History and Facilities

History

The School of Medicine was established by passage of a bill in the Connecticut General Assembly in 181o granting a charter for “The Medical Institution of Yale College,” to be conducted under the joint supervision of the college and the Connecticut State Medical Society. The institution was formally opened in 1813, and the first degrees were conferred the following year. In 1884, with the approval of the Medical Society, the original charter was amended to place the School definitely in the control of the College as the Medical School of Yale College. The name Yale College was changed to Yale University in 1887, and the name of the Medical School was automatically changed. The present name was adopted in 1918.

Shortly after the establishment of the School, members of its faculty and physicians in the state joined with other citizens in raising funds for a hospital in New Haven to provide, among other services, clinical facilities for the instruction of medical students. The outcome of these efforts was the incorporation of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut in 1826, and the opening of the New Haven Hospital in 1832. The New Haven Dispensary was founded in 1872 and later became a division of the New Haven Hospital. Instruction in clinical medicine has been conducted in the hospital continuously since its establishment.

A merger was effected in 1945 between the New Haven Hospital and Grace Hospital to form the Grace-New Haven Community Hospital. The affiliation agreement between the hospital and University was revised in 1965 and the name of the institution changed to Yale-New Haven Hospital (Y-NHH).

The combined facilities of the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Connecticut Mental Health Center, and Y-NHH constitute the Yale-New Haven Medical Center.

Members of the professional staffs of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park Street, hold appointments in Yale University.

Facilities

Located southwest of the New Haven Green and Yale’s Old Campus, Yale-New Haven Medical Center includes the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Yale-New Haven Hospital (Y-NHH), Connecticut Mental Health Center, and the John B. Pierce Laboratory.

The School of Medicine’s Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, is the central building. This handsome granite structure with domed roof includes administrative offices, the 45o-seat Mary S. Harkness Auditorium, the Child Study Center, the departments of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Pharmacology, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbial Pathogenesis, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology, and the sections of Comparative Medicine and History of Medicine.

The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, also located in Sterling Hall of Medicine, houses over 438,000 volumes, subscribes to more than 2,3oo print journals, and offers electronic access to resources to facilitate the use of the international biomedical literature.

Connected to the south end of Sterling Hall is the Jane Ellen Hope Building, a teaching facility of conference rooms and lecture halls. At Sterling’s north end is the Nathan Smith Building, which spans Cedar Street, joining the School of Medicine and Y-NHH patient-care facilities, including the Hunter Building. The Children’s Hospital at Yale-New Haven is connected to two other hospital pavilions by a four-story atrium. The Nathan Smith Building contains offices and laboratories of the Yale Cancer Center and the departments of Internal Medicine and Genetics. Entrance to the Hope and Nathan Smith buildings is at 333 Cedar Street.
Yale-New Haven Hospital, 2o York Street, including the Children’s Hospital at Yale-New Haven, is a 944-bed facility with 92 bassinets. School of Medicine faculty are attending physicians at Y-NHH, the School’s primary teaching hospital. All medical and surgical specialties are represented at the hospital, which discharged 43,516 inpatients in the year ending September 3o, 2002. During that period, ambulatory services treated 359,473 outpatients and emergency services had 91,259 visits. The hospital also houses the clinical component of the Yale Cancer Center, a joint program of Y-NHH and the School of Medicine.

The Children’s Hospital provides most inpatient and outpatient pediatric services, and also includes a rooftop helipad, high-risk maternity and newborn units, and labor, delivery, and postpartum services.

Y-NHH is the flagship hospital of the Yale New Haven Health System, an integrated delivery system that includes the Southern Connecticut Health System, the parent corporation of Bridgeport Hospital, and Greenwich Health Care, the parent corporation of Greenwich Hospital. Yale New Haven Health System also has relationships for managed care with the Westerly Hospital and Norwalk Hospital. The Yale New Haven Health System, the state’s largest, is among the fifty largest health systems in the nation.

The Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health is the School’s other major teaching facility. The nine-story building at 6o College Street contains classrooms, laboratories, and an auditorium. It also is the site of two World Health Organization collaborating centers, one focusing on arbovirus research and the other on health promotion policy and research. A newly renovated building at 47 College Street houses the Epidemiology and Public Health library and various administrative offices.

Laboratories and offices for the School’s clinical departments are located in contiguous buildings across Cedar Street from Sterling Hall. The Anthony N. Brady Memorial Laboratory and the adjoining Lauder Hall provide offices and laboratories for the departments of Pathology, Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Anesthesiology, and Diagnostic Radiology. Farnam Memorial Building and the Laboratory of Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology provide facilities for the departments of Pathology, Surgery, Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, and Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and for the Section of Comparative Medicine.

The Y-NHH Clinic Building connects Farnam with the Laboratory for Medicine and Pediatrics (LMP). Adjacent to the Clinic Building are Tompkins Memorial Pavilion and Fitkin Memorial Pavilion, facilities shared by the hospital and the School. They contain the departments of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery; sections of Endocrinology and Cardiology; and laboratories and offices for the Department of Pediatrics. On the other side of the Clinic Building is Fitkin Amphitheater, the LMP, and the Lippard Laboratory for Clinical Investigation, where clinical research is conducted in the departments of Dermatology, Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Pediatrics.

Offices of the Department of Psychiatry are located in the Grace Building, 25 Park Street. Many of this department’s teaching, research, and patient-care activities are conducted at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, the Yale Psychiatric Institute, and the Yale Psychiatric Hospitals.

The Yale Physicians Building, a four-story structure on the southwest corner of Howard and Davenport avenues, contains outpatient specialty and consultative services, X-ray, laboratories, and a pharmacy. It also houses academic offices for orthopaedics and rehabilitation, urology, otorhinolaryngology, and plastic surgery.

The Magnetic Resonance (MR) Center, on the corner of Davenport and Howard avenues, operated by the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, maintains three MR imaging systems for clinical examination.

The Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, at the intersection of Congress Avenue and College Street, houses multidisciplinary programs in molecular genetics, molecular and developmental neurobiology, molecular oncology and development, and molecular cardiobiology for Yale and Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists.

The Anlyan Center for Medical Research and Education, formerly known as the Congress Avenue Building, is not only the medical school’s largest major state-of-the-art research and educational facility, it is the largest on the entire Yale campus. Completed in November 2002, this outstanding facility is located on the corner of Cedar Street and Congress Avenue and encompasses a full city block. The new building includes six floors of laboratories for disease-based research, core facilities for genomics and magnetic resonance imaging, and state-of-the-art teaching space for anatomy and histology. This facility will provide laboratories and offices for the departments of Internal Medicine, Genetics, Immunobiology, and Diagnostic Radiology.

Edward S. Harkness Memorial Hall, 367 Cedar Street, is a student dormitory with the Nicholas P. R. Spinelli student lounge, the Class of 1958 Fitness Center, dining facilities, and the Phyllis Bodel Childcare Center. The School of Medicine offices of admissions, student affairs, financial aid, and international health and student programs are located on the second floor. The offices of education, student research, M.D./Ph.D. Program, and multicultural affairs are located on the third floor.

The VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, a major teaching affiliate of the School of Medicine, is the site of the Paralyzed Veterans of America/ EPVA Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research of Yale University and the Yale/VA Positron Emission Tomography Center, an advanced imaging facility.

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library

Regina K. Marone, M.L.S., Director SHM L110
Mary Angelotti, M.L.S., M.S., Head, Document Delivery Services SHM L111
Toby A. Appel, M.L.S., PH.D., Historical Librarian SHM L118
Paula Ball, M.L.S., Head Catalogue Librarian SHM L11
Kathleen Bauer, M.L.S., Nursing Reference Librarian SHM L107
Cynthia Crooker, M.L.S., Head, Technical Services and Coordinator,Collection Development SHM L15A
Daniel Dollar, M.L.S., Reference and Digital Resources Librarian SHM L15
John Gallagher, B.S., Head, Circulation Department SHM L104
Mark Gentry, M.L.S., Clinical Support Librarian SHM L113B
Janis Glover, M.L.S., Reference Librarian SHM L107
Charles Greenberg, M.L.S., M.ED., Head, Reference Services SHM L105
Holly Grossetta-Nardini, M.L.S., Coordinator of Liaison Activities SHM L107
Beatrice Luh, M.L.S., Research Support Specialist, EPH Library 47 College
Lynn Sette, M.L.S., Reference Librarian SHM L107
Judy Spak, M.L.S., Reference Librarian SHM L107
Matthew Wilcox, M.L.S., Epidemiology and Public Health Librarian 47 College
Richard Zwies, M.L.S., Web Services Librarian SHM L15

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library serves the entire Yale-New Haven Medical Center and the health care needs of Yale University, and also offers services to health professionals at large and to other libraries.

The Medical Library is a comprehensive resource for research, patient care, and educational materials. The library collects books, journals, databases, and reference materials in print and electronic formats in support of programs in the health sciences, including medicine, nursing, and public health as well as basic science research. The library houses over 438,000 volumes and has over 2,300 current print journal subscriptions. At present, the library Web site lists over 3,000 electronic journals and nearly 700 electronic books.

The Medical Library has two large computing clusters in the Information Room for access to a wide array of electronic and educational resources. The library’s Web site provides access to Orbis, the Library Catalog, the Ovid Gateway (MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Current Contents, and more), electronic journals and textbooks, and an A–Z list of many more electronic resources. An extensive collection of medical education software is available from the workstations in the Information Room and the Computer Resource Laboratory. The Computer Resource Laboratory contains twenty workstations with access to electronic resources, e-mail, word processing, and the Internet, as well as scanners, printers, and imaging equipment. The Medical Library proxy server provides remote access to restricted library resources including electronic books, electronic journals, and databases from any off-campus computer. Wireless networking access points are available in the Medical Library. Personal wireless cards must be registered and configured in advance for network access. Medical students who have a Yale PPP account may register their wireless card for use on the Yale wireless network. Online registration is available. The library also lends wireless cards for your personal laptops for use in the library.

A staff of sixteen professional librarians and twenty-four library assistants provide reference assistance and in-depth consultation, conduct tours, teach classes in database and Web searching, acquire and organize the collection, lend materials, and provide a photocopy and document delivery service (obtaining material the library does not own).

The Historical Library, a section of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, contains a large and unique collection of rare medical books plus medical journals to 1920, a collection of prints and drawings, pamphlets, and photographs, as well as current works on the history of medicine. The library also owns 325 medical incunabula, over seventy-five manuscript volumes from the twelfth through sixteenth centuries, and one of the most extensive collections of weights and measures in the world.

The Epidemiology and Public Health Library is associated with the Medical Library and contains over 25,000 volumes and 350 current journal subscriptions as well as information in electronic format on biostatistics, epidemiology, health policy and administration, environmental health, and global health.

Sterling Memorial Library, Yale’s main library and the largest library on campus, houses more than four million volumes and serves as the center of the library system. Twenty-two libraries are included in the Yale University Library system, including Kline Science Library, the Law Library, and the Seeley G. Mudd Library, which houses the government documents collection. EliExpress (Yale Libraries document delivery service) couriers transport library books daily among these and the other library units on campus.

Associates of the Yale Medical Library

Martin E. Gordon, M.D., Chair
Toby A. Appel, Secretary
Telephone: 785.4354

The associates were formed in 1948 to assist in extending the library’s services, particularly thorough development of the collections. Membership information is available from the secretary.

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