Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, US, is a health sciences university. It includes a medical school, Baylor College of Medicine; the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the School of Allied Health Sciences; and the National School of Tropical Medicine. The school, located in the middle of the world’s largest medical center (Texas Medical Center), is part owner of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, part of the CHI St. Luke’s Health system, and has hospital affiliations with: Harris Health System, Texas Children’s Hospital, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Hermann – The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, Menninger Clinic, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.
The medical school has been consistently considered in the top tier of programs in the country, and is particularly noted for having the lowest tuition among all private medical schools in the US. Its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is among the top 25 graduate schools in the United States. Within the School of Allied Health Sciences, the Nurse anesthetist program ranks 2nd and the physician assistant program ranks 6th. A program in Orthotics and Prosthetics began in 2013, with 18 students in the first class. The National School of Tropical Medicine is the only school in the nation dedicated exclusively to patient care, research, education and policy related to neglected tropical diseases.
The school was formed in Dallas, Texas by a small group of Baylor University alumni physicians who aimed to improve medical practice in North Texas. Originally called the University Of Dallas Medical Department, the school opened its doors October 30, 1900, with 81 students. Dr. Albert Ferdinand Beddoe, A.B., M.D. was a co-founder, alongside Samuel Hollingsworth Stout, who served as its founding dean from 1902 to 1903. Meanwhile, Beddoe established the chair of Diseases of Children and became a professor. He built up the free clinic in connection with Baylor hospital.
In 1903, an alliance with Baylor University in Waco was formed and the name was changed to Baylor University College of Medicine.
In 1969, the college separated from Baylor University and became an independent institution, which allowed it access to federal research funding, changing its name to Baylor College of Medicine. That same year, BCM negotiated with the Texas Legislature to double its class size in order to increase the number of physicians in Texas.
In 2005, Baylor College of Medicine began building a hospital and clinic, to be called the Baylor Clinic and Hospital, slated to open in 2011. In 2009, the college postponed construction for financial reasons, with the outer shell of the hospital completed but the interiors remaining unfinished. In March 2012, BCM decided to convert the building to an outpatient clinic center. In 2009, BCM entered into discussions with Rice University regarding a potential merger between the two Houston institutions. After extensive meetings, the boards at both institutions decided that each school would remain an independent. In 2010, Baylor University entered into talks with BCM to strengthening ties to each other; however, the merger did not occur.
In January 2014, the BCM and CHI St. Luke’s announced they would become joint owners of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, a hospital at the Texas Medical Center (formerly known as St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, then St. Luke’s Medical Center after it was purchased by Catholic Health Initiatives in 2013). A partially completed hospital building on the BCM–McNair Campus is slated to open in 2015 and will become BCM’s acute-care hospital and main medical teaching facility.
Each year the medical school matriculates around 185 students, around 75% of whom are Texas residents. Baylor College of Medicine is the least expensive private medical school in the country. It is also one of the few medical schools in the United States that is structured with an accelerated 1.5 year preclinical curriculum.
Baylor College of Medicine is also one of only 45 medical institutions in the United States to offer a Medical Scientist Training Program. This federally sponsored and highly competitive program allows exceptionally well qualified students to study for a combined MD and PhD in a medical science to be earned in 7–9 total years. Typically, 8–12 students matriculate into this program per year, and receive free tuition in addition to a stipend of $29,000 per academic year.
The Baylor College of Medicine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences ranks 25th for best Ph.D. program in the biological sciences. Overall, in 2013 BCM ranked 19th in terms of research funding from the National Institutes of Health based on rankings done by the Blue Ridge Institute. Baylor also ranked in the top 20 in eight specialty areas, including number one in the nation for Genetics.
BCM’s research faculty includes seven members of the National Academy of Sciences, 14 members of the Institute of Medicine and three members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
About 100 students join the graduate program each year, of which one half were women and one third were graduates from foreign schools.
Baylor College of Medicine sponsors Graduate Medical Education in more than 80 ACGME-accredited, and 40 Texas Medical Board (TMB)-approved training programs.
At Baylor College of Medicine residents and fellows learn from one of the most diverse patient populations anywhere in the country. This is partially due to the diversity found within the city of Houston, which has no single majority ethnic group. The hospitals of the Texas Medical Center and Houston’s status as a hub for international industry also draw patients from every corner of the globe. Adding to this diversity are the many and varied settings in which residents and fellows have the opportunity to train, including Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and Baylor’s many affiliated hospitals.
The male Asian elephant calf born to Shanti at the Houston Zoo on May 4, 2010 was named Baylor in honor of the college and their research on elephant herpesvirus.
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