Alpert Medical School: An Overview

Since granting its first MD degrees in 1975, Alpert Medical School has become a national leader in medical education and biomedical research. By attracting first-class physicians and researchers to Rhode Island over the past three decades, the Medical School and its seven affiliated hospitals have radically improved the state's health care environment, from health care policy to patient care. The Medical School is home to Rhode Island's first and only master of public health degree program and to nine active, nationally renowned public-health research centers.

The Medical School awards approximately 90 Doctor of Medicine degrees each year. Students are admitted to the School through a variety of pathways: the standard route, open to all qualified graduates of any college or university; the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), an eight-year program that combines undergraduate study in any concentration at Brown with professional studies in medicine; the Early Identification Program, whereby promising sophomores from three Rhode Island colleges and Tougaloo College are offered admission to the Medical School; the MD/PhD program, for students who wish to pursue a career in academic medicine and biomedical research; and premedical postbaccalaureate programs with Goucher College, Bryn Mawr College, and Columbia University. This variety results in a student body of unusual diversity in terms of life experience, age, and ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic background.

Brown has created an administrative structure - the Division of Biology and Medicine - that promotes the intellectual integration of the biological and medical sciences and offers students opportunities to develop flexible, individualized studies. The basic science curriculum is taught on the University campus, while the majority of the clinical departments are housed in the seven affiliated hospitals; most clinical teaching is hospital- or community-based. The Division of Biology and Medicine comprises the Program in Biology (five basic science departments), the Medical School (14 clinical departments), and the Program in Public Health.

The Division and its teaching hospital partners attract $200 million in external research funding per year.

Mission

Alpert Medical School is a community of scholars dedicated to the highest standards of excellence in education, research, and health care. Our mission is to educate physicians in the scientific, ethical, humanistic, and socially responsible dimensions of medicine and to advance the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent human illness.

Goals

To accomplish its mission, Alpert Medical School strives to:

• build on the strengths of Brown University to offer a program of premedical and medical studies encompassing the sciences and humanities.
• provide a comprehensive medical education at all levels, based on a meaningful integration of the basic sciences with the clinical disciplines.
• foster innovative approaches to medical education, based on collegial interaction between students and faculty.
• support research at the forefront of basic science, clinical medicine, medical education, health care delivery, and public health policy.
• provide an environment that sustains and fosters collaborative interaction between basic and clinical scientists.
• facilitate transfer of new discoveries and technology to enhance patient care and health care delivery.
• promote a standard of excellence in health care in Rhode Island and southeastern New England through the development of a community of researchers and health care providers.
• encourage our students and faculty to participate in and assume leadership roles in their scientific and medical communities so as to advance the quality of health care.
• respond to the needs of increasingly diverse student, faculty, physician, and patient populations as the Medical School prepares to meet the challenges of an ever changing health care environment.

Educational Philosophy

Alpert Medical School has two major goals for its graduates: that they be broadly and liberally educated men and women, and that they view medicine as a socially responsible human service profession.

We seek students who regard medicine as a noble profession rather than a trade to be learned, as a humanitarian pursuit, as well as a scholarly discipline, and as a unique lifetime experience. Our graduates must be scientifically well-educated, and also capable of approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, drawing upon the methods of analysis of the humanist, the social scientist, and the behavioral scientist. We intend that our students follow in the altruistic tradition of medicine, placing the welfare of their patients and society above self-interest. We teach our students to view the boundaries of medicine to be wide, encompassing all of the factors that lead to human disease, including those of a social, cultural, and economic nature. We exhort our students to act upon these values by engaging themselves actively in the community, exerting leadership by responding to the needs of those they serve.

In pursuit of these goals, Brown has integrated premedical and medical education into an eight-year program to ensure that M.D. recipients from Brown will have been exposed to a wide, sensitizing view of the human condition from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The result is a "liberal" medical education supported by the entire faculty of a great University from which the Medical School derives its name.

These goals require significant departures from convention in both the process and anticipated outcome of medical education. Problem-solving experience based on real-world issues is an important pedagogical requirement; the social sciences and humanities assume greater importance; measures of outcome, including values and attitudes as well as knowledge and skill, become more relevant than conventional course requirements; and communication skills across cultures, ages and socioeconomic barriers must be honed. This is our educational mission. To that end we pledge those resources necessary for its attainment.

Alpert Medical School Physician's Oath

Now being admitted to the high calling of the physician, I solemnly pledge to dedicate my life to the care of the sick, the promotion of health and the service of humanity.

In the spirit of those who have inspired and taught me, I will seek constantly to grow in knowledge, understanding and skill and will work with my colleagues to promote all that is worthy in the ancient and honorable profession of medicine.

The health and dignity of my patient will ever be my first concern. I will hold in confidence all that my patient relates to me. I will not permit consideration of race, gender, sexual preference, religion, nationality or social standing to come between me and my duty to anyone in need of my services. This pledge I make freely and upon my honor.

Written by the MD Class of 1975

Fast facts

MD students: 344
Residents and fellows: 788
Faculty: 2,105

6% of Medical School alumni are Medical School faculty.
15% of Rhode Island physicians earned their medical degree at Alpert Medical School.

FY04 external research funding (Division): $55.4 million
FY04 external research funding (Division and hospitals): $150.3 million