Albany Medical College

One of the nation's oldest private medical schools, prides itself in offering an intimate, collegial environment which fosters humane values and genuine learning. The institution was founded in 1839 with an initial enrollment of 57 students. Despite the many changes and developments which have occurred over the years, the College still maintains a policy of limiting enrollment to a small group of carefully selected students-128 in each class.

As expressed in the Act of Incorporation, the primary mission of Albany Medical College is to "promote medical science and instruction in the departments of learning connected there with." Albany Medical College continues to pursue excellence in the education of health care personnel, research in the basic and clinical medical sciences, and services to the community through delivery of patient care and the provision of appropriate resources.

Albany Medical College is committed to the belief that educational opportunities should be available to all qualified persons without regard to race, creed, color, age, sex, religion, marital status, handicap or national origin. Admission policies and procedures reflect and support this belief. Our programs are approved by the New York State Education Department for the training of veterans and other eligible persons.

Each year approximately 130 diverse and multi-talented students enroll in our freshman class, ready to begin an educational program leading to the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The selection of students is the responsibility of the Admissions Committee. The procedures that the Committee follows are designed to ensure that every applicant receives fair and careful consideration. All completed applications are individually read by Admissions Committee members. Admission is not restricted to New York State residents. Instead, the admissions process attempts to attract the best qualified applicants, thus reflecting a wide geographic diversity. Preference is given to United States citizens, although exceptional applicants who are citizens of other countries are occasionally admitted. These individuals should refer to the Noncitizen Tuition Policy before applying.

The face of health care will be transformed over the next decade. Albany Medical College's faculty recognizes the demand that the new health care environment will place on practicing physicians. In response, the faculty has developed a curriculum that focuses on the principles of comprehensive care while teaching students to think and analyze information. This approach will prepare students to incorporate the multiple dimensions of care into a framework for diagnosis, prevention and treatment that will utilize an increasingly wide range of resources in an effective, efficient, and compassionate manner.

The curriculum emphasizes wellness, prevention and patient education. The collaborative relationship between primary care physicians and specialists is stressed. Through-out the curriculum students will begin to understand healthcare from an individual, community, and societal point of view. Psychosocial and legal implications of health care are also addressed.

The program for medical education is designed to provide each student with a foundation of knowledge and clinical skills essential for both graduate training and, ultimately, for assuming a challenging role in the health care delivery system. Utilizing a variety of educational formats, students are presented with the fundamental concepts upon which medical knowledge is founded, and they are trained to develop the cognitive, sensory and motor skills that serve as the basis of clinical problem-solving. The importance of life-long learning is also stressed.

To these ends, the undergraduate curriculum provides a broad, balanced program that enables graduates to select and prepare for any area of medicine. While encouraging students to accept the role of the primary care practitioner, Albany Medical College also demonstrates to students who prefer specialties the important relationship specialists have with generalists in the new health care environment.

The seven-story Medical Education Building contains four lecture halls with a combined capacity of about 700, as well as smaller conference-classrooms, student laboratories, faculty offices and research laboratories. This building connects to the five-story Neil Hellman Medical Research Building. The Hellman Building, which has 75,000 square feet of floor space, houses research quarters and equipment. This building also contains many additional teaching facilities, as well as faculty and administrative offices.

The original Medical College building on this campus, a five-story structure completed in 1928 and expanded in 1951, houses student laboratories and classrooms. The College Bookstore, located on the first floor of this building, features current textbooks, reference books and selected paperback books, as well as a selection of gifts and novelty items.

Located near the Neil Hellman Medical Research Building is the Theobald Smith Laboratory, a two-story structure of historic significance which houses the Departments of Family Practice, Radiation Oncology, Neurology and additional research laboratories.

The new outpatient facility, which houses the offices of over 325 members of the faculty practice, provides a base site for ambulatory care teaching. Other sites include a new physical medicine and rehabilitation facility on nearby Central Avenue, a women's health center on Hackett Boulevard, and other new facilities for family practice on nearby Clara Barton Drive.

The ILRC (Independent Learning Resources Center) on the fifth floor of the library features equipment and materials to support self-directed, multimedia learning. A computer teaching/learning laboratory houses a variety of educational resources, including computer-assisted instruction software, continuing medical education programs, a curriculum database and a variety of literature and full text databases. Faculty and students are able to access material in the library from offices or terminals throughout the campus via modem. The range of multimedia formats reaches beyond computer resources to include slides, audio/video cassettes, X-rays and models. The ILRC also houses the computer-assisted interactive teaching device (Actronics machine) for learning basic and advanced cardiac life support.

The New York State Medical Library, just a mile from the Medical Center, is an important adjunct to the College Library. The State Medical Library has 220,000 volumes and subscribes to 2,500 periodicals in the health sciences. There is a daily courier service, not only to the New York State Library, but also to the libraries of the University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, Skidmore College, and other academic and research libraries in the Capital Region. Because of this collaborative relationship, Albany Medical College has the ability to supplement the State Library's collection of less frequently used journals.

The geographic proximity of Albany Medical College and the New York State Department of Health has led to a close relationship in many instructional, research and community health activities. The Medical College and the Division of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health (DOH) are located less than one mile from each other, and the Medical College and DOH staffs exchange services. There is ample opportunity for an interchange of scientific information, instruction and cooperation on a variety of research projects. The personnel and facilities of the Virology and Biochemistry Laboratories of the State Health Department far exceed the capabilities of many similar laboratories in medical schools. Staff members of these laboratories take part in the instruction of medical and graduate students in the fields of Biochemistry, Virology (Microbiology) and Internal Medicine. The benefits of collaborative efforts between the State Department of Health and Albany Medical College take on increased significance in the fields of teaching, research and service in the medical sciences as the respective programs of DOH and the College expand.

To provide the breadth of clinical training required in modern medical education, a medical college must have available to its students a wide variety of clinical experiences. Albany Medical College provides extensive clinical experience through teaching affiliations with several nearby hospitals. In making such arrangements, it was recognized that the type of experience provided by a tertiary medical center hospital should be supplemented by the establishment of programs with neighboring primary and secondary care hospitals.

The faculty of Albany Medical College is well suited to the school's mission, which involves teaching, research, patient care and community service. Many members of the faculty have achieved national recognition through their research contributions, while participating enthusiastically and productively in education and training at the College. The wide ranging and overlapping interests of the faculty provide the basis for integrated, interdisciplinary teaching programs. The current enriched curriculum offers opportunities for student participation in research, as well as providing a sound education in the fundamental aspects of medical science. A large full-time faculty, supplemented by voluntary faculty members, both in the basic medical and clinical sciences, provides a diversity of learning opportunities based upon special knowledge and skill. Importantly, the resident staff and fellows at Albany Medical Center and its affiliated hospitals provide superior clinical teaching in association with directly supervised patient care activities.

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Albany Medical College Medical School Location

Albany Medical College Courses

FIRST & SECOND YEARS

The basic sciences have been organized into conceptual or organ system modules that begin in Year I. Clinical paradigms demonstrate the importance of basic science knowledge. In Year II the modules focus the students' attention on an understanding of "abnormal." Utilizing clinical case material, students integrate their understanding of normal and abnormal in order to develop a logical approach for clinical care.

During Year I, students are introduced to three modules that continue through the four-year experience. "Health Care and Society" introduces students to psycho-social, humanistic, ethical and legal aspects of care. "Comprehensive Care Case Study" emphasizes managed care, the health care system, epidemiology, biostatistics, the principles of evidence-based medicine and prepares students for a career of life-long learning. This module also focuses students' attention on the concept of health care delivered by a team while exploring geriatrics, substance abuse and AIDS. "Clinical Skills Laboratory" teaches interviewing, physical diagnostic skills, procedural skills, and laboratory medicine. Standardized patients help teach and test clinical skills. All four-year-long modules correlate with clinical and basic science issues that the students learn concurrently.

There is an innovative "Orientation Clerkship" between years two and three that introduces students to skills and concepts they will use in the third year. They learn how to start IVs and draw blood, do casting, suturing, CPR, first aid, and explore other practical skills. Using standardized patient encounters, students refine their history, physical and communication skills. Furthermore, they use these encounters to practice presenting patients in mock attending rounds, write progress notes, orders, and communicate with other health care providers.

FIRST YEAR COURSES :

* Medical Cell Biology & Genetics
* Musculoskeletal System
* Nervous System
* Cardiovascular System I
* Renal Respiratory System 1
* Gastrointestinal System I
* Endocrinology, Reproduction, and Integration of Metabolism.
* Nutrition
* Evidence Based Health Care I
* Health Care and Society
* Clinical Skills I

SECOND YEAR COURSES :

* Disease and Defense
* Introduction to Oncology
* Principles of Drug Therapy
* Introduction to Infectious Disease
* Lymphohematopoetic System
* Human Development
* Cardiovascular System II
* Endocrine System II
* Respiratory System II
* Renal System II
* Gastrointestinal System II
* Nervous System II
* Muskuloskeletal System and Integument
* Psycho Biology and Behavioral Pathology
* Human Reproduction
* Nutrition II
* Evidence Based Health Care II
* Health Care and Society II
* Clinical Skills II

THIRD YEAR

The third year of medical school emphasizes ambulatory care in varied settings: rural; urban; managed care and private practice. Students also see hospitalized patients which serve as an orientation to hospital care.

COURSES :

* Orientation Clerkship (Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Practice)
* Medicine Clerkship (includes Radiology)
* Surgery Clerkship
* Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship
* Family Practice Clerkship
* Pediatrics Clerkship
* Psychiatry Clerkship
* Comprehensive Care Case Study III
* Health, Care and Society III
* Nutrition III

FOURTH YEAR

In the fourth year, students rotate on hospital based clerkships that prepare them for residency and practice. During both the third and fourth years, basic science material is revisited in the context of the student's clinical experience.

COURSES :

* Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach
* Emergency Medicine
* Neurology/Ophthalmology
* Critical Care
* Primary Care Selective: choice of one from Family Practice, Medicine, Pediatrics, or Surgery.

Students participate in a Journal Club over the entire four years of study. The Journal Club introduces students to methods of searching for information and information management and helps them to develop the critical analytical skills necessary to evaluate the ever-growing medical literature.

The Albany Medical College curriculum is a partnership between full-time faculty, inner-city, rural and community voluntary faculty and the academic resources of the Capital Region.

The training of medical students presents "occupational hazards," such as exposure to infectious organisms, contact with patients having contagious diseases and, more rarely, contact with potentially violent patients. The "risks" of medical education are assumed by each student. The College faculty and administration insure that the students are prepared to deal with these hazards and are instructed about precautions that will minimize their exposure to contagious diseases and environmental hazards.

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