Founded in 1860, New York Medical College (known colloquially as "NYMC" or "New York Med"), a member of the Touro College and University System, is a private biomedical health sciences university based in Valhalla, New York, in Westchester County in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York state just 13 miles north of New York City. It is the only biomedical health sciences and research university between New York City and the state capital of Albany, New York.
Overview
NYMC offers advanced degrees through its three schools: the School of Medicine (SOM), the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences (GSBMS) and the School of Health Sciences and Practice (SHSP). Total enrollment is 1,660 students (including 774 medical students) in addition to 800 residents and clinical fellows. NYMC employs 1,350 full-time faculty members and 1,450 part-time and voluntary faculty. The university has more than 12,000 alumni active in medical practice, healthcare administration, public health, teaching and research.
Part of the Touro College and University System since 2011, New York Medical College is located on a shared suburban 600-acre campus with its academic medical center, Westchester Medical Center (WMC) and the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. Many of NYMC’s faculty provide patient care, teach, and conduct research at WMC. New York Medical College's university hospital, Metropolitan Hospital Center, located in the Upper East side neighborhood of Yorkville and East Harlem in Manhattan, has been affiliated with NYMC since it was founded in 1875, representing the oldest partnership between a hospital and a private medical school in the United States. Metropolitan is part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the largest municipal hospital and healthcare system in the country.
With a network of 20+ affiliated hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and West Virginia, NYMC's hospital affiliations include large urban medical centers, small suburban clinics, rural medical centers and high-tech regional tertiary care facilities, where medical students and residents are afforded a wide variety of clinical training opportunities.
History
New York Medical College owes its founding in 1860 to a group of civic leaders who believed that medical studies should be practiced with a better understanding of what the patient needs. This group of civic leaders was led by the noted poet William Cullen Bryant who was an editor of the New York Evening Post. Bryant was concerned about the condition of hospitals and medical education in New York City. His main concern was with some of the medical practices being used to treat disease, which at the time included bleedings, purges, and the administration of strong drugs in too large doses.
Interest in the medical field rapidly grew over the next few years due to the United States Civil War, which generated a major need for health related occupations. As a result, the college was founded and opened as the Homeopathic Medical College of the State of New York on the corner of 20th Street and Third Avenue, near Union Square in Manhattan. In the first semester there were 59 students and 8 professors. The college adopted the name New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1869 and, in 1887, New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital.
The sister institution known as the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women was founded a few years later in 1863 by Clemence Lozier. In 1867, it graduated Emily Stowe, the first female physician to practice in Canada. Three years later in 1870, Susan McKinney Steward graduated as the first African-American female physician in New York State. When the Women's College closed in 1918, its students transferred to New York Medical College.
In 1875, Metropolitan Hospital Center opened as a municipal facility on Ward’s Island, staffed largely by the faculty of New York Medical College. As a university hospital of New York Medical College, this relationship is among the nation’s oldest continuing affiliations between a private medical school and a public hospital.
Built by New York Medical College in 1889, the Flower Free Surgical Hospital, was the first teaching hospital in the United States to be owned by a medical college. It was constructed at York Avenue and 63rd Street with funds given largely by Congressman Roswell P. Flower, later governor of New York. In 1908 the College changed its name to New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital. In 1928 the College was the first medical school in the nation to establish a minority scholarship program. By 1935, the College had transferred its outpatient activities to the Fifth Avenue Hospital at Fifth Avenue and 106th Street. The College (including Flower Hospital) and Fifth Avenue Hospital merged in 1938 and became New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals.
In 1972, New York Medical College moved to Valhalla, at the invitation of the Westchester County government, which desired to build an academic medical center. Completed in 1977, Westchester Medical Center is currently the main academic medical center of the College. The College became affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in 1978, which helped provide financial stability and also established a shared commitment for the public good in the area of health care and the health sciences. The College recognized itself in the Catholic tradition and affiliated with several Catholic hospitals. When Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital closed in 1979, the remaining operations of New York Medical College were transferred to the Valhalla campus. The college shortened its name to New York Medical College in 1982, and obtained university status in 1984 by the New York State Department of Education.
In 2010, the NYMC community proudly celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of NYMC with a year full of sesquicentennial celebration activities. In that same year, it was announced that Touro College, a Jewish-sponsored institution in Manhattan had reached an agreement to assume the sponsorship role for New York Medical College from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. In a ceremony held at Bryant Park in New York City on May 25, 2011, New York Medical College officially joined the Touro College and University System creating one of the largest health sciences universities in the country. New York Medical College embraces its unique history in having been a secular institution to an institution in the Roman Catholic tradition, to now being part of a Jewish-sponsored institution of higher education.
In 2011, St. Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey and Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York were designated as affiliates. Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey; Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York; and the Beckley Department of Veterans Affairs in Beckley, West Virginia, also joined NYMC in 2014 as academic affiliates adding to the breadth and diversity of clinical experiences for students and residents.
In 2013, NYMC acquired former IBM headquarters, 19 Skyline Drive, a 250,000 square foot, five-story building providing essential space for offices and new programs. In addition, NYMC acquired 7 Dana Road and has renovated it into a state-of-the-art biotechnology incubator (BioInc@NYMC) and Clinical Skills and Disaster Medicine Training Center.
In 2016, whimsical caricatures were added along the campus walkway. NYMC restored statues that were originally part of the children’s wing of Grasslands Hospital (known today as NYMC’s Sunshine Cottage Administration Building). The statues, along with the animal adornments on the building itself, were created to raise the spirits of sick children who were once treated here. The statues are thought to have been modeled after characters in English author Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The statues live along the walkway that leads to Dana Road.
On June 8, 2017, New York Medical College opened the Center of Excellence in Precision Responses to Bioterrorism and Disasters. The center is the twelfth center of excellence in the state of New York, and the first in the Hudson Valley. The goal of the center is to maximize efficiency and effectiveness immediately after high-casualty events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters by improving resources provided to first responders. Additionally, the center provides training for responses to terror attacks and natural disasters, as well as researches response techniques to chemical and biological terror challenges. State Senator Terrence Murphy, a major supporter of state funding for the center, said the center "gives the region a vitally needed local resource to fight terrorism and potentially protect the lives of first responders and our families."
After Empire State Development, New York state’s economic development organization, designated the facility as a center of excellence, New York Medical College received a state grant of $500,000 for costs associated with operations. Explaining New York’s goal for the center, Dr. Robert W. Amler, dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice, said, "The state wants to bring innovation technology into each region in a way that will stimulate more outside investment from the federal government and private resources." In the future, New York Medical College, through the center, aims to achieve full development of an "austere medicine" training facility for first responders, including scenarios they will likely encounter in reality, like active shooter threats, fires, and car accidents. In this aspect of training, trainees must encounter smoke, fog, loud noises, explosion simulations, and a variety of other disorienting effects.
Schools
Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences (GSBMS)
The College's involvement in graduate education dates back to 1910, when its records show the existence of advanced courses and research programs. Graduate courses in surgery and medicine were offered in the 1920s. In 1938, the College's charter was amended to include the authority to offer graduate degrees. In 1963, the Graduate School of Medical Sciences was officially founded, establishing for the first time a center for graduate education separate from the medical curriculum. The school was renamed the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences in 1969.
The GSBMS prepares future researchers, teachers, senior-level scientists and technicians to work in academia and industry. It is located in the Basic Sciences Building along with facilities of the School of Medicine. The graduate school has approximately 150 enrolled students and 90 faculty members.
Doctoral (Ph.D.) and masters (MS) programs are available in the fields of cell biology & anatomy, biochemistry & molecular biology, pharmacology, pathology, physiology, and microbiology & immunology. The Graduate School offers an Accelerated Masters Program (AMP) intended for prospective medical school applicants and a M.D./Ph.D. dual degree program for current and prospective medical students.
School of Health Sciences and Practice (SHSP)
The School of Health Sciences and Practice began in 1981 as the Graduate School of Health Sciences, located at Vosburgh Pavilion near the School of Medicine and Westchester Medical Center. Student enrollment is approximately 500 with 221 faculty members (150 full-time).
The SHSP offers accredited programs in public health (MPH, DrPH), speech language pathology (MS), and doctor of physical therapy (DPT). Doctoral students may pursue a dual degree (M.D./MPH) or joint degree (DPT/MPH) at significantly reduced cost.
Students in the Master of Public Health program may major in Behavioral Sciences & Health Promotion, Epidemiology, Environmental Health Science, or Health Policy & Management, or Biostatistics.
The School of Health Sciences and Practice also offers graduate certificates in the following areas: Global Health, Public Health, Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES-accredited), Industrial Hygiene, Management of Long-Term Care Facilities, Children with Special Health Care Needs (Center on Disability and Health), and Emergency Preparedness (Center for Disaster Medicine).
School of Medicine (SOM)
Founded in 1860, the School of Medicine at New York Medical College is one of the oldest in the nation. It is the largest of the three graduate schools, awarding approximately 190 Doctor of Medicine degrees per year. Students have the opportunity to earn dual degrees such as M.D./M.P.H., M.D./M.S. or M.D./Ph.D. in the School of Health Sciences and Practice or Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences
The School of Medicine has 774 actively enrolled students (31% in-state) along with 2,944 faculty members serving in 6 basic science and 20 clinical departments. Grading is Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail. On-campus housing is provided for most preclinical students in furnished, unfurnished, single or married configurations.
The medical school has adopted the multiple mini interview system as well as the CASPer test, both developed by McMaster University Medical School to select students for admissions.
For the past several years, the passing rate for the USMLE Step 1 exam was between 99 and 100%, above the national average. To date, 13,270 physicians have graduated from the School of Medicine with 97% being board certified. Approximately 917 School of Medicine graduates currently serve on an American medical school faculty, including 18 department chairs.
Affiliated hospitals and organizations
The New York Medical College has more hospitals ranked in the top 20 than any other University in the tri-state area. Located on campus, Westchester Medical Center University Hospital is the main academic medical center of New York Medical College School of Medicine. It is ranked among the top five hospitals in New York State for bariatric surgery, and is one of only 25 hospitals in the nation to receive the American Heart Association's 2008 Triple Performance Award. Westchester Medical Center also boasts the highest case mix index of all hospitals in the United States.
A significant portion of the medical school class relocates to New York City for clinical rotations, for which the primary site is Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan. Housing is provided for rotations that are further from the main campus, such as those in Connecticut, New Jersey or Staten Island.
New York Medical College is affiliated with the following hospitals and health care organizations for graduate and undergraduate medical education:
Westchester and upstate New York
- Westchester Medical Center (University Hospital)
- Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital (University Hospital)
- Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, Sleepy Hollow
- Keller Army Community Hospital, West Point
- Saint Joseph's Medical Center, Yonkers
- VA Hudson Valley Health Care System, Montrose
New York City
- Metropolitan Hospital Center (University Hospital) (Manhattan)
- Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center (Brooklyn)
- Calvary Hospital (Bronx, Brooklyn)
- Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, (Queens)
- Lenox Hill Hospital (Manhattan)
- Richmond University Medical Center (Staten Island)"
- Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center (Manhattan)
- Wyckoff Heights Medical Center (Brooklyn)
Connecticut
- Greenwich Hospital
- Norwalk Hospital
- St. Vincent's Medical Center (Bridgeport)
New Jersey
- Hoboken University Medical Center, Hoboken
- St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, Paterson
- Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark
West Virginia
- Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Beckley
Ambulatory Care Programs
- Center for Comprehensive Health Practice
- Westchester Institute for Human Development
- Open Door Family Medical Centers
Matriculation and residency match
Medical students are selected from colleges and universities across the country and the first-year class typically arrives with an average composite MCAT score of 32 and an average GPA of 3.6.
The class of 2015 matched into the following specialties:
- Internal Medicine 43
- Pediatrics 23
- Radiology-Diagnostic 27
- Anesthesiology 19
- Emergency Medicine 18
- Family Medicine 9
- Psychiatry 11
- Surgery-General 10
- Orthopaedic Surgery 7
- Obstetrics and Gynecology 11
- Neurology 6
- Ophthalmology 3
- Neurological Surgery 1
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2
- Radiation Oncology Transitional 2
- Radiation Oncology Urology 2
- Otolaryngology 4
- Pathology-Anatomic and Clinical 1
- Vascular Surgery 2
Notable alumni
- Ronald L. Arenson, M.D. â€" Alexander R. Margulis Distinguished Professor & Chairman, Department of Radiology, University of California at San Francisco.
- Larry Boxt, M.D. â€" Chief, Cardiac Imaging, Department of Radiology, North Shore LIJ.
- Michael J. Bronson, M.D. â€" Co-Director of Joint Replacement Services at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
- Liz Jaffee, M.D. â€" Co-Director, Gastrointestinal Cancers Program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University. Nominated by President Barack Obama to the National Cancer Advisory Board in 2012.
- Harold I. Kaplan, M.D. â€" Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and founding editor of The Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, used by generations of psychiatrists in this country and around the world.
- Helen Singer Kaplan M.D., Ph.D. â€" A pioneer in the field of sex therapy and founder of the Human Sexuality Program at the Payne Whitney Clinic.
- Anurita Kapur, M.D. â€" Neurosurgeon, Executive Secretary of the Northern New Jersey United Nations Association, and Co-Chair of the Institute of All Nations for Advanced Studies.
- Joel Kupersmith, M.D. â€" former dean of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine, and head of the Office of Research and Development of the Department of Veterans Affairs
- Dale J. Lange, M.D. â€" Chairman, Neurology, Hospital for Special Surgery.
- Jane Lin, Ph.D. â€" Former Professor in the Department of Pathology and wife of Academy Award-winning film Director Ang Lee.
- William Anthony Paddon, M.D. - second generation physician with Grenfell Mission; ship's surgeon in Royal Canadian Navy in World War II, including Battle of the Atlantic and Normandy Invasion; Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador; Officer of the Order of Canada.
- Fahim Rahim, M.D. â€" Nephrologist, Recipient of Ellis Island Medals of Honor, in 2011. Recipient of Congressional Record by US House of Representatives in July, 2011 (Hon. Dan Burton of Indiana, Co-Chair Congressional Pakistan Caucus)
- Naeem Rahim, M.D. â€" Nephrologist, Co-founder of Idaho Kidney Institute. Recipient of Ellis Island Medals of Honor.
- David Rose, M.D. â€" Chairman, Department of Medicine, Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.
- Lurana W. Sheldon (1862â€"1945), writer
- Steven L. Sivak, M.D. â€" Chairman, Internal Medicine, Einstein Medical Center.
- Nitsana Spigland, M.D. â€" Chief, Division of Pediatric Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
- Anthony Smith, M.D. â€" Chairman, Department of Medicine, New York Downtown Hospital.
- Kenneth P. Steinberg, M.D. â€" Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Washington
- Susan McKinney Steward, M.D. â€" first African-American female physician in New York State and third in the nation. Graduated in 1870, valedictorian of her class.
- Karen Zuckerberg, M.D. â€" Psychiatrist and mother of Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook.
Notable faculty
- Flemming Gomme Graae â€" Chief of Child Psychiatry
References
