Before his death in 1873, Baltimore financier and philanthropist Johns Hopkins appointed a 12-member board of trustees to carry out his vision for a university and hospital that would be linked to each other by a medical school, which was at the time a radical idea.
Construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital began in 1877 with the razing of the site formerly occupied by the city's mental asylum, and took twelve years to complete. By the time the hospital opened in 1889, only six of the original twelve trustees appointed by Hopkins were still alive. Despite having already recruited the necessary faculty, the board no longer had enough funds to establish the medical school.[11]
Four of the original trustee's daughters, led byMary Elizabeth Garrett, started a nationwide fundraising campaign to secure funding for the medical school. The campaign was stipulated on the condition that the remaining trustees agree to open the medical school to both men and women, as women were generally excluded from medical education in the 1890s. When the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine officially opened its doors in 1893, there were three women in its first class.[12]
According to theFlexner Report, Hopkins has served as the model for American medical education.[16]
Its major teaching hospital, theJohns Hopkins Hospital, was ranked the top hospital in the United States every year from 1991 to 2011 byU.S. News & World Report.[17] In 2024,U.S. News & World Report ranked Hopkins #2 medical school in the U.S. for Research, and #92 for Primary Care.U.S. News also ranked Hopkins #1 in Anesthesiology, #1 in Internal Medicine, #2 in Obstetrics and Gynecology, #4 in Pediatrics, #3 in Psychiatry, tied at #3 in Radiology, and #1 in Surgery.[18][19]
Uponmatriculation, medical students at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are divided into four colleges named after Hopkins faculty members who have had an impact in the history of medicine,Florence Sabin,Vivien Thomas,Daniel Nathans, andHelen Taussig. The colleges were established in 2005.[20]
In each incoming class, 30 students are assigned to each college, and each college is further subdivided into six molecules of five students each. Each molecule is advised and taught by a faculty advisor, who instructs them in Clinical Foundations of Medicine, a core first-year course, and continues advising them throughout their four years of medical school. The family within each college of each molecule across the four years who belong to a given advisor is referred to as amacromolecule. Every year, the colleges compete in the "College Olympics" in late October, a competition that includes athletic events and sports, as well as art battles anddance-offs.[21]
As of 2024, 29 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins University as faculty, fellows, residents, or graduates, with 17 out of the 29 being associated with the School of Medicine specifically, including 15 out of the university's 18 laureates for theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and 2 out of the university's 6 laureates for theNobel Prize in Chemistry. Two laureates,Peter Agre andGregg Semenza, are current faculty at the School of Medicine.[22]
Peter Pronovost, former anesthesiology faculty,Time 100 in 2008, authored over 800 articles and book chapters on patient safety, advisor to theWorld Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety
In July 2024, businessman and formerNew York City mayorMichael Bloomberg announced a $1 billion gift to his alma mater Johns Hopkins University to make tuition free for all medical school students whose families make under $300,000 a year, beginning in the fall of 2024.[28][29]
The ABC documentary seriesHopkins takes a look at the life of the medical staff and students of theJohns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.[30] This new series is a sequel to the 2000 ABC specialHopkins 24/7. BothHopkins andHopkins 24/7 were awarded the Peabody Award.[31]
The movieSomething the Lord Made is the story of two men – an ambitious white surgeon, head of surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a gifted black carpenter turned lab technician – who defied the racial strictures of the Jim Crow South and together pioneered the field of heart surgery.[32]
^Stewart, RW; Barker, AR; Shochet, RB; Wright, SM (2007). "The new and improved learning community at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine resembles that at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry".Medical Teacher.29 (4):353–7.doi:10.1080/01421590701477423.PMID17786750.S2CID34265553.
