Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University and a central academic institution within Johns Hopkins Medicine, the university's integrated academic health system. Founded in Baltimore in 1893, the school was established through the bequest of philanthropist Johns Hopkins and became one of the defining institutions of modern American medical education. Its early leaders, including William H. Welch, William Stewart Halsted, William Osler, and Howard A. Kelly, helped establish a model that combined laboratory science, clinical instruction, bedside teaching, and residency training. That model strongly influenced the organization of medical schools and hospitals in the United States. The school is based at the East Baltimore campus, where it operates alongside The Johns Hopkins Hospital and other research and clinical facilities. Its educational programs include the Doctor of Medicine degree, graduate biomedical programs, combined-degree programs, residency and fellowship training, and continuing professional education. Students and faculty work across disciplines such as medicine, surgery, public health, nursing, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, oncology, cardiology, pediatrics, psychiatry, ophthalmology, and population health. The school is also closely connected with the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the Whiting School of Engineering, and other divisions of Johns Hopkins University. Research is a defining part of the institution's identity. Faculty conduct basic, translational, clinical, and health-services research through laboratories, institutes, clinical departments, and university-wide centers. Research activity has included work in genetics, infectious disease, cancer, neuroscience, immunology, cardiovascular medicine, transplantation, global health, and health policy. The school has also been involved in major federally supported research programs and in the training of physician-scientists. The medical school is not a conventional consumer brand or a publicly traded healthcare company. Its reputation is based on academic quality, clinical care, scientific research, professional training, and public-service activity. Through Johns Hopkins Medicine, its clinical enterprise includes The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital, and other affiliated or managed services. The School of Medicine remains a nonprofit educational institution whose financial and operational activities are integrated with the broader Johns Hopkins health and university systems.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was created in Baltimore in the late nineteenth century as part of the educational and medical vision established by Johns Hopkins. In his 1873 bequest, Hopkins provided support for both a university and a hospital. The Johns Hopkins Hospital opened in 1889, and the medical school followed in 1893. The institution was organized under the leadership of William H. Welch, who became its first dean and helped establish its scientific orientation. From its beginning, the school adopted a structure that differed from the proprietary medical schools common in the United States at the time. Admission standards were comparatively demanding, instruction was connected to university science, and students received systematic clinical experience in the teaching hospital. William Osler developed a bedside-centered approach to medical education; William Stewart Halsted shaped modern surgical training and residency; Howard A. Kelly advanced gynecology and surgical practice; and Welch helped build pathology and laboratory medicine. Together, these figures became associated with the so-called Johns Hopkins model, in which medical education, scientific investigation, and hospital practice were treated as mutually reinforcing activities. The school expanded during the twentieth century as medical science became more specialized and research-intensive. It developed departments, laboratories, institutes, and graduate programs in the biomedical sciences, while its hospital became a major referral center for complex care. The institution's educational mission grew beyond the basic medical degree to include doctoral education, combined-degree pathways, residency and fellowship training, and continuing education for health professionals. Its faculty participated in advances across infectious disease, genetics, oncology, cardiovascular medicine, neuroscience, transplantation, pediatrics, and public health. Johns Hopkins University later built a broader academic health structure linking the School of Medicine with The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and other university divisions. Johns Hopkins Medicine was established as the public-facing identity for the integrated clinical, educational, and research enterprise. The system subsequently included multiple hospitals and regional clinical organizations while maintaining the East Baltimore medical campus as its principal academic center. In the twenty-first century, the School of Medicine has emphasized interdisciplinary research, precision medicine, data science, global health, health equity, and translational medicine. Its faculty and students have contributed to public-health responses, including widely used COVID-19 data resources developed during the 2020 pandemic. The institution also continues to train physicians and biomedical researchers, operate major clinical programs, and support research ranging from laboratory discovery to population-level health policy. The School of Medicine is governed as part of Johns Hopkins University rather than as an independent listed corporation. Its institutional identity therefore rests on nonprofit higher education and academic medicine, with clinical operations managed through the broader Johns Hopkins Medicine structure. Its historical influence comes from the integration of rigorous scientific training, hospital-based clinical education, and research-led care.

• 2024

  Mark Gladwin begins tenure as dean

  [7]Mark Gladwin begins tenure as deanhopkinsmedicine.org

  Mark T. Gladwin became dean of the School of Medicine and a senior leader of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

• 2020

  Coronavirus Resource Center becomes a global public-health reference

  [4]Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centercoronavirus.jhu.edu

  A Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracking center provided widely used international data during the pandemic.

• 2012

  Paul Rothman becomes dean and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine

  [6]Paul Rothman becomes dean and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicinehopkinsmedicine.org

  Paul B. Rothman assumed combined leadership of the medical school and the Johns Hopkins Medicine clinical enterprise.

• 1980

  School of Medicine and hospital leadership become more integrated

  [1]Johns Hopkins Medicine historyhopkinsmedicine.org

  Johns Hopkins strengthened administrative integration between the medical school and its hospital enterprise as academic medicine became increasingly complex.

• 1910

  Flexner Report recognizes the Johns Hopkins model

  [5]The Flexner Report and medical education reformncbi.nlm.nih.gov

  The Flexner Report cited Johns Hopkins as a leading example of university-based, laboratory-informed medical education.

• 1893

  School of Medicine founded

  [1]Johns Hopkins Medicine historyhopkinsmedicine.org

  The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was established in Baltimore under founding dean William H. Welch.

• 1889

  The Johns Hopkins Hospital opens

  [1]Johns Hopkins Medicine historyhopkinsmedicine.org

  The hospital opened before the medical school and became the clinical teaching base for the future university medical faculty.

• 1873

  Johns Hopkins establishes the university and hospital bequest

  [1]Johns Hopkins Medicine historyhopkinsmedicine.org

  Johns Hopkins's bequest provided the foundation for both Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, creating the institutional framework from which the medical school developed.

An elite academic medical institution positioned around the integration of medical education, biomedical research, physician training, and complex clinical care.

• Medical education · 1893

  Doctor of Medicine program

  The School of Medicine's MD program combines foundational biomedical science, clinical instruction, clerkships, patient-centered learning, and opportunities for research and scholarly concentration. It is designed to prepare physicians for residency training and a range of clinical, academic, and public-health careers.

• Graduate education

  Graduate biomedical programs

  Graduate programs train scientists in disciplines spanning molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, genetics, biomedical engineering, epidemiology, and related fields. Students typically undertake laboratory research and interdisciplinary coursework leading to doctoral or other advanced degrees.

• Combined medical and research education

  Medical Scientist Training Program

  The MD-PhD pathway supports physician-scientist training by combining medical education with advanced biomedical research. Participants receive structured preparation for careers linking patient care, laboratory investigation, and translational research.

• Postgraduate medical training · 1893

  Residency and fellowship programs

  The school and its affiliated hospitals provide postgraduate training across medical and surgical specialties. Residents and fellows receive supervised clinical responsibility, formal teaching, and research opportunities in a large academic health system.

• Academic healthcare · 1889

  Academic clinical care

  Through Johns Hopkins Medicine, school faculty deliver specialty and complex-care services at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and affiliated hospitals. Clinical care is connected to medical education, clinical trials, biomedical research, and referral services.

• 2020Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

  Global

  The institution created a public-facing COVID-19 data and information center that aggregated reported cases, deaths, testing, vaccination, and other pandemic indicators.

  Outcome. The center became one of the most frequently consulted international sources for pandemic statistics and public-health analysis.

  Source
• 2016Precision medicine and data-intensive research expansion

  United States

  Johns Hopkins expanded research and education connecting genomics, clinical data, computational methods, and individualized treatment.

  Outcome. The initiative reinforced the School of Medicine's positioning at the intersection of biomedical research, clinical care, and health data science.

  Source

• 2020

  Provide open pandemic data infrastructureStrategy

  Background

  Governments, researchers, healthcare providers, and the public needed regularly updated information during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Action taken

  Johns Hopkins created and maintained a publicly accessible coronavirus dashboard and related data resources.

  Aftermath

  The resource became a prominent global reference while also illustrating the role of academic medical institutions in public-health communication.

  Source

• 2012

  Combine medical-school and health-system leadershipStrategy

  Background

  The scale of academic healthcare required closer coordination among education, research, and hospital operations.

  Action taken

  Johns Hopkins appointed Paul Rothman to lead both the School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

  Aftermath

  The combined structure emphasized a unified academic health enterprise linking faculty practice, hospitals, research, and education.

  Source

• 1893

  Adopt a university-based medical education modelStrategy

  Background

  Nineteenth-century American medical education was often provided by proprietary schools with limited laboratory and clinical integration.

  Action taken

  Johns Hopkins established a medical school connected to a research university and teaching hospital, with high academic admission standards and systematic clinical instruction.

  Aftermath

  The resulting model became highly influential in the United States and was later highlighted by the Flexner Report.

  Source

1. 1Johns Hopkins Medicine historyhopkinsmedicine.org
2. 2Johns Hopkins University School of Medicinehopkinsmedicine.org
3. 3Johns Hopkins Medicine education programshopkinsmedicine.org
4. 4Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centercoronavirus.jhu.edu
5. 5The Flexner Report and medical education reformncbi.nlm.nih.gov
6. 6Paul Rothman becomes dean and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicinehopkinsmedicine.org
7. 7Mark Gladwin begins tenure as deanhopkinsmedicine.org
8. 8Precision medicine and data-intensive research expansionhopkinsmedicine.org