Ian L. Taylor MD, PhD, Senior Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research and Dean, College of Medicine

Medicine is a dynamic profession. Miraculous new technologies and scientific discoveries are constantly challenging physicians to remain at the forefront of their field. And yet, medicine has been, and will remain, an art as well as a science.

Here at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, we strive to prepare physicians who appreciate both the scientific challenges of medicine and its human dimensions. And we have done so for 140 years.

We were the first medical college in the United States to be founded within a hospital, and we revolutionized medicine by bringing the teaching of medicine out of the lecture hall and to the patient's bedside. Many of our founding faculty members were world-renowned for their medical advancements.

In the twentieth century, our faculty continued to expand the horizons of science and health. One of our faculty members established the first federally funded dialysis clinic and another produced the first human images using magnetic resonance imaging. Our scientists were the first to prove that alcoholism has a genetic link and the first to identify the important role that nitric oxide plays in cardiovascular health.

We also continue to innovate medical education. This fall we introduced a curriculum that integrates the basic sciences with clinical education across all four years of study. In the first year, students will complete ten different multidisciplinary units, covering everything from genes and cells to the cardiovascular system and neuroscience. Actual cases will be used to introduce students to each unit.

Students will also begin seeing patients during their first year of study through a weekly "doctoring experience." In this hands-on course, physicians recognized for their humanistic approach to care will guide the students in inpatient and ambulatory settings.

We believe this new curriculum will spark our students' intellectual curiosity. Our goal is to inspire students to become life-long learners, who seek to harness evidence-based medicine to their patients' needs.

Now, as never before, we need physicians who can balance the art and science of medicine. And we welcome your interest in SUNY Downstate.


Ian L. Taylor MD, PhD,
Senior Vice President for Biomedical Education and Research and
Dean, College of Medicine