page_title: Alpert Medical School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Alpert Medical School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to the new home of Brown Alpert Medical School in a converted jewelry factory in the Jewelry District of Providence, Rhode Island.
context_page_description: The Warren Alpert Medical School is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Established in 1811, the school was among the first in the nation to offer academic medical education. Today, Alpert Medical School is a component of Brown’s Division of Biology and Medicine, which also includes the Program in Biology. Together with the Medical School’s seven affiliated teaching hospitals, the Division attracts over $300 million in external research funding per year.
  The fourth most selective medical school in the United States, Alpert Medical School earned rankings of twenty-first for primary care education and thirty-first for research in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Alpert was also ranked in the top 20 medical schools in the nation by Business Insider. Graduates of Alpert Medical School are accepted into competitive residency programs and leading medical centers.
context_section_description: Brown University first organized a medical program in 1811, following examples set by its New England neighbors, Harvard University and Dartmouth College. When President Wayland called for all Brown faculty to reside on campus, the physicians serving as voluntary clinical faculty refused to jeopardize their practices in order to comply. In 1827, President Wayland suspended the fledgling medical program. There were 87 graduates of Brown's first program in medicine. The medical school was restarted in 1972 as the Program in Medicine and the first M.D. degrees of the modern era were awarded to a graduating class of 58 students in 1975. The Program in Medicine was renamed Brown University School of Medicine in 1991, and renamed Brown Medical School in 2000.
  
  On campus, the 168,800-square-foot (15,680 m²), $95-million Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences opened in October 2004. The facility houses more than 60 new laboratories, a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging facility, and an electron microscopy suite and supports research in the departments of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry. Taken together, these two new facilities represent an increase of approximately 75 percent in Brown's laboratory capacity for life science research. Medical School preclinical classes were formerly held in the adjacent Bio-Med Center, Multidisciplinary Laboratories, and Smith-Buonano Hall of the Pembroke Campus. However, since the completion of renovations at 222 Richmond Street, all preclinical coursework, as well as 3rd and 4th year shelf exams and OSCEs are located at the new building (see below).
  In January 2007, self-made entrepreneur Warren Alpert donated $100 million to Brown Medical School, tying Sidney Frank for the largest single monetary contribution ever made to the University. In recognition of the gift, Brown Medical School was renamed to The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. The funds contributed to the construction of a new medical education facility, medical student scholarships (through the Warren Alpert Scholars Program), support for biomedical research and faculty recruitment, and new endowed professorships.
  In August 2011, the University and Medical School completed the process of renovating a University-owned property at 222 Richmond Street in the Jewelry District of Providence. The Medical Education (Med-Ed) facility, which now houses pre-clinical classes, anatomy and histology labs, simulation facilities (Clinical Skills Unit), student study space and resources, and the majority of the medical school Administration. Brown University also invested in several community enhancements in the area surrounding the medical school's new home, including a police substation shared by Providence and Brown police, a new public plaza called Ship Street Square, and new trees, sidewalks, and street paving. The relocation of Brown's medical school marks the initial stages in Providence's efforts to revamp the Jewelry District as a hub of medical research and biotech industry. Governor Lincoln Chafee hailed the school's opening as "a catalytic moment in the history of Rhode Island."
caption: Med-Ed Building: The home of Brown Alpert Medical School
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