Yale School of Medicine

Education

Yale School of Medicine educates future leaders in medicine and biomedical science. Since 1839, medical students have written a thesis based on original research, reflecting that the scientific process of investigation, observation, interpretation of data, and critical evaluation of literature are fundamental to the practice of medicine.

Many medical students take a tuition-free fifth year to pursue additional study, conducting in-depth research or exploring clinical electives and sub-internships. A significant number are awarded fifth-year research fellowships and earn the Master of Health Science degree.

Each year, approximately 20 students enroll in the school’s MD-PhD Program, one of the original Medical Scientist Training Programs established and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Graduate students in the combined program in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences earn a PhD degree through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. YSM residents, fellows, and faculty, as well as individuals from other institutions, can earn a two-year Master of Health Science degree. The Yale School of Medicine also offers joint degree programs with other professional schools, including Public Health, Law, Management, Engineering & Applied Science, and Divinity.

YSM’s campus-based Physician Associate (PA) Program, one of the oldest PA programs in the country, trains students to become compassionate, high-quality, patient-centered PAs.

Yale System

The school employs the "Yale System" established by YSM Dean Milton 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/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.

Rankings

For 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Yale School of Medicine as a Tier 1 medical school in Best Medical Schools: Research, as a Tier 3 school in Best Medical Schools: Primary Care, tied for No.33 in Most Diverse Medical Schools, No.90 in Most Graduates Practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas, No.169 in Most Graduates Practicing in Primary Care, and tied at No.161 in Most Graduates Practicing in Rural Areas. The school ranked third for NIH research funding in 2024 as reported by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

History

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 to become physicians. Yale President Ezra Stiles conceived the idea of training physicians at Yale and ultimately, his successor Timothy Dwight IV helped 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.

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 had lived and where he practiced as a country physician for the rest of his life. 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.

In 1857, Cortlandt Creed became the first African American to graduate from the school of medicine. After graduation, he stayed in New Haven and developed his practice. During the Civil War, he served as assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Connecticut Volunteers.

In 1916, a little more than a century after its founding, Yale School of Medicine admitted its first female students. At the time, this stood in marked contrast to the ethos of other institutions such as Harvard, which considered it “unladylike” for women to attend medical school at the time. The three women admitted to the Class of 1916 were exceptional—unlike their male counterparts, who needed only two years of college education, they were required to hold a college degree, and a quota further restricted the number of women who were admitted.

Throughout its history, Yale School of Medicine faculty have been credited with seminal scientific discoveries. Pediatrician Martha May Eliot, MD, who was recruited to Yale by Edwards A. Park, MD, chair of the medical school’s first Department of Pediatrics, are together credited with developing a cure for rickets in 1925.

Clinical Affiliations

An affiliation agreement between the medical school and Grace-New Haven Community Hospital in 1965 created Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), which expanded in 1993 with the opening of the Children’s Hospital, and again in 2000 with the acquisition of the Psychiatric Hospital.

In 1999, an affiliation agreement was established between the medical school and Yale New Haven Health System. The two institutions collaborate to provide clinical care, undergraduate and graduate medical education, and to facilitate clinical research.

In 2009, the 14-story Smilow Cancer Hospital opened, and in 2012 YNHH acquired the Hospital of Saint Raphael, adding 533 beds and making it one of the largest hospitals in the United States.

The medical center has grown over the years to include the institutions listed below.

The affiliated VA Connecticut Healthcare System, located in West Haven, maintains clinical, research, and education programs in conjunction with many medical school departments. The Department of Psychiatry collaborates with the Connecticut Mental Health Center to provide recovery-oriented mental health services for thousands of people in the Greater New Haven area each year.

Deans

Before 1845, there was no dean. Nathan Smith, followed by Jonathan Knight, provided leadership in the early years. Thereafter, physicians of various specialities have served as dean of the medical school:

Charles Hooker (1845–1863): professor of anatomy and physiology

Charles Augustus Lindsley (1863–1885): physician and professor of materia, medica, and therapeutics; later professor of the theory and practice of medicine

Herbert Eugene Smith (1885–1910): physician and chemist

George Blumer (1910–1920): psychiatrist and scientist

Milton Winternitz (1920–1935): pathologist

Stanhope Bayne-Jones, MD (1935–1940): bacteriologist

Francis Gilman Blake, MD (1940–1947): immunologist

Cyril Norman Hugh Long, MD (1947–1952): physician and biochemist

Vernon W. Lippard (1952–1967): pediatrician

Frederick Carl Redlich, MD (1967–1972): psychiatrist

Lewis Thomas, MD (1972–1973): immunologist and author

Robert Berliner (1973–1984): renal physiologist

Leon Rosenberg, MD (1984–1991): geneticist

Robert M. Donaldson, MD (acting) (1991–1992): gastroenterologist

Gerard N. Burrow, MD (1992–1997): endocrinologist

Notable faculty

The faculty includes 31 National Academy of Sciences members, 50 National Academy of Medicine members, and nine Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators/professors. Yale School of Medicine faculty have also received various international awards for their scientific discoveries, impactful research, and professional achievements. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to seven current or former faculty members, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to two faculty members.

Current

Amy Arnsten, PhD, Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and professor of psychology (National Academy of Medicine, 2017)

Macrene Alexiades (fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology)

Pietro De Camilli, MD, John Klingenstein Professor of Neuroscience and professor of cell biology (E.B. Wilson Medal 2021; Julius Axelrod Prize, 2015; American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012; Institute of Medicine, 2005; American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2001; National Academy of Sciences, 2001; HHMI Investigator, 1992)

Vincent DeVita Jr., MD, Amy and Joseph Perella Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and professor of epidemiology (Lasker Award, 1972)

Richard Flavell, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology (William B. Coley Award, 2012; Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, 2013)

Jorge Galàn, DVM, PhD, Lucille P. Markey Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and professor of cell biology (National Academy of Sciences, 2015; NIH MERIT Award, 2000 and 2015; National Academy of Sciences, 2013)

Valentina Greco, PhD, Carolyn Slayman Professor of Geneitcs (HHMI Investigator, 2024; International Society for Stem Cell Research Momentum Award, 2021; NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, 2019)

Arthur L Horwich, MD, professor emeritus of genetics (Lasker Award, 2011; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2021; Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, 2020; Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, 2019; Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, 2019; E.B. Wilson Medal, 2017; Institute of Medicine, 2008; National Academy of Sciences, 2003)

Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and professor of dermatology and of molecular, cellular & developmental biology, and of epidemiology (Nakaaki Tsukahara Memorial Award, 2024; president of American Association of Immunologists, 2024; Else Kröner Fresenius Prize for Medical Research, 2023; National Academy of Medicine, 2019; National Academy of Sciences, 2018; HHMI Investigator, 2014)

Past

Sidney Altman, PhD (1939-2022): Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, discovered the catalytic properties of RNA, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989

Paul B Beeson, MD (1908-2006): chair and professor of internal medicine and expert in infection

C. Lee Buxton, MD (1904-1969): obstetrician, birth control advocate, and appellant in Griswold v. Connecticut

Russell Henry Chittenden, PhD, (1856-1943): physiological chemist, pioneer of digestion and nutrition

James William Colbert, Jr., MD (1920-1974): immunologist, assistant dean of postgraduate education

Harvey Cushing, MD (1869-1939): neurosurgeon, pioneer of brain surgery, identified Cushing's syndrome

Jennifer Doudna, PhD (1964-); former Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2020

John F. Enders, PhD (1897-1985): vaccine pioneer, including development of the measles vaccine

Marilyn Farquhar, PhD (1928-2019): cell biologist, first female Sterling Professor at Yale

Alvan R. Feinstein, PhD (1925-2001): clinician, health informatician, epidemiologist (the father of modern clinical epidemiology), Sterling Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, author of Clinical Judgment (1967) and Clinical Epidemiology: The Architecture of Clinical Research (1985)

Stephen Fleck, MD (1912–2002): psychiatrist, coauthor of Schizophrenia and the Family