Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States. Unlike most other leading medical schools, HMS does not operate in conjunction with a single hospital but is directly affiliated with several teaching hospitals in the Boston area. Affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes include Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, McLean Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, The Baker Center for Children and Families, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Hospital houses the world's largest hospital-based research program, the Mass General Research Institute, with an annual research budget of more than $1.2 billion in 2021. It is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States with a patient capacity of 999 beds. Along with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass General is a founding member of Mass General Brigham, formerly known as Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts. It is currently ranked as the eighth-best hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.
Mass General Brigham is a not-for-profit, integrated health care system that is a national leader in medical research, teaching, and patient care. It is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States, with annual funding of more than $2 billion. The system's annual revenue was nearly $18 billion in 2022. It is also an educational institution, founded by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. The system provides clinical care through two academic hospitals, three specialty hospitals, seven community hospitals, home care services, a health insurance plan, and a robust network of specialty practices, urgent care facilities, and outpatient clinics/surgical centers. It is the largest private employer in Massachusetts. In 2023, the system reported that from 2017–2021 its overall economic impact was $53.4 billion – more than the annual state budget.
Salem Hospital, formerly known as North Shore Medical Center, is a Level III trauma center located in Salem, Massachusetts. A member of Mass General Brigham since 1996, it offers comprehensive medical and surgical services and includes emergency/trauma departments and a birthplace. It includes Salem Hospital and the Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center in Lynn, as well as outpatient care and urgent care. The Medical Staff includes nearly 800 affiliated physicians representing primary care, family practice and 50 additional sub-specialties. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.
Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist and inventor. Lown was the original developer of the direct current defibrillator for cardiac resuscitation, and the cardioverter for correcting rapid disordered heart rhythms. He introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine to control heartbeat disturbances.
Elizabeth Nabel is an American cardiologist and Executive Vice President of Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics and OPKO Health. Prior to this role, she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Carola Blitzman Eisenberg was an Argentine-American psychiatrist who became the first woman to hold the position of dean of students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1990, she was the dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She has for a long time been lecturer in the newly renamed Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS. She was also both a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights and an honorary psychiatrist with the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a longstanding position there.
Myrtelle May Moore Canavan was an American physician and medical researcher. She was one of the first female pathologists and is best known for publishing a description of Canavan disease in 1931.
George Constantin Cotzias was a Greek scientist who together with his coworkers developed L-Dopa treatment, currently the most commonly used treatment for Parkinson's disease.
Allan Macy Butler (1894–1986) was an American pediatrician and Chief of the Children's Medical Services at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. A pioneer in health services, Butler sought to change the structure of the American ‘fee-for-service’ system of health care to one based on government-paid medical care for the elderly and low-income people.
Leona Baumgartner was an American physician. She was the first woman to serve as Commissioner of New York City's Department of Health (1954–1962). She was a strong advocate of health education and a pioneer in promoting health services among New York's immigrant and poverty-stricken population.
David Davis Rutstein (1909-1986) was a long-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School and an advocate for preventive medicine. He was one of the first physicians to use television as an outreach tool to inform the public about health concerns and research. Rutstein also played a national role in the organization of medical care in the United States, the integration of preventive medicine into patient care, and the measurement of medical outcomes.
Matthew H. Liang is a physician specializing in social rheumatology, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health, and the Director of Special Projects of the Robert B. Brigham Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Clinical Research Center which he founded. At the Brigham and Women's Hospital he is Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services. He is a founding faculty of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and a founding faculty of the Clinical Effectiveness Program at the Harvard School of Public Health and is a Study Director in the Veterans Administration Cooperative Studies Program.
Ferenc Andras Jolesz was a Hungarian-American physician and scientist best known for his research on image guided therapy, the process by which information derived from diagnostic imaging is used to improve the localization and targeting of diseased tissue to monitor and control treatment during surgical and interventional procedures. He pioneered the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging-guided interventions and introduced of a variety of new medical procedures based on novel combinations of imaging and therapy delivery.
Howard Haym Hiatt is a medical researcher involved with the discovery of messenger RNA. He was the past chair of the department of medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston from 1963-1972. He was past dean of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1972–1984. He was co-founder and associate chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and was also the Associate Chief of the hospital's Division of Global Health Equity. He was a founding head of the cancer division of Beth Israel Hospital. He was a member of the team at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, led by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod, which first identified and described messenger RNA, and he was part of the team led by James Watson that was among the first to demonstrate messenger RNA in mammalian cells.
Paula Adina Johnson is a cardiologist and the current president of Wellesley College. She is the first Black woman to serve in this role. The first Black graduate of Wellesley College came in the year 1887, and 129 years later President Johnson became the first Black leader. Prior to her role as president of Wellesley, Johnson founded and served as the inaugural executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health & Gender Biology, as well as Chief of the Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Johnson's background in working for the betterment of women in the field of health led her on a notable path to Wellesley College, a women's college right outside of Boston, where there is an emphasis on the role of women in STEM.
David John Sugarbaker was an American physician who was chief of the division of general thoracic surgery and the director of the Baylor College of Medicine Lung Institute at CHI St. Luke's Health–Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He was an internationally recognized thoracic surgeon specializing in the treatment of mesothelioma, the surgical management of malignant pleural mesothelioma, and treatment of complex thoracic cancers.
Abraham Clifford Barger was an American professor of physiology who spent his entire career at Harvard Medical School. His research focused on the pathophysiology of heart failure and on the role of the kidneys in hypertension. Barger served as the president of the American Physiological Society in 1970-71 and was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1974.
Dr. Elizabeth Connell was an American doctor and proponent of women's reproductive health.
Mariana Castells is a Spanish-American allergist who focuses on mast cell diseases, including mastocytosis, mast cell activation syndrome and hereditary alpha tryptasimia. Mastocytosis is a rare disease with limited treatment options. Castells works at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts in the Department of Allergy, Rheumatology, and Immunology and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
