The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, first opened in 1955, rapidly became one of the nation’s premier institutions for medical education, basic research and clinical investigation. The College of Medicine is a nonsectarian institution, which from its inception has welcomed students of all creeds and races — an attribute in which Dr. Einstein took great pride when consenting to the use of his name in conjunction with the medical school.
Among its pioneering educational initiatives, Einstein was among the first of the major medical schools to integrate bedside experience with learning, bringing first-year students into contact with patients and linking classroom study to case experience. Einstein also led the way in the development of bioethics as an accepted academic discipline in medical school curricula, and it was the first private medical school in New York City to establish an academic Department of Family Medicine as well as the first to create a residency program in internal medicine with an emphasis on women’s health.
While education remains at the heart of the College’s mission, biomedical research served as a critically important driver of the College’s growth. Einstein’s 300 research laboratories are its “crucibles of creativity,” where multiple, heavily funded and world renowned centers engage in ground breaking scientific exploration in the areas of diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas in which the College of Medicine has concentrated its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities.
As the world progresses into what many researchers have referred to as the “golden age” of medicine, Einstein remains steadfast in its core missions: preparing and educating students to become caring as well as curing physicians; fostering pioneering research programs in biomedical and translational research; and delivering superb patient care. We continue to be guided by the high academic and humanistic values exemplified by our namesake, Albert Einstein, as we shape a better future for the health of people everywhere.