Member Profile

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Background

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is dedicated to providing excellence in biomedical education, basic and clinical research, quality patient care and service to improve the health of the citizens of Maryland and beyond. The school is committed to the education and training of MD, MD/PhD, graduate, physical therapy and rehabilitation science, and medical research technology students. The school of medicine will recruit and develop faculty to serve as exemplary role models for its students.

The school of medicine was established in 1807. It is the first public and the fifth oldest medical school in the United States, and the first to institute a residency training program. The School of Medicine was the founding school of the University of Maryland and today is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. On the Baltimore campus, the school of medicine serves as the foundation for a large academic health center that combines medical education, biomedical research, patient care and community service. While its tradition of excellence remains constant, the school of medicine and its reputation for academic achievement continue to grow.

The foundations of the fifth oldest medical school in the country date back to 1789, when Baltimore physicians organized the Medical Society of Baltimore. The mission was to train young doctors and bring validation to a profession greatly diminished by the Revolutionary War. The Medical Society of Baltimore's founders tutored young students in the physicians' homes, lecturing on anatomy, surgery and chemistry. There were no stethoscopes, thermometers, hypodermic needles, antiseptics, or anesthesia, and operations were often performed using kitchen knives.

The medical school was rechartered in 1812 as the University of Maryland, and the regents were given authority to add the schools of law, arts and sciences, and divinity. Thus, the school of medicine earned the unique distinction among its peers as the only medical school to be the founding school of a university system. From its beginning, there has been a strong emphasis on bedside teaching. The first class of students received clinical instruction at the Baltimore Almshouse, a workhouse and infirmary for the poor. Dr. John Beale Davidge, a native Marylander and a physician trained in Scotland, became the first dean and took the chair in surgery.

In 1823, Maryland became the first medical school in the country to build its own teaching hospital for clinical instruction, which housed the site of the first intramural residency program. Patients were admitted for a weekly fee of $3. The infirmary was augmented in 1897 with the opening of the university hospital, which, nearly a century later, would become a private, not-for-profit corporation known as the University of Maryland Medical System.

Today, the University of Maryland School of Medicine is a comprehensive academic health center with 25 departments, seven programs and six organized research centers that combine medical education, biomedical research, patient care and community service. Together, the school of medicine and University of Maryland Medical System educate and train more than half of Maryland's practicing physicians and allied health care professionals. As the institution celebrates its second century in 2007 and begins its third, and as the medical school's reputation continues to expand, its rich history of excellence and leadership in medical education remains constant.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine Bicentennial

Current Projects

Reducing administrative overhead has been a high priority for the Office of Information Services.

Pre-award Grants and Contacts Management System
With campus colleagues, the Office of Information Services is implementing MIT's Coeus system, which will reduce the time and effort of routing research grants from an investigator's desk to awarding agencies. Improved tracking and reporting are added benefits.

Faculty Information System
Managing information that describes the relationship between faculty and school is a Herculean chore. Information Services embarked on a joint project with the Office of Resource Management to collect and manage data ranging from salary sources to transition to emeritus status over the course of that relationship.

Compliance Management/Training
Documenting policy- and regulation-driven activities is burdensome. Each year, the Office of Information Services implements or extends systems to automate new data collection, reporting or training mandates.

Epic Ambulatory Electronic Medical Record
The faculty practices labor with paper charts. The affiliated hospital system, the University of Maryland Medical System, is investing in technology and training to replace paper with an electronic ambulatory medical record. The Office of Information Services is working closely with faculty and technologists over the next few years to implement the many pieces, incorporating a design intended to maximize opportunities to conduct clinical research.