School of Medicine
The School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in 1993 celebrates 150 years of excellence as an institution with a blend of tradition and an ever-renewing quest for knowledge. The largest biomedical research institution in Ohio, the school's reputation reaches throughout the world as a provider of an outstanding medical education and as an innovative research center. The school from the beginning has been on the forefront of medical education, research, and health care delivery.
Added to Western Reserve College as a medical department in 1843, its first building, erected in 1846, was located in downtown Cleveland. In 1915, a 20-acre site was secured for a medical center in University Circle, the current home of Case Western Reserve University, the School of Medicine and three of its affiliated hospitals, University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Mt. Sinai Medical Center.
University Circle today is also the home of many of the country's outstanding cultural and educational institutions.
In 1924, the School of Medicine moved into the most modern and best equipped preclinical science building in the country at that time. That building, donated by Cleveland industrialist Samuel Mather, remains an integral part of the medical school complex.
In 1971, the Health Sciences Center was completed to house the CWRU Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing and the Health Sciences Library. The proximity of these excellent research and educational centers to the prestigious CWRU departments, including science, engineering and social sciences, stimulates uniquely creative interaction among researchers and educators.
Another giant leap in research capabilities came at the end of 1992, when the biomedical research building was occupied. The $68 million building, adjacent to the original School of Medicine, added 154,000 square feet of research space and include parking facilities and a dining area.
The School of Medicine is affiliated with University Hospitals of Cleveland; the MetroHealth System, including the MetroHealth Medical Center; Saint Luke's Medical Center; the Mt. Sinai Medical Center; Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.
A 1992 agreement with University Hospitals of Cleveland set the stage for the development of a city-wide academic medical center involving the School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. The academic medical center will assist participating institutions in obtaining support from federal and other sources of funding as well as facilitate joint efforts among these hospitals.
CWRU has been a leader in the education of physicians from its earliest days. Before the turn of the century, the school was one of the first medical schools in the country to employ instructors devoted to full-time teaching and research. Six of the first seven women to receive medical degrees from recognized American medical schools graduated from Western Reserve University between 1850 and 1856. Today more than half of the students are female, and CWRU is among the top nine schools in the education of minority medical students. The School of Medicine is among the top five in the country for faculty size.
By 1902, Abraham Flexner, who made an extensive study of American medical schools, reported that Western Reserve was second only to the Johns Hopkins University as the best medical school in the country. Since then, four Abraham Flexner Awards for Distinguished Service to Medical Education, more than at any other medical school, have been awarded to CWRU educators by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Already a leading educational institution for more than a century, CWRU in 1952 initiated the most advanced medical curriculum in the country, pioneering "integrated education" and "team teaching." It changed to a pass/fail system of grading, while maintaining student confidentiality, introduced students to clinical work and patients almost as soon as they arrived on campus, and provided free, unscheduled time when that concept was unthinkable.
Drs. Joseph T. Wearn, T. Hale Ham, and John L. Caughey, Jr., received Flexner Awards for developing and implementing that curriculum, which still is basically in effect. Also winning a Flexner award was Dean Emeritus Frederick C. Robbins, M.D., who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his work on poliovirus. After a five-year term as president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Robbins returned to CWRU as dean emeritus and university professor emeritus. He remains active in international health, policy issues, concerns of children and immunology.
While acknowledging its history with pride, the school continues its leadership role in education, research and patient care. Significant characteristics of the School of Medicine include the quality and quantity of faculty committed to education, the participation of clinicians in the basic science education, the sound institutional situation and the constant striving for excellence in education. Equally important to the educational process are the remarkably mature, diverse and well-qualified students who are supportive of the educational program and who are self-motivated. Their educational experience is complemented by the unique academic ambiance of the school.
Keeping in the forefront of national requirements for more physicians in the generalist fields of general medicine, family medicine and pediatrics, the school is presently implementing a seven-year generalist physician initiative.
The educational outreach of the faculty encompasses 600 medical students, 700 house officers at the affiliated hospitals, 170 Ph.D. students, and more than 4,000 physicians throughout northern Ohio through its extensive Continuing Medical Education (CME) program.
The School of Medicine has more than 5,000 living alumni and ranks third (behind Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania) among the nation's medical schools in the number of graduates holding academic positions.
As a research institution, the School of Medicine also has a tradition of national leadership. Currently, the school ranks 22nd among the nation's 126 medical schools with a total funded research budget of more than $90 million, of which nearly $70 million is from the National Institutes of Health.
From pioneering drug therapies for Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to understanding the molecular basis for parasitic diseases prevalent in developing countries, the school has become a world-class center of biomedical research.
The large and diversified research program at the school is the result of the conviction that exemplary research is a prerequisite for the preservation of excellence in the education of both physicians and Ph.D. scientists. Included in the list of outstanding alumni and faculty are six Nobel Prize holders. In addition to Dr. Frederick Robbins, they are:
- Dr. John J.R. McLeod, who shared the 1923 prize in physiology for the discovery of insulin;
- Dr. Corneille Heymans, who received his prize in 1938 for work on carotid sinus reflexes;
- Dr. Earl W. Sutherland, M.D., who won the 1972 prize in physiology for research in cyclic AMP;
- Dr. Paul Berg, Ph.D., who received the 1980 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for recombinant DNA technology; and
- Dr. George Hitchings, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for his contributions in developing drugs to treat leukemia, organ transplant rejections, the herpes virus and AIDS-related infections.
Among researchers who have been at the School of Medicine during its history are a pioneer in the use of chlorinated water, a leader in the understanding of hypertension, the first physician to defibrillate a human heart, another who produced landmark research leading to the prevention of rheumatic fever, and one who identified the threat of AIDS to hemophiliacs. It was a CWRU faculty member who had the first super-conducting magnetic resonance imaging device in a hospital setting. A cystic fibrosis center that became a model for the nation was established at CWRU-affiliated University Hospitals of Cleveland.
Today, the basic science departments are directed toward the revolution in molecular and genetic research that is characteristic of medicine. They combine this expertise with that of the exceptional clinical departments as well as with other academic units of the university, including biology, chemistry, law and management. The School of Medicine has an interdisciplinary research program that is making significant contributions to understanding the relationship between events within the cell and their manifestations within the body. The ultimate goal is to translate scientific knowledge as quickly as possible into effective prevention of disease and improved patient care.
The School of Medicine also serves the northern Ohio community in many ways. Primarily, it is a critical link between scientific discovery and the delivery of health care to the community. The school's faculty provide 90 percent of the indigent health care in Cuyahoga County and a majority of the care for indigent patients in Ohio.
The School of Medicine's commitment to the community has increased by creation of the Institute for Public Health involving The MetroHealth System and the School of Medicine. This program includes research into the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of health problems in groups and communities and educational programs for medical and graduate students, physicians and other health care personnel.
Current community-based programs, including the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) state and national award-winning Cleveland Health Education Program, offer opportunities for students from several CWRU undergraduate and professional schools, especially medicine, to interact with students in the Cleveland public schools and with the community at large.
A major economic influence on the northern Ohio area, the School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals, which have an annual expenditure of more than $1 billion, are among the largest employers of personnel in the area and further stimulate the economy by providing concepts for technology transfer to the business sector.
On the global level, the School of Medicine has an international health program focusing on AIDS, parasitic diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases that directly threaten world health.
The dean of the School of Medicine and CWRU vice president for medical affairs is responsible for the administration of the school and for the university's relationships with affiliated hospitals, medical health-related agencies and institutions, and community health care, education, and research programs involving the faculty of the School of Medicine. The holder of that position reports to the president of the university.
The chairpersons of university departments are delegated administrative responsibility in their respective areas and report to the dean.
The faculty of the School of Medicine, through the Faculty Council, is responsible for planning and implementing educational programs and formulating policies with regard to student affairs and general policy.
ADMINISTRATION
Neil S. Cherniack, M.D. (State University of New York--Brooklyn)
Dean
James J. McGovern, Ph.D. (New York University)
Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs and Vice Dean
David P. Stevens, M.D. (Case Western Reserve University)
Vice Dean
Murray D. Altose, M.D. (University of Manitoba, Canada)
Associate Dean for Veterans Affairs Hospitals
David R. Bickers, M.D. (University of Virginia)
Associate Dean for University Hospitals of Cleveland
Amasa B. Ford, M.D. (Harvard University)
Associate Dean for Geriatric Medicine
Albert C. Kirby, Ph.D. (University of Illinois)
Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs
Michael J. Mahoney, J.D. (Harvard Law School)
Associate Dean for Institutional Affairs
Mary Lou Miller, M.D., Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve University)
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
James L. Phillips, M.D. (Case Western Reserve University)
Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Minority Programs
Philip W. Hall III, M.D. (Case Western Reserve University)
Director of Curriculum Administration
Sally A. Schaeffer
Registrar
Faculty members from the following departments and programs are listed within the department descriptions:
CWRU Provost's Office --
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