residents. A complete range of medical specialties provides more than 600 postgraduate positions at the University of Maryland Medical Center and affiliated hospitals. The Medical System includes a 724-bed teaching hospital, which includes the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center on campus, as well as the James Lawrence Kernan and University Specialty Hospitals off campus.
Medical care and education are further enhanced by the location of the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center on this campus in a state-of-the-art hospital adjacent to the School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center. Together, these facilities serve as the major clinical training sites as well as sources of comprehensive health care for the local community and the state. The school also has established clinical affiliations throughout the region, giving students unusual flexibility in clinical experiences.
In an effort to nurture more interest in basic research and to meet the increasing demand for physician-scientists, the school offers a combined MD/PhD program in 10 medical disciplines and an MD/MS program in preventive medicine, and a new MD/MPH program. Although the schedule can be flexible, MD/PhD students typically complete the freshman and sophomore years of medical school, enroll as graduate students until PhD completion, and then begin their clinical clerkships. Combined MD/PhD degree studies can be completed within six to eight years.
Medical students in the track leading to the MD/MS in preventive medicine may complete the dual-degree program in five years. The fifth year is counted as one year of preventive medicine residency training by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. The MD/MPH program is designed to be completed in five years, although especially well-prepared students may be able to complete the requirements for both degrees in four years.
Graduate programs are offered at the master's and doctoral levels in the basic sciences. A baccalaureate program in medical and research technology is offered as well as a doctorate program in physical therapy, a master's program in genetic counseling and a number of interdisciplinary programs with both service and research components.
Continuing education programs are sponsored for practicing physicians throughout the region.
The School of Medicine offers students an excellent spectrum of resources and community experiences. Located along the Baltimore-Washington corridor, the school is in the midst of a great concentration of health care institutions, research centers, government agencies, professional associations, and a rapidly expanding biotechnology industry.
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