New York University (School of Medicine)

The mission of the medical school is threefold: the training of physicians, the search for new knowledge, and the care of the sick. The three are inseparable. Medicine can be handed on to succeeding generations only by long training in the scientific methods of investigation and by the actual care of patients.

Our current interpretation of this statement is that the appropriate teaching of medicine and the training of physicians must be accomplished in a setting of excellence at the highest level of human achievement. With this understanding, we strive to provide a rich environment for scholarship, research, and patient care where the faculty understands that the students, as our successors, should not merely replace, but surpass.

NYU School of Medicine is one of the nation’s preeminent academic institutions. For more than 150 years, we have trained thousands of physician-scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical
history and enrich the lives of countless people. Through medical education, scientific research, and patient care, we continue to demonstrate our deep, abiding commitment to improving the human condition.

The percentage of NYU graduates who are members of medical school faculties is among the highest in the nation. For most of them, an invaluable part of that training was their service at Bellevue Hospital, one of the nation’s finest municipal hospitals, where NYU physicians have provided clinical and emergency care to New York City’s poor and immigrant populations for more than a century.

A great medical institution, however, does more than make history. It makes the future. We recognize the need for constant innovation and a dedication to meet medical challenges—those not yet met and those not yet known. At NYU School of Medicine we are building on our extraordinary past to create tomorrow’s medicine.

As part of a “biomedical corridor” extending from 23rd to 34th Streets along Manhattan’s East River Drive, our institution is guided by the promise of “translational medicine,” in which scientific discoveries are urgently translated into innovative treatments for patients. To create an environment worthy of rapid medical advances, we are constructing new research and clinical facilities. These state-of-the-art facilities will serve as the home for our physician-scientists who are the intellectual foundation of the School. In addition, we are recruiting a new generation of scholars and teachers who have established national and international reputations. And we are admitting some of the nation’s best and brightest students, many of whom will become tomorrow’s leaders in the medical profession.

Your focus and ours is whether NYU is the right place to pursue your medical education. We hope that this website captures the spirit of the educational enterprise at NYU, as well as the experience of studying medicine in the heart of New York City.

In the fall of 2001, the School of Medicine implemented a new curriculum. Under this unique and innovative program, the basic science courses were reorganized into thematic modules composed of interrelated units. Traditional lecture hours were reduced, and the educational program now employs teaching methodologies that are specifically designed to nurture an increasingly independent and self-reliant student. The clinical sciences core curriculum consists of nine core clerkships. Although the basic element of teaching in the clinical clerkship is bedside instruction, skills are developed through multiple media that reinforce interactive, interdisciplinary learning. Topics introduced in the preclinical years are revisited in renewed depth and with different perspectives through case-based exercises that vertically span the curriculum. The transition to clinical sciences is facilitated by a two-week, interdepartmental clerkship orientation, and entry into the final year of medical school begins with a thematic, two-week, seminar-style selective in Advanced Science.

The School of Medicine lies at the heart of NYU Medical Center, which includes NYU Hospitals Center (Tisch Hospital and the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine) and our major hospital affiliates (Bellevue Hospital Center, the Hospital for Joint Diseases Orthopaedic Institute, and the Department of Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Health Care System).

Schwartz Lecture Hall contains 37,000 square feet of space, including two auditoriums, each with a capacity of about 300, and two lecture rooms, each accommodating 60. In addition, there are a large auditorium and two lecture rooms located in Alumni Hall. All facilities are equipped with modern audio-visual systems. The Medical Science Building, Berg Institute, Smilow Resarch Center, and Imaging Laboratory house the research areas as well as the library and administrative offices.

The Geraldine H. Coles Medical Science Laboratories is a student laboratory building adjacent to the Medical Science Building. Designed with a multipurpose approach to laboratory space, the plan of the laboratories also took into account changes in emphasis in basic science teaching. These involve a perceptible shift away from detailed laboratory study, a greater emphasis on integrative mechanisms in the teaching of the first two years, and a necessity to focus on a more individualized interchange between faculty and students.

The Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library is located on three floors of the Medical Science Building. Its collection includes over 275,000 volumes, 2,000 print, and more than 6,000 full-text electronic books and journals. This extensive collection of electronic resources is available over the NYU computer network as the award-winning Digital Medical Library at http://library.med.nyu.edu.

Services available to students include access to the internet throughout the library, commercially developed instructional software, and the extensive set of course materials developed specifically
for NYU. In addition, the library provides standard application software, digital support services for scanning and graphics work, free bibliographic database searching, instruction in computer courses, and interlibrary loan and e-loan systems, guaranteeing free, rapid delivery of articles not current. The library is open 24 hours a day from Sunday through Thursday, from 8:30 a.m to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, and from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Facilities utilized in patient care, teaching, and research programs affiliated with the School are wide-ranging, placing the School’s faculty in charge of one of the most extensive patient care operations in the nation. Four major hospitals—Bellevue, Tisch, Hospital for Joint Diseases Orthopedics Institute, and the Department of Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Health Care System—form a unique biomedical corridor along First Avenue in Manhattan. These are joined on campus by two other important healthcare facilities, the Rusk Institute and the Schwartz Health Care Center. Affiliated hospitals in the greater metropolitan area include: North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System; Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center; Jamaica Hospital; and Chinatown Health Clinic. This vast array of clinical facilities offers an extraordinary breadth of experiences for our students.

As a student at NYU, you’ll have access to special programs and activities that will season your education with experiences not found in any textbook. You’ll be able to sample and savor the arts and humanities, athletics, community service, and cultural and religious organizations. With its bountiful riches and resources, New York City serves as an invaluable extension of the NYU campus, providing students with extraordinary opportunities for jobs, research projects, and social activities.

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School of Medicine Medical School Location

School of Medicine Courses

FIRST YEAR

The first year lays the groundwork for an in-depth understanding of human biology. Teaching sequences are arranged to demonstrate the relevance of basic science to clinical science and set the stage for an understanding of the sociological aspects of medicine.

COURSES :

* Macroscopic Structure and Development of the Human Body : This module consists of two units, Anatomy and Embryology. This module introduces students to the structural organization and development of the human body at the macroscopic level. The two units use a variety of approaches to stimulate student-student interactive learning and to facilitate faculty-guided instruction. The Anatomy laboratory sessions include demonstrations by students and discussions of their findings. The Embryology unit includes the study of both normal human development and abnormalities of medical importance.

* Cell Structure and Function : This module consists of the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Cell Biology, and Cellular Physiology units. The objective of this module is to provide an integrated view of key cellular processes at the molecular level, and to relate them to normal human development and function and also to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

* Host Defense :This module integrates material in Microbiology, Parasitology, and Immunology. Viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths are studied as biologic agents of infectious disease. Emphasis is placed on life cycles, epidemiology, pathology, clinical symptoms, treatment and prevention of disease. Study of the immunological system and the molecular nature of its response to infection are integrated throughout this module.

* Tissues and Organs : In this module, the Histology and Physiology units expand the introduction to normal and abnormal biology. Among the topics covered are: the maintenance of equilibrium of the organism, especially in situations of stress; the means of communication among various cell groups; and the mechanisms of exchanging products of anabolism and catabolism.

SECOND YEAR

The year begins with an introduction to the principles of pharmacokinetics and pathological disease processes shared among organ systems. With this background, students enter an extensive, integrated Mechanisms of Disease module. The pathology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology of disease are approached in an organ-system-based, multidisciplinary manner centered around problem-solving. This instruction is fully coordinated with acquisition of clinical skills through the parallel Skills and Science of Doctoring module. The emphasis is on relating pathogenic mechanisms to the clinical manifestations of disease; introductory lectures are followed by precepted, small group discussions, seminars, and student-patient sessions.

The Skills and Science of Doctoring is a longitudinal, interdisciplinary module that spans the first two years of the curriculum. Within the first few weeks of medical school, students—in the very small precepted Patient Narrative unit—encounter patients and illness. Later in the first year and throughout the second year of training—in The Physician, Patient and Society I and II—they learn communication skills; grapple with questions of medical ethics, cultural diversity, disease prevention, and professionalism; and begin the development of clinical skills, including history-taking, physical examination, and evidence-based decision-making. These skills are reinforced and further developed during the Physical Diagnosis and Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Preventive Medicine units.

THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS

The Core Curriculum consists of clerkships in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, neurology, ambulatory care medicine, critical care, and advanced medicine. Clerkships provide a rich experience on the wards of our teaching hospitals, where the student learns to deal with the most serious problems in physiological dysfunction. The student becomes a member of the healthcare team and participates in all phases of the patient’s care, from admission through discharge.

The faculty guides the student through the principles of medicine toward a rational understanding of human illness. Bedside instruction is the basic element of teaching in the clinical clerkship. The student learns to integrate the essentials of history-taking, the physical examination, and results of laboratory tests with an understanding of the mechanisms of disease in order to reach a meaningful differential diagnosis. Teaching methods, however, are not limited to direct interaction with patients; they also incorporate standardized patient encounters with observation and feedback, and case studies that vertically integrate and amplify material introduced in the pre-clinical years.

During the Clinical Elective period, students may pursue research or clinical programs at the School of Medicine, its affiliated hospitals, or at other institutions here and abroad. During the clinical elective months, students are encouraged to complete an Independent Study project. Opportunities for projects are available in areas of biomedical research, clinical investigation, urban health, computer science, and many others.

While their third-year counterparts are participating in the Clerkship Orientation, rising fourth-year students, seasoned with a full year of clinical experience, engage in an in-depth, seminar- and original-literature-based selective in advanced science. Students select from a palette of topics drawn from the frontiers of translational medicine and biomedical technology, making choices based upon their own individualized interests and emerging differentiated focus. Topics include Stem Cell Therapy, Models of Multigenic Disease, Vaccine Development, Neurobiology of Pain, Ion Channels and Disease, DNA Technology in Medicine, Anatomy for Surgeons, and the Microbiology of Bioterrorism.

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