New York Medical College

The College was founded in 1860 by a group of New York City civic leaders led by the noted poet, editor and orator William Cullen Bryant, who was concerned with the primitive conditions of hospitals and medical education at that time. Today, with more than 1,400 students, 1,338 residents and clinical fellows, more than 3,000 faculty members, and 12,706 living alumni, New York Medical College is one of the largest private health sciences universities in the nation.

Located in Westchester County, New York, the College is chartered by the Regents of the State of New York and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH), the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), and the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association.

Points of Pride

• We are a national leader in educating some of the most highly skilled and sought-after primary care physicians.
• We sponsor one of the largest Graduate Medical Education programs in the country.
• Our network of affiliated hospitals, including large urban medical centers, small suburban hospitals, and high-tech regional tertiary care facilities, afford outstanding clinical training opportunities for medical students and residents in the tri-state area.
• We serve as the academic health sciences center and principal academic public health resource for eight county health departments in New York's Hudson Valley region, one county health department in central New York, and one county health department in southwestern Connecticut, a catchment area more populous than twenty states.
• Our researchers and physicians play a leadership role in preventing, diagnosing, and treating significant and emerging public health threats including cardiovascular and renal disease, infectious disease, cancer, and the neurosciences, with a concentration in Lyme disease, hypertension, Parkinson's disease, melanoma, hepatitis C, and toxoplasmosis. In the public health arena, the College contributes expertise and leadership in disaster management, including psychiatric illnesses and stress related to trauma, disaster and terrorism.
• Continuing Medical Education programs provide physicians and other healthcare providers with the resources to advance their medical skills and knowledge.
• In the 2007-08 academic year, 469 faculty members published 1,018 books, chapters, journal articles, editorials, reviews and letters.
• More than 12,000 alumni reside in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 2 territories and 4 foreign countries, where they provide superior medical care, perform cutting-edge research, hold leadership positions at prestigious institutions, and train tomorrow's healthcare professionals at many of the top academic health centers and schools of medicine in the U.S.

President's Welcome
New York Medical College, a leading institution in the health sciences, continues to be on the frontier of significant advances in research and the changing landscape of health care in this country.

I invite you to explore the exciting academic and professional opportunities we offer. As one of the largest health sciences universities in the nation, the College provides a comprehensive scope of degrees and certificates in the medical and health sciences disciplines. NYMC is respected as a national center of excellence in educating physicians, scientists and health care professionals.

We understand and share the aspirations of students, researchers and practitioners, and will help you realize them. After more than a century and a half of health care leadership, New York Medical College continues to offer outstanding educational programs, a diverse network of affiliated hospitals, integrated programs in research, and practicum experiences in the real world of public health practice.

The School of Medicine, among the oldest of the nation's medical schools, offers dozens of specialty and sub-specialty programs at affiliated hospitals that provide a diverse array of learning experiences for medical students and residents to develop their clinical skills. Our Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences educates future researchers and teachers and prepares graduates to work in academia, industry, government and other areas of the biomedical sciences. The School of Health Sciences and Practice enrolls students who pursue doctoral, Master of Public Health or Master of Science degrees in a broad range of health sciences disciplines. Our graduates will impact health care policy and practice.

Through our recent affiliation with the Touro College and University System, one of the largest medical and health education and biological studies programs under one institutional banner has been established. This increased potential will empower our campus community with an unparalleled range of educational opportunities to leverage professional goals, however broad or high they may be.

We invite you to join us in our dedication to education, research and patient-centered care, supported by values that reflect the central tenets of our mission. We look forward to welcoming you to our campus and to our community of health care professionals as we meet the challenges of the future.

History
New York Medical College owes its founding in 1860 to a group of civic leaders who believed that medicine should be practiced with greater sensitivity to the needs of patients.

Origins
The group, led by William Cullen Bryant, the noted poet, abolitionist and editor of the Evening Post, was particularly concerned with the condition of hospitals and medical education. Bryant was zealously devoted to the branch of medicine known as homeopathy. The school opened its doors on the corner of 20th street and Third Avenue as the New York Homeopathic Medical College. Bryant served as the medical school's first president and held the office of president of the Board of Trustees for 10 years.

Advancing Medical Careers for Women
In 1863, a separate but related institution known as the New York Medical College for Women was founded by Dr. Clemence Sophia Lozier, staffed and supervised by many of the College's male faculty. In 1867, Dr. Lozier's institution graduated the first female Canadian physician, Dr. Emily Stowe, who had previously been refused admission to every medical school in her native Canada. Dr. Susan McKinney, the first African-American female physician in New York State and the third in the nation, graduated from New York Medical College for Women in 1870 with the highest grade in the class. When the institution closed in 1918, students transferred to the College. Thus, New York Medical College makes its claim to be among the first medical schools to admit women.
Metropolitan Hospital and Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals

In 1875, Metropolitan Hospital opened as a municipal facility on Ward's Island, staffed largely by the faculty of New York Medical College. Today that relationship is one of the nation's oldest continuing affiliations between a private medical school and a public hospital.

The Flower Free Surgical Hospital, built by New York Medical College in 1889, was the first teaching hospital in the country to be owned by a medical college. It was constructed at York Avenue and 63rd Street with funds given largely by Congressman Roswell P. Flower, later governor of New York. By 1935, the College had transferred its outpatient activities to the Fifth Avenue Hospital at Fifth Avenue and 106th Street. The College (including Flower Hospital) and Fifth Avenue Hospital merged in 1938 and became New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals.

Nation's First Minority Scholarship Program
In 1928, the College became the first medical school in the nation to establish a scholarship program specifically for minority students through the efforts of Walter Gray Crump, Sr., M.D. An alumnus and voluntary faculty member who participated vigorously in the academic life of the College, Dr. Crump taught surgery, served as a staff surgeon at other hospitals, was a founder of the New York Medical College for Women, was a trustee of Tuskegee Institute and Howard University and assumed a leading role in the advancement of minority education and minority affairs.

Growth of Graduate Education
The College's Certificate of Incorporation was amended in 1938 to include authority to award graduate degrees in addition to the M.D., specifically, a master of science in medicine, a doctorate in medical science and a doctorate in public health. College archives, however, record scheduling of advanced courses and research activity as early as 1910 and offerings of graduate courses in surgery and medicine to residents in the 1920s. In 1963, the Graduate School of Medical Sciences was founded, establishing for the first time graduate education within a school separate from the medical curriculum. The Board of Trustees renamed the school the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences in 1969.

Fiscal Concerns
The advent of new technologies in the '60s and '70s made it increasingly expensive to operate Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals. In addition, the College was subsidizing faculty salaries to supplement private practice income. Around the mid-1960s, New York Medical College began to consider relocating its campus. After reviewing several options, the Board of Trustees voted to accept a proposal from Westchester County and to apply for a federal grant that would fund nearly half the expense of creating a new medical center. When the government discontinued the funding program, however, the College was unable to secure its share. The County raised the necessary funds and proceeded to manage the medical center in entirety. Meanwhile, financial difficulties at Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals continued. Toward the late '70s, it was estimated that the College was subsidizing hospital operations at a rate of more than $1 million a month. The College was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Board of Trustees considered many options, but most required a takeover by another institution - an unacceptable course.

The Relationship with the Archdiocese of New York
At this critical time in the College's history, the Board of Trustees attempted to interest the Archdiocese of New York in College affairs. In 1978, Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York, agreed to foster a relationship. He perceived that affiliation with a medical college would be important to the continued excellence of an extensive Catholic hospital system. The Archdiocese helped the College restructure its debt on more favorable terms, strengthened the Board of Trustees and added many Catholic hospitals to the College's affiliations. It also assumed operation of Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, converting the facility into a specialty hospital serving the developmentally disabled. (It is presently known as Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center.) In 1980, intercession by the Archdiocese was critical in preventing the city from closing Metropolitan Hospital, the College's oldest affiliation.

Decade of Achievement
During the "Decade of Achievement" (1978-1988), the size and stature of faculty, quality and amount of funded research, caliber of students and improvements in medical care afforded to people in communities served by the College increased significantly. Hospital affiliations grew to 34 in number, affording medical students a wide range of clinical training opportunities. National Institutes of Health research grant and contract awards more than doubled; sponsored programs (research, training and service) and New York State appropriations grew to a record level of $23 million. The Graduate School of Health Sciences now known as the School of Health Sciences and Practice (SHS&P) was founded (1980) to respond to the growing regional and national need for healthcare professionals. In 1984, the New York State Department of Education recognized New York Medical College as a university. By the end of the '80s, the university was thriving once again.

New Directions
The university's progress, distinguished by a marked increase in the academic quality of the student body, continued. In 1992 the College launched a strategic planning initiative. For almost three years, the academic community engaged in intensive committee meetings, retreats, focus groups and surveys intended to clarify the institution's strategic vision and direction. The resulting strategic plan, approved by the Board of Trustees, served as the foundation for the university's reengineering efforts and is a valued reference document for program planning and resource allocation.

Early in the decade, the Board of Trustees recognized that the nation's demand for healthcare professionals would soon exceed supply and began to focus attention on the School of Public Health. The College charged the dean with responsibility for revitalizing the SPH and expanding program offerings. Within a few years, enrollment increased by more than 50 percent and currently exceeds 600 students. In 1997, the school's new physical therapy program was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. Subsequently, a program in health informatics was introduced to educate students about computer applications designed to improve the management of medical information while integrating traditional tools of healthcare administration. A master of science program in speech-language pathology began in 1999.

Leading the nation in response to a shortage of primary care physicians, the School of Medicine developed a program with the goal of doubling the number of medical school graduates who, after completing their residencies, enter generalist practices. The program, known as the generalist physician initiative, was awarded major funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of only 14 nationwide so designated. One innovative aspect of the generalist physician initiative, offered in conjunction with academic health center partner Saint Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center of New York, affords eligible fourth-year medical students an opportunity to begin a residency program in Internal Medicine and thereby complete training in six years rather than the traditional seven.

New York Medical College Degree Programs :

Medicine

Dentistry

Public Health

Video Presentation

New York Medical College 150th Anniversary - Corporate History Video