Harvard Medical School

About Harvard Medical School

Since the School was established in 1782, faculty members have improved human health by innovating in their roles as physicians, mentors and scholars. They’ve piloted educational models, developed new curricula to address emerging needs in health care, and produced thousands of leaders and compassionate caregivers who are shaping the fields of science and medicine throughout the world with their expertise and passion.

Our Mission

To nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.

Welcome to Harvard Medical School

​Harvard Medical School’s core mission is to educate students and seed the fields of science and medicine with inspirational leaders.

Established in 1782, the School has produced generations of physicians whose life's work is to care for patients with skill, compassion and integrity. HMS graduates also embrace opportunities to have a broader impact on biomedicine. Some alumni, for example, bring new insights to disease through research while others champion solutions to seemingly intractable policy problems. The emphasis on leadership development extends to the School’s graduate programs, which foster profound discovery through classroom and laboratory instruction.

Overview of the MD Curriculum - Pathways & HST

Pathways incorporates pedagogical approaches that foster active learning and critical thinking, earlier clinical experience, advanced clinical and basic/population science experiences, and a scholarly project that will allow every student to plan an individual pathway to the MD degree.

HST is offered jointly by HMS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is oriented toward students with a declared interest in a career in biomedical research or a strong interest and background in physical or molecular science. The HST curriculum is designed to emphasize basic and quantitative understanding of modern biomedical sciences and pathophysiologic processes and a fundamental approach to important concepts in modern biology and biotechnology.

Pathways

Pathways incorporates pedagogical approaches that foster active learning and critical thinking; earlier clinical experience; and advanced clinical and student-tailored basic/population science experiences that will provide customized pathways for every student.

In the Pathways curriculum, the core basic/population science needed to succeed in clinical clerkships is taught prior to the core clinical year, while the more advanced science that is more relevant after intensive clinical experience follows completion of the core clinical clerkships. The third and fourth years focus on advanced scientific and clinical experiences: selective courses in basic/translational science, social/population science, pharmacology, and medical humanities; individual, faculty-mentored scholarly projects; clinical electives and subinternships; and Steps 1 and 2 of the national boards.

Preclerkship Phase 

The Pathways curriculum begins with the foundational building blocks to study medicine, including fundamentals of anatomy, histology, biochemistry, and molecular and cellular biology; genetics; immunology; and introductory pharmacologic principles; the fundamental social and population sciences – health care policy, social medicine, clinical epidemiology and population health, and medical ethics and professionalism; organ-system-based modules focused on structure and function and normal and abnormal processes for each organ system; and a longitudinal clinical course, integrated with the basic and social science courses, during which students learn the fundamentals of patient-doctor communication, the physical exam, the dynamics of working in clinical teams and systems, and the process of developing a differential diagnosis.

Principal Clinical Experience (PCE) Phase

The Principal Clinical Experience (PCE), a 12-month integrated program of study, provides a clinical base for exposure to the broad disciplines of medicine and experiences essential to credentialing as a licensed physician. The PCE occurs primarily at a single hospital site and is comprised of clerkship rotations lasting 4-12 weeks and supplemented by a longitudinal multidisciplinary curriculum that incorporates primary care experiences, mentoring, multi-disciplinary clinical science case conferences, and developing physician sessions.

Health Sciences & Technology

Founded in 1970, the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) is one of the world’s oldest interdisciplinary educational programs focused on translational medical science and engineering.
HST is an inter-institutional collaboration between Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and MIT, dedicated to fostering academic excellence, scientific rigor and clinical expertise.
HST has two educational tracks, one leading to the MD degree from Harvard Medical School, and the other to the PhD degree in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from MIT or Harvard University. HST graduates are committed to leadership and innovation in academic careers across medicine, basic and translational research and the social sciences.
The preclerkship curriculum in the MD program at HST is composed of concurrent, semester-long offerings allowing creative interactions between courses—as well as reinforcement of important concepts from different perspectives. There is also an interconnected curriculum called the Growth of the Physician-Scientist (GPS) woven throughout the first pre-clinical year designed to address the specific challenges of combining a career that balances clinical medicine, research and family.
Students engage in translational research projects, collaborating with Harvard and MIT faculty drawn from across departments and disciplines to develop preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic innovations. The research opportunities in HST are legion, spanning the entire academic landscape from Cambridge to Boston, and offering laboratory experiences in engineering, wet-bench investigation and computational research. Students on the four-year track typically spend a minimum of 4-6 months working on a research project; some HST students elect to take either an additional full-time year of supported research (typically occurs after the second year of the MD curriculum) or to affiliate and enter a PhD program.
We believe every class, every clinical and research experience and every student we welcome should work toward a single goal: to use basic science, social science and engineering to advance human health.

Preclerkship Phase

During the first two years, HST MD students build a deep understanding of the medical sciences and lay the groundwork for further exploration. Students explore the complex mechanics of human biology, study the technical underpinnings of healthcare and gain a fundamental knowledge of molecular biology, biotechnology, engineering and the physical sciences. Students also explore the human side of medical science, meeting with a variety of patients in classroom and clinical settings. Courses are taught in groups of 30-50 students (including HST PhD students), with small group (4-8 students) case-based exercises, problem-solving sessions and laboratory experiences. A detailed curriculum map can be found here.
In the first year, HST MD students join their Pathways colleagues in early August for Introduction to the Profession (ITP), and in January for the Essentials course, where they study social and population sciences including health care policy, social medicine and medical ethics. HST MD students are also joined in the classroom by their peers from HST’s PhD Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) program. Together these two cohorts study side-by-side gaining a deep understanding of the biomedical sciences, a strong quantitative foundation and extensive hands-on clinical experience in Boston-area hospitals.
Students will also conduct research in a lab at MIT, Harvard or one of the teaching hospitals, building expertise and learning from a thriving community of researchers, educators and fellow students.
Beginning in April of the second year, HST students join their classmates from the Pathways MD track in clinical clerkships and electives, gaining valuable real-world experience in a clinical setting.

Principal Clinical Experience (PCE)

The PCE is a 12-month integrated program of study, and provides a clinical base for exposure to the broad disciplines of medicine and experiences essential to credentialing as a licensed physician. The PCE occurs primarily at a single hospital site and is comprised of clerkship rotations lasting 4-12 weeks and supplemented by a longitudinal multidisciplinary curriculum that incorporates primary care experiences, mentoring, multi-disciplinary clinical science case conferences, and developing physician sessions.

Community & Research

Members of the Harvard Medical School community have also excelled in the research arena. Faculty members have been making paradigm-shifting discoveries and achieving “firsts” since 1799, when HMS Professor Benjamin Waterhouse introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States. Their accomplishments are recognized internationally, and, in fact, 15 researchers have shared in nine Nobel prizes for work completed while at the School.
The Faculty of Medicine includes more than 11,000 individuals working to advance the boundaries of knowledge in labs, classrooms and clinics. The School’s main quadrangle in Boston houses nearly 200 tenured and tenure-track faculty members in basic and social science departments as well as in classrooms where students spend their first two years of medical school.
But teaching and research extend beyond the Quad. Harvard Medical School has affiliation agreements with 15 of the world’s most prestigious hospitals and research institutes, vital partners that provide clinical care and training. They also serve as home base for more than 10,000 physicians and scientists with faculty appointments.
With its vast reservoir of talent, extensive network of affiliates and commitment to problem solving, Harvard Medical School is uniquely positioned to steer education and research in directions that will benefit local, national and global communities.

HMS By the Numbers

• Total faculty: 12,202
• Tenured and tenure-track faculty on the HMS campus in 11 preclinical departments: 193
• Voting faculty on campus and at affiliates: 6,487
• Full-time faculty on campus and at affiliates: 10,175
• Nobel Prizes (cumulative) in Medicine or Physiology, Peace: 10 prizes, 16 recipients
• National Academy of Medicine members (current): 165
• National Academy of Sciences members (current): 85
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (current): 40
  • Investigators: 36
  • Faculty Scholars: 3
  • Professor: 1
• Total MD students: 702
• Total PhD students: 888 (886 HMS, 2 HSDM)
• MD-PhD students: 192: basic sciences 164, social sciences 28 (total included in MD and PhD counts)
• Total DMD students: 142
• Total master's students: 457 (410 HMS, 47 HSDM)
• Total DMSc students: 36
• Trainees: (residents and postdoctoral fellows): 8,839

Students

Entering MD students, 2021

• MD (includes 16 MD–PhD students): 164
• Applicants: 8,002
• Admitted: 222 (2.8%)
• Men: 79 (48%)
• Women: 83 (51%)
• Different identity: 2 (>1%)
• Underrepresented in medicine (African American, Native American, Hispanic, Mexican American): 38 (23%)
• Asian: 58 (35%)

Additional entering students, 2021

• PhD: 133
• DMD: 35
• Master's: 284 (270 HMS, 14 HSDM)
• DMSc: 11
• Additional joint-degree programs: MD-MAD, MD-MMSc, MD-MBA, MD-MPH, MD-MPP
• Medical school living alumni: 10,822 (MD and master's)

As of September 2021
Source: https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms