Duke University School of Medicine

Medical school of Duke University

The Duke University School of Medicine, commonly known as Duke Med, is the medical school of Duke University. It was established in 1925 by James B. Duke. The School of Medicine, along with the Duke University School of Nursing, Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, Duke Children's Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, and other affiliated hospitals, clinics, and laboratories, make up the Duke University Health System. Clinical rotations by medical students and residents occur within the Duke University Health System, a fully integrated academic health care system encompassing a tertiary care hospital and specialty clinics on the Medical Center campus, two community hospitals, a VA hospital, home health and hospice services, a network of primary care physicians, and other affiliated partners across the SE United States.

The idea of establishing a medical school at the current site dates back as far as 1891, when John Franklin Crowell, the president of Trinity College as it was known at the time, first announced a public plan to establish a school of medicine. In 1924, James B. Duke established the Duke Endowment and directed $40 million to Trinity College to become Duke University. The following year, he made an additional request to establish the Duke School of Medicine, Duke School of Nursing, and Duke Hospital, with the goal of improving health care in the Carolinas and nationwide. Three thousand applicants applied to the new medical school in 1929 and 70 first and third year students were selected, including four women, for the School's inaugural class. Just four years after its establishment, Duke was ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the country by the AAMC. 1968—Robert Lefkowitz describes the adrenaline receptor. 1972—Child safety cap requirements championed by Jay Arena enacted as federal law. 1982—Pediatric immunologist Rebecca Buckley uses bone marrow transplantation to restore the immune systems of children born with severe combined immunodeficiency, also known as bubble boy disease. 1984—Bart Haynes contributes to the identification of HTLV III, now known as HIV. 1990—Joanne Kurtzberg establishes the Duke Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. 1994—Louise Markert demonstrates that babies born with no immune system, a fatal condition known as complete DiGeorge syndrome, can be cured with thymus transplantation. 1995—Duke scientists link the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to breast and ovarian cancers. 2001—Miguel Nicolelis develops a system that allows monkeys to control robot arms via brain signals, an important step to enable paralyzed people to control neuroprosthetic limbs. 2006—YT Chen and Priya Kishnani develop Myozyme as the first treatment for Pompe’s disease. 2011—Hai Yan leads a team of scientists from Duke and Johns Hopkins universities to identify mutations in a gene that makes cells immortal and appear to play a pivotal role in three of the most common types of brain tumors, as well as cancers of the liver, tongue and urinary tract. 2013—Duke researcher Jeffery Lawson and Laura Niklason of Yale School of Medicine, develop a bioengineered blood vessel, which Lawson grafted into an artery in a Duke patient’s arm, the first in human procedure of its kind in the United States. 2015—Clinical trials using PVS RIPO, a modified polio virus, to activate the host immune system to fight glioblastomas was featured on 60 Minutes. Preliminary findings have reported limited efficacy. 2019—Forty five faculty members were named as some of the most highly cited researchers on a global list from Clarivate Analytics and Web of Science, placing Duke SOM in a three way tie as the 8th ranked institution in the nation. These faculty include Robert Leifkowitz, Robert Califf, Jason Locasale, and Darell Bigner.

Duke University School of Medicine is recognised as one of the best medical schools in the United States and the world. It is currently ranked #3 in the country, according to U. S. News & World Reports rankings for best research medical schools in 2022. Several Duke programs are ranked as some of the highest in the country. Top ten nationally ranked programs for 2022 include surgery (ranked #2), anesthesia (ranked #4), internal medicine (ranked #5), radiology (ranked #6), pediatrics (ranked #7), obstetrics/gynecology (ranked #8), and psychiatry (ranked #10). Historically, the Duke University School of Medicine consistently ranks in the top ten medical schools in the United States. Admission to the school's medical degree program is highly competitive, with more than 7,500 applicants for approximately 115 openings each year. The school ranks very highly among its peers in the diversity of its medical students. Among the draws of the program is its unique curriculum, which gives students contact with patients a year earlier than at most other medical schools and includes an entire year devoted to independent research. Many students use the year to begin studies toward a second degree; nearly one quarter earn a PhD, Master of Science in Global Health (MScGH), MBA, JD, or master's degree in addition to an MD. About 19.5 percent are enrolled in Duke's Medical Scientist Training Program, which leads to both an MD and a PhD in health related basic biomedical or social science research. Created to train highly qualified students as physician scientists, the Duke program is the fourth oldest in the country, has been continuously funded by the NIH for almost 50 years, and is highly regarded nationally. Duke University School of Medicine also includes PhD programs in the basic sciences and education and training programs in other health professions, including the top ranked Physician Assistant and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs, a Primary Care Leadership Track, Master of Biomedical Sciences, MS and PhD in Biostatistics, and Master of Management in Clinical Informatics.

Duke opened a medical school collaboration with the National University of Singapore. The Duke NUS Graduate Medical School graduated their first class in 2011. The curriculum is similar in structure though the Duke NUS campus focuses heavily on their team based learning method called TeamLEAD (Learn, Engage, Apply, Develop).