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.[7]
Four of the original trustee's daughters, led by Mary 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.[8]
According to the Flexner Report, Hopkins has served as the model for American medical education.[12]
Its major teaching hospital, the Johns Hopkins Hospital, was ranked the top hospital in the United States every year from 1991 to 2011 by U.S. News & World Report.[13] 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.[14][15]
Academics
Colleges Advisory Program
Upon matriculation, 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, and Helen Taussig. The colleges were established in 2005.[16]
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 a macromolecule. 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 and dance-offs.[17]
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Nobel laureates
As of 2024, 29 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins University as faculty, fellows, residents, or graduates, with 15 out of the 29 being associated with the School of Medicine specifically, including 14 out of the university's 17 laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and 1 out of the university's 3 laureates for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Two laureates, Peter Agre and Gregg Semenza, are current faculty at the School of Medicine.[18]
Nathaniel C. Comfort, associate professor in the Institute of the History of Medicine, Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of CongressJohn W. Kluge Center, author of The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control
Lisa Cooper, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Equity in Health and Healthcare, James F. Fries Professor of Medicine[23]
Thomas Stephen Cullen, helped establish the first gynecologic pathology laboratory and advanced understanding of endometriosis and other gynecologic conditions
Ralph H. Hruban, pancreatic cancer expert who authored over 700 peer-reviewed manuscripts and five books and was recognized by Essential Science Indicators as the most highly cited pancreatic cancer scientist in the world[25]
Richard Huganir, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Neuroscience and Brain Sciences
Erika Pearce, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Immunology and Cellular Metabolism
Eliana Perrin, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Primary Care
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor and Chair of Neurologic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic, former Johns Hopkins neurosurgery faculty member
Vivien Thomas, the surgical technician who was the driving force behind the successful creation of the Blalock-Taussig Shunt procedure, later renamed the Blalock-Taussig-Thomas shunt, and the namesake of Thomas College at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Thomas, an African American, did not initially receive rightful credit due to racial discrimination. His story was detailed in the 2004 HBO documentary Something the Lord Made[28]
Thomas Turner, microbiologist, archivist, and former dean of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Chi Van Dang, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Cancer Medicine
Ashani Weeraratna, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor for Cancer Biology
Myron L. Weisfeldt, cardiologist and former William Osler Professor of Medicine and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Leroy Hood, invented automated DNA and protein sequencing, Lasker Award winner, and entrepreneurFile:Gertrude Stein 1935-01-04.jpgAcclaimed American novelist, writer, and playwright Gertrude Stein attended but did not graduate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Frederick Masoudi cardiologist, researcher, and medical academic with expertise in cardiovascular outcomes research, clinical registries, and quality measurement
Neal S. Young, chief of the Hematology Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Director of the Center for Human Immunology at the NIH
Philanthropy
In July 2024, businessman and former New 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.[31][32]
In popular culture
The ABC documentary series Hopkins takes a look at the life of the medical staff and students of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.[33] This new series is a sequel to the 2000 ABC special Hopkins 24/7. Both Hopkins and Hopkins 24/7 were awarded the Peabody Award.[34]
The movie Something 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.[35]
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