The University of California San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate

medical school 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, M ...

of the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. It was the third medical school in the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

system, after those established at

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and is the only medical school in the

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

metropolitan area. It is closely affiliated with the medical centers that are part of

UC San Diego Health UC San Diego Health is the academic health system of the University of California, San Diego in San Diego, California. It is the only academic health system serving San Diego and has one of only two adult Level I trauma centers in the region. In ...

History

In 1962, the fledgling university began searching for a dean to head its planned medical school, which would be the first such institution in

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

.A Dean of the Medical School of the San Diego campus is sought
October 31, 1962, University Communications & Public Relations Materials: News Releases. Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library The concept was based on the successful models of public medical education and practice in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The man eventually chosen was Joseph Stokes III, an expert in the fields of

preventive medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...

and cardiovascular epidemiology. Stokes played a key role in aggressively recruiting leading physician scientists of its era and rapidly building the institute's reputation as an elite medical school. Faculty members recruited to the university by Stokes included Y.C. Fung, who would later be considered the father of

bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

. His efforts were aided by the campus's existing strengths in the biological sciences and close proximity to the famed

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

. The basic science building was the first building constructed on the School of Medicine grounds, which were east of

Revelle College Revelle College is the oldest residential college at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California. Founded in 1964, it is named after oceanographer and UC San Diego founder Roger Revelle. UC San Diego—along with Revelle Colle ...

and north of New Miramar Road (later renamed La Jolla Village Drive). The first cohort of medical students, 39 men and 8 women, enrolled in 1968, while construction on the clinical science building and adjacent 100-bed Veterans Administration Hospital were still ongoing. The inaugural class in 1971 achieved the highest score in the country on the National Board of Medical Examiners

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 ...

Examination, propelling the new school into the national spotlight. The school's first degrees were conferred upon them in 1972.Medical School
Triton Times, May 26, 1967, UCSD Guardian. Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library Clinical rotations took place at the

UC San Diego Medical Center UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** '' University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the ti ...

, then known as Hillcrest County Hospital, which had been constructed by the county in 1963 and leased to the university in 1966. Research and innovation efforts were successful early in the school's history. By 1969, UCSD was a leader in the novel technique of

pulmonary thromboendarterectomy In thoracic surgery, a pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE), also referred to as pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA), is an operation that removes organized clotted blood (thrombus) from the pulmonary arteries, which supply blood to the lungs. Indica ...

. In 1972, faculty members experimented with the use of early

echocardiogram An echocardiography, echocardiogram, cardiac echo or simply an echo, is an ultrasound of the heart. It is a type of medical imaging of the heart, using standard ultrasound or Doppler ultrasound. Echocardiography has become routinely used in th ...

s. In 1973,

Helen Ranney Helen Margaret Ranney (April 12, 1920 – April 5, 2010) was an American doctor and hematologist who made significant contributions to research on sickle-cell anemia. Early life Ranney was born in Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York, where ...

joined the faculty, and would become the first American woman to be chair of the department of medicine at a medical school. In 1982, UCSD opened one of the first clinics for the treatment of HIV and AIDS. In 2005, the

UCSD Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National ...

opened. In 2021, UCSD received $2.6M to expand Programs in Medical Education (PRIME) focused on health equity and Indigenous health.

Campus

The School of Medicine neighborhood occupies 54 acres on the southern portion of the main campus. It is bordered by Gilman Drive and

to the west, Gilman Drive and University Center to the north, Villa La Jolla Drive and the San Diego VA Medical Center to the east, and La Jolla Village Drive to the south. The main entrances to the campus are via Library Walk for pedestrians and Osler Lane for vehicles. The neighborhood's buildings are arranged around a series of three green spaces: the School of Medicine Quad, the Ceremonial Green, and the Academic Mall. The School of Medicine quad is an informal, grassy area which channels pedestrians from Revelle College and Library Walk toward the Biomedical Library building and the adjacent academic and research facilities. The Ceremonial Green is a quadrantal lawn which is used for graduation ceremonies and other outdoor functions in front of the Medical Education and Telemedicine Building. The Academic Mall is a structured, flat quadrangle with gathering spaces and academic and research facilities along its east and west edges, and the Rita Atkinson Residences (medical student housing) at its southern terminus. Most of the campus buildings serve an academic, research, or administrative purpose. Exceptions are the Rita Atkinson Residences, which houses 450 graduate students in a nine-story, two-tower structure, and the Club Med dining facility at the base of the telemedicine building. The campus features two

Stuart Collection The Stuart Collection is a collection of public art on the campus of the University of California San Diego. Founded in 1981, the Stuart Collection's goal is to spread commissioned sculpture throughout the campus, including both traditional sculpt ...

works. ''Terrace'', by

Jackie Ferrara Jackie Ferrara (born Jacqueline Hirschhorn on November 17, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American sculptor and draughtswoman best known for her pyramidal stacked structures. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los A ...

, consists of three tiled terraces which flow into one another to connect both wings of the Cellular and Molecular Medicine facility. It is the ninth work in the collection. The fourteenth work, ''Standing'' by Kiki Smith, is a nude bronze woman raised on a concrete eucalyptus trunk trickling water from her hands to its roots. It was the artist's first permanent outdoor sculpture.

Student life

The School of Medicine offers several programs and services for medical students, including the Healthy Student Program, the Office of Educational Support Services, the Careers in Medicine Program, Faculty Mentors, the Office of Student Affairs advisors, the Big Sib program, Senior Mentors, and Senior Faculty Advisors. In addition, medical students run nearly 40 active organizations.

Admissions and rankings

Admission to the UC San Diego School of Medicine M.D. program is among the most selective in the country. For the class entering Fall 2015, 253 of the 7,456 applicants were admitted. This 3.4% acceptance rate is the tenth-lowest of 170 schools surveyed by '' U.S. News & World Report'' nationally. Of admits who choose to matriculate, the average undergraduate GPA is 3.73 and the average MCAT composite score is 34.2 out of 45. The most popular residency and specialty programs are internal medicine, anesthesiology, dermatology, obstetrics & gynecology, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology (diagnostic) and surgery. The UC San Diego School of Medicine is ranked 18th in the 2017 edition of '' U.S. News & World Report'' for research and ranked 12th in primary care. The "Drug and Alcohol Abuse" research program is ranked 10th overall. The ''

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...

'' ranks UC San Diego 20th in the world for clinical medicine and pharmacy.

Curriculum

In addition to the M.D. program, the UC San Diego School of Medicine offers the following degree programs: *

Medical Scientist Training Program The Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTPs) are dual-degree training programs that streamline the education towards both clinical (typically MD) and research doctoral degrees. MSTPs are offered by some United States medical schools, who are aw ...

(M.D./Ph.D. Program) * Medical Scholars Program (8-year Baccalaureate/M.D. Program) * Masters in Bioengineering * Masters in Public Health * Masters in Leadership of Health Care Organizations * Masters of Advanced Studies in Clinical Research * Ph.D. Program in the Humanities and Social Sciences * Program in Medical Education (PRIME) Health Equity (M.D./Masters Program) * Global Health Academic Concentration * Program in Medical Education (PRIME) Transforming Indigenous Doctor Education * Independent Ph.D. programs In 2010, the school altered its curriculum, and designated the plan "Integrated Scientific Curriculum", to emphasize ambulatory experience and better prepare students for medical practice. The first two years consist of classroom learning based on topical units, followed by two years of clinical rotations. The Independent Study Project (ISP) has long been a cornerstone of the elective curriculum at the UCSD School of Medicine. Students are required to complete a project under the direction of an ISP committee usually consisting of three or more School of Medicine faculty.

Research

UC San Diego School of Medicine faculty rank #1 in the nation in federal research funding per faculty member (#1 in clinical research and #3 in basic research). Among ranked departments, UC San Diego is #1 in family medicine, neurosciences, surgery, and #2 in anesthesiology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pediatrics, pharmacology, and psychiatry. The UC San Diego School of Medicine is 8th in the nation in total NIH funding with 8 individual departments in the top 10: #1 in family medicine and neurosciences, #2 in engineering-related and pharmacology funding, #3 in "other basic sciences" and psychiatry, #7 in internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology. In 2013, Expertscape recognized it as having the world's highest level of expertise in glaucoma. The school operates and contributes to several organized clinical research units, including

Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National ...

, the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, the

Stein Institute for Research on Aging Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging (Stein Institute for Research on Aging) is a non-profit, multidisciplinary research institute at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine located in La Jolla, California. Estab ...

, the AntiViral Research Center, the Center of AIDS Research, the Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit, the

Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) at the University of California, San Diego. Formally established in 2008, CARTA is a collaboration between faculty members of UCSD main ca ...

, and the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Notable people

Notable alumni

* Margaret Allen (M.D. 1974) became the first female heart transplant surgeon. *

Brian Druker Brian J. Druker (born April 30, 1955) is a physician-scientist at Oregon Health & Science University, in Portland, Oregon. He is the director of OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute, Jeld-Wen Chair of Leukemia Research, and professor of medicine. In 2 ...

(M.D. 1981) discovered the drug

imatinib Imatinib, sold under the brand names Gleevec and Glivec (both marketed worldwide by Novartis) among others, is an oral chemotherapy medication used to treat cancer. Imatinib is a small molecule inhibitor targeting multiple receptor tyrosine kin ...

(Gleevec) for the treatment of

chronic myelogenous leukemia Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulat ...

. * Charles Knifechief (M.D. 1982) became the first physician from the Pawnee Nation and first American Indian graduate. *

Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini (;Pashto/Dari ; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan Americans, Afghan-American novelist, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel ''The Kite Runner'' (2003) wa ...

(M.D. 1993) is an American novelist and physician. * Geoff Abrams (M.D. 2006) is an American professional tennis player. *

Ryan Abbott Ryan Abbott (born 25 June 1991) is a former professional Australian rules footballer playing for and in the Australian Football League (AFL). Abbott is from Grovedale, Victoria. He played basketball from 14 and continued until 21. Abbott late ...

(M.D. 2005) is British-American academic and physician

Notable faculty

Eight Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine: *

Francis Crick Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical struc ...

(1962) – J.W. Kieckhefer Distinguished Research Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies *

Robert W. Holley Robert William Holley (January 28, 1922 – February 11, 1993) was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 (with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall Warren Nirenberg) for describing the structure of alani ...

(1968) – Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies *

George Palade George Emil Palade (; November 19, 1912 – October 7, 2008) was a Romanian cell biologist. Described as "the most influential cell biologist ever",

(1974) – Dean of the School of Medicine * Renato Dulbecco (1975) – Professor Emeritus, Department of Pathology *

Roger Guillemin Roger Charles Louis Guillemin (born January 11, 1924) is a French-American neuroscientist. He received the National Medal of Science in 1976, and the Nobel prize for medicine in 1977 for his work on neurohormones, sharing the prize that year ...

(1977) – Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies *

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...

(2002) – Adjunct Professor, Department of Biological Sciences *

Roger Tsien Roger Yonchien Tsien (pronounced , "'' CHEN''"'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

(2008) – Professor, Department of Pharmacology * Bruce Beutler (2011) – Professor, Scripps Research Institute Other notable faculty include: * David Brenner (physician) – Current Vice Chancellor of UC San Diego Health Sciences. *

William Nyhan William Leo Nyhan (born March 13, 1926) is an American physician best known as the co-discoverer of Lesch–Nyhan syndrome. Nyhan currently serves as professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine in La Jolla, California. He has he ...

– Pediatrician who first described what is now called the

Lesch–Nyhan syndrome Lesch–Nyhan syndrome (LNS) is a rare inherited disorder caused by a deficiency of the enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT). This deficiency occurs due to mutations in the ''HPRT1'' gene located on the X chromosome. LNS ...

* Kenneth Kaushansky – Former Chairman and

Professor of the Department of Medicine; Current Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine * John B. West – Current Pulmonary Faculty; led the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest in 1981; Former NASA chairman of the Science Verification Committee in 1983; American Physiological Society (APS) president in 1984; author of Respiratory Physiology: The Essentials

Community affiliations

Primary teaching hospitals affiliated with this medical school where clinical teaching or training is carried out:

Rady Children's Hospital Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego is the largest children's hospital in California and provides services to the San Diego, southern Riverside and Imperial counties. The hospital has 524 beds and provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and su ...

, San Diego Naval Regional Medical Center, San Diego VA Medical Center, Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital, and

. Clinical teaching and training at the UCSD School of Medicine are carried out at seven primary teaching hospitals:

, the San Diego Naval Regional Medical Center, the San Diego VA Medical Center, Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital, and

. The school's affiliation with UC San Diego Health includes all its entities: UC San Diego Medical Center, Jacobs Medical Center, Moores Cancer Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Shiley Eye Institute, and various outpatient clinics. School of Medicine researchers also work alongside scientists from several other medical research entities. These affiliations include the

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology La Jolla Institute for Immunology is a non-profit research organization located in La Jolla, California. It is located in UC San Diego’s Research Park. The institute researches immunology and immune system diseases. The institute employs 220 M.D ...

, Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine,

, the

Salk Institute for Biological Studies The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

San Diego Supercomputer Center The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). SDSC is located at the UCSD campus' Eleanor Roosevelt College east end, immediately north the Hopkins Parking Structure. ...

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Sanford Burnham Prebys is a 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research institute focusing on basic and translational research, with major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The ...

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

The Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

, St. Vincent de Paul Village Family Health Center, UC San Diego Health, Indian Health Service, and the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

Student-Run Free Clinic

The UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project, in partnership with the community, provides accessible, quality health care for the underserved in respectful environments in which students, health professionals, patients and community members learn from each other. It seeks to sustain health through free medical and preventive care, health education and access to social service. It has locations in

Downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the city center of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. In 2010, the Centre City area had a population of more than 28,000. Downtown San Diego serves as the cultural and financial center and ...

, Pacific Beach, National City, and Lemon Grove.

References

External links

Official website

Administration website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uc San Diego School Of Medicine Medicine, School of Medical schools in California Universities and colleges in San Diego Educational institutions established in 1968 1968 establishments in California

School of Medicine 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 ...