The University of Tennessee College of Medicine is one of six graduate schools of the

University of Tennessee Health Science Center The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is a public medical school in Memphis, Tennessee. It includes the Colleges of Health Professions, University of Tennessee College of Dentistry, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Univer ...

(UTHSC) in downtown

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

. The oldest

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

medical school in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, the UT College of Medicine is a LCME-accredited member of the

Association of American Medical Colleges The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was established in 1876. It represents medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an i ...

(AAMC) and awards graduates of the four-year program Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees. The college's primary focus is to provide practicing health professionals for the state of

History

The University of Tennessee College of Medicine originated in 1850, but involves several institutional mergers. The first was when the Nashville Medical College, founded in 1876, was acquired by the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

in 1879. The modern era of the college began when the Nashville Medical College was moved to Memphis in 1911 and merged with the College of Physicians and Surgeons to become the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Following a number of mergers with the other medical science colleges,

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

, and dental departments, the then-named University of Tennessee Medical Units was renamed the

during the tenure of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino. Today, the Humphrey's General Education Building (GEB) stands on the corner of Madison Avenue and Dunlap street, where Lindsley Hall formerly housed the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The oldest surviving building (built in 1926) of the current UTHSC campus is the Wittenborg Anatomy Building, named after Dr. August H. Wittenborg. In 2012, Steve Schwab announced UTHSC aims to develop more clinical experiences for students in internal medicine, surgery, surgical sub-specialties (e.g., Anesthesiology and Radiology), family medicine, emergency medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology at UTHSC affiliate hospitals in 2013. A partnership with Saint Thomas Health subsequently expanded from one Internal Medicine Residency Program, established in 1982, to include affiliate programs in Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine.

Facilities

The College of Medicine is affiliated with a number of teaching hospitals in

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, Chattanooga, and Nashville. The

forms the backbone of the Memphis Medical District and is closely affiliated with several medical units: *Campbell Clinic in Orthopedics *Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center *

Hamilton Eye Institute Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilton ...

Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center Le Bonheur Children's Hospital is a 255-bed, tertiary care children's hospital located in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Le Bonheur has more than 700 medical staff representing 40 pediatric specialties. Approximately 170 patients per day are admi ...

*Methodist University Hospital *Regional Medical Center of Memphis (The MED) *Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute * St. Jude Children's Research Hospital *University of Tennessee Medical Group (UTMG) The Chattanooga campus of the College of Medicine is closely affiliated with

Erlanger Health System The Erlanger Health System (often referred to as Erlanger Hospital or Erlanger), incorporated as the ''Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority'', a non-profit, public benefit corporation registered in the State of Tennessee, is a system of ...

. In Knoxville, the

University of Tennessee Medical Center The University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) is an academic medical center located in Knoxville, Tennessee and serves as a referral center for East Tennessee and regions in Kentucky and North Carolina. The University of Tennessee Graduate Sch ...

is home to the UT Graduate School of Medicine, the largest of the nine (AAMC) Graduate Regional Medical Centers in the Southeast United States. Nashville UTHSC affiliates include Saint Thomas West, Saint Thomas Midtown and Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospitals. Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital is the home of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. An Emergency Medicine Residency Program and a Family Medicine Residency Program are both based at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. UT

medical students A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

spend their first two years in Memphis completing basic science coursework prior to taking the

USMLE Step 1 The USMLE Step 1 (more commonly just Step 1 or colloquially, The Boards) is the first part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. It aims to assess whether medical school students or graduates can apply important concepts of the found ...

. Students then perform clinical rotations at these facilities on the Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville campuses for third and fourth year clerkships.

Research

*The College of Medicine boasts three centers of excellence for

connective tissue diseases A connective tissue disease (collagenosis) is any disease that has the connective tissues of the body as a target of pathology. Connective tissue is any type of biological tissue with an extensive extracellular matrix that supports, binds togeth ...

, genomics and bioinformatics, and vascular biology. These departments collaborate significantly with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...

, and other research centers. *The UTHSC Level III Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL-3) is one of 13 nationally funded RBL-3 complexes that investigate infectious diseases and pathogens. Funded in 2003 by a $18 million grant from the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

(NIAID), the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory anchors the UT-Baptist Research Park in downtown Memphis. *The Cancer Research Building (CRB) houses research laboratories which investigate molecular bases of disease, cancer therapeutics, metastasis mechanisms, cancer genetics, viral gene therapy and other fields. Constructed in 2007, the $25.2 million CRB represents the interdisciplinary nature of cancer research conducted by College of Medicine and other UTHSC faculty. *The College of Medicine affords many medical students research opportunities through the

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

-sponsored Medical Student Research Fellowship (MSRF). This allows medical students to pursue research in the basic and clinical sciences under preceptors during the summer after their first year. *The Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Family Medicine Residency Program and Internal Medicine Residency Program at UTHSC affiliate hospitals incorporate clinical research education and training into each curriculum. The Saint Thomas Health Research Institute (STRI) supports research in the Nashville area. Research projects in individual locations place an emphasis on community collaboration that benefits local patient populations.

Residency programs

The College of Medicine offers several

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is the body responsible for accrediting all graduate medical training programs (i.e., internships, residencies, and fellowships, a.k.a. subspecialty programs) for physicians in the ...

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

programs located at four fully integrated statewide campuses: *College of Medicine – Memphis: allergy and immunology, emergency medicine,

dermatology Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...

, family medicine, internal medicine, cardiovascular disease,

endocrinology Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...

gastroenterology Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

, nephrology,

rheumatology Rheumatology (Greek ''ῥεῦμα'', ''rheûma'', flowing current) is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatolog ...

, hematology and oncology,

pulmonary disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, bron ...

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and pe ...

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

(clinical, child, general, & vascular),

OBGYN Obstetrics and Gynaecology (also spelled as Obstetrics and Gynecology; abbreviated as Obs and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, and ...

ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

orthopedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

(surgery, pediatric, & sports),

otolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

, hematology, pediatrics (critical care, emergency medicine,

cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular h ...

, nephrology, pulmonology, infectious diseases, internal medicine and

urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes cranio ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psych ...

geriatric psychiatry Geriatric psychiatry, also known as geropsychiatry, psychogeriatrics or psychiatry of old age, is a branch of medicine and a subspecialty of psychiatry dealing with the study, prevention, and treatment of neurodegenerative, cognitive impairment, ...

diagnostic radiology Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues ( physiology). Medical imaging seeks to r ...

, pediatric radiology, surgery, surgical critical care,

pediatric surgery Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. History Pediatric surgery arose in the middle of the 1879 century as the surgical care of birth defects requ ...

, vascular surgery, &

*College of Medicine – Chattanooga:

colorectal surgery Colorectal surgery is a field in medicine dealing with disorders of the rectum, anus, and colon. The field is also known as proctology, but this term is now used infrequently within medicine and is most often employed to identify practices relati ...

, emergency medicine, family medicine,

geriatric medicine Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of older adults. The term ''geriatrics'' originates from the Greek γέρων ''geron'' meaning "old man", and ιατρός ''iatros' ...

, internal medicine,

orthopedic surgery Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

, surgery, surgical critical care, vascular surgery,

& hospice and palliative medicine. * Graduate School of Medicine – Knoxville offers 11 residency programs through its partnership with the

. *UTHSC – Nashville: emergency medicine, family medicine & internal medicine. There are plans for future expansion in dental,

and general surgery in 2016.

Highlights

*The College of Medicine is affiliated with three of the six level 1

trauma centers A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergenc ...

in Tennessee: Erlanger Health Systems in Chattanooga, Regional Medical Center of Memphis, and UT Medical Center in Knoxville. *The College of Medicine has graduated several notable alumni, including astronaut

Margaret Rhea Seddon Margaret Rhea Seddon (born November 8, 1947) is an American surgeon and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women in 1978, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as mission spe ...

, Tennessee congressman Phil Roe, and current Director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, Alvin Powers, among others. *

Peter C. Doherty Peter Charles Doherty (born 15 October 1940) is an Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkerna ...

, winner of the 1996

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

is an adjunct faculty member for the College of Medicine's pediatric department. * Francis M. Fesmire, Clinical Research Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the College of Medicine in Chattanooga; received the 2006

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name o ...

in Medicine for his research on unorthodox treatment of intractable hiccups. *

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

founder Steve Jobs underwent a complete liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital. James D. Eason, M.D., an alumnus and professor of Transplant Surgery at the College of Medicine successfully performed the surgery in 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Tennessee Health Science Center Health Science Center Tennessee, University of Medical schools in Tennessee 1850 establishments in Tennessee