Patients at the center
of everything we do.
The patient is the center
of everything we do.
When our medical students graduate from Weill Cornell Medical College to embark
on their residency training, they take with them the certainty that whether they
choose the path of clinician, scientist or clinician-scientist everything they do will
begin and end with the welfare of the patient. This commitment to the patient will
continue to serve them as a compass in their every endeavor.
As educators, researchers and, of course, as practitioners, our faculty embrace this
patient-centric philosophy and impart its importance to their students during each
facet of the Weill Cornell experience. In fact, Weill Cornell has long been at the
forefront of introducing students into the clinical environment. More than 15 years
ago, Weill Cornell inaugurated a new agenda for academic medicine that infused
the curriculum with early exposure to patient care.
Weill Cornell Medical College offers students the best of both worlds – access to the
latest advances in patient care and discoveries achieved in our laboratories. Medical
students today are the next generation of discoverers. It is their role – indeed their
obligation – to observe and listen to their patients, and to seek new cures, new
processes, and new paradigms of care.
During their time at Weill Cornell Medical College, our graduates have learned many
things. Perhaps the most important lesson has been that ultimately they will be
treating people, not just their disease. And as agents of good health, they will
also be agents of hope.
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD
Steven and Suzanne Weiss Dean
Weill Cornell Medical College
Provost for Medical Affairs
Cornell University
Appreciating the
Weill Cornell Difference
What is it that makes Weill Cornell Medical College a
leader among medical schools?
• A progressive science curriculum based on
problem-based learning, emphasizing
active learning, self-directed inquiry and
small groups rather than lectures. The chief
outcome of problem-based learning is
that students master the same amount of
material as in conventional curricula – or
more – while truly enjoying the
learning process.
• Science and research opportunities that
are unusually broad by virtue of the
co-presence, on a single campus, of five
renowned institutions dedicated to the
healthcare sciences: Weill Cornell Medical
College, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,
Hospital for Special Surgery and The
Rockefeller University.
• A clinical program characterized by early
patient exposure; core rotations at a stateof-the-art academic teaching hospital; and
clinical rotations at a great variety of public
hospitals, community hospitals and
research hospitals throughout New York
City and the region.
• A patient population that may be the
most diverse of any medical center in
the world.
• A special emphasis on internationalism:
Students have performed clinical care
and/or research in more than 80 countries
on six continents – usually with full funding
from Weill Cornell.
• Students learn in New York City, the
world’s center for culture, arts, literature,
and science.
www.weill.cornell.edu
Learning Around the Globe
NORTH AMERICA
EUROPE
On six continents and in more than 20 programs, global wellness
initiatives give Weill Cornell Medical College students the chance to
make a real difference, while reaping the benefits of faculty-student
mentorship, field work and independent study.
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AFRICA Tanzania
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ASIA
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ASIA Doha, Qatar;
Bangkok, Thailand;
India: Vellore, Cochin,
Bangalore, Orissa,
Jaipur, Varanasi
AUSTRALIA Sydney
EUROPE Munich, Germany;
Vienna, Austria;
London, England;
Copenhagen, Denmark;
Paris, France
NORTH AMERICA Haiti;
Native American reservations;
Clinics on the U.S. – Mexico border
SOUTH AMERICA Lima, Peru;
Sao Paulo, Brazil;
Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Guyana
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AFRICA
AUSTRALIA
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SOUTH AMERICA
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Each year, about 40 percent of students
integrate global wellness into the first-and
second-year curriculum, with international
electives in the fourth year. Weill Cornell’s
primary global programs include initiatives
in Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti and Brazil.
In Tanzania, medical students spend a rotation
at Weill Bugando University College of Health
Sciences, whose mission is to strengthen
medical education and training. Tanzania has
one physician per 50,000 patients, the lowest
ratio of physicians to patients in the world.
All the global initiatives serve community needs
and foster self-sufficiency through education,
clinical care, research and public policy.
www.weill.cornell.edu/globalhealth
Greetings from Qatar
The New York City and Doha campuses of Weill Cornell Medical College
have a lot in common. The Hippocratic Oath is the same. The curriculum
is the same. The standards for admission are the same. But the Weill
Cornell Medical College campus in Doha, Qatar, is unique.
It is the first and only medical school in Qatar,
an emirate in the Middle East, and a pioneer in
co-education. The Weill Cornell Medical
College-Qatar student body is widely diverse,
representing more than 36 countries on five
continents. It has a unique structure with a
two-year pre-medical education program as
well as the four-year medical school. The three
graduating classes from Weill Cornell-Qatar
have gone on to residency programs in some
of the top hospitals in the United States, as
well as hospitals in the Middle East.
Weill Cornell-Qatar also marks the first time a
United States university has offered its MD
degree overseas.
Established in 2001 in partnership between
Cornell University and Qatar Foundation,
pre-medical teaching began in Doha in 2002
and the medical education program opened
in 2004. The first class of medical students
graduated from the campus in 2008.
Students have opportunities to study in both
New York and Doha. Faculty at the Weill Cornell
campus in New York often lead courses at Weill
Cornell-Qatar through video conferencing.
Weill Cornell-Qatar is also working with Qatar
Foundation on the Sidra Medical and Research
Center. Together, Weill Cornell-Qatar and Sidra
are forming an academic medical center of
excellence, home to top-quality healthcare
and research.
www.qatar-weill.cornell.edu
NYC Student
Stats
Weill Cornell Medical College
chooses about 100 students each
year from almost 6,000 applicants.
2011 ENTERING MEDICAL STUDENTS
Total applications received 2011 .........................5,722
Total applicants interviewed..............................823
Enrolled medical students (Fall 2011).....................101
Men.......................................................................51
Women.................................................................50
Enrolled PhD students (Fall 2011).............................70
Male......................................................................30
Female..................................................................40
MEDICAL STUDENT DIVERSITY
Enrolled medical students (Fall 2011)
Under-represented Minorities .............................18
New York State Residents....................................31
Out-of-State Residents ........................................70
Match Day
PhD STUDENT DIVERSITY
Enrolled PhD students (Fall 2011)
Under-represented minorities ...............................6
Fourth-year medical students at Weill Cornell often receive their first
residency choice, which include most of the top hospitals in the nation
as ranked by U.S.News & World Report.
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Brigham and Women's Hospital
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Mount Sinai Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
NYU Langone Medical Center
Yale-New Haven Hospital
Strong Memorial Hospital – University of
Rochester Medical Center
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Hospital for Special Surgery
University of Michigan Health System
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Duke University Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
New York State residents.......................................6
Out-of-State residents .........................................29
International students ..........................................35
Stats
(Continued)
ENTERING MEDICAL STUDENTS
Average Science GPA.............................................3.77
Cumulative GPA......................................................3.77
Average MCAT Score .............................................11.6
Verbal.................................................................10.8
Physical Science ................................................12.1
Biological Science.............................................12.0
Age range in years...............................................21–39
Average age............................................................24.1
ENTERING PhD STUDENTS
Average Science GPA...............................................3.6
Average GRE Score (percentile).............................87%
Verbal ................................................................87%
Quantitative ......................................................85%
TOTAL ENROLLED STUDENTS
Medical students................................................417
Graduate students .............................................574*
MD-PhD students ..............................................106
*Included in this number are:
362 PhD
27 PhD Tri-I Chemical Biology
The Doctor
Will Tape You Now
23 PhD Tri-I Computational Biology
22 MS Clinical Epidemiology &
Health Services Research
42 MS Clinical & Translational Investigation
92 MS Health Sciences for Physician Assistants
Weill Cornell internships can take students around the globe or down
the street. But Ximena Levander's internship was something only
New York City could offer.
DEGREES CONFERRED IN MAY 2012
MD......................................................................112
PhD .......................................................................47
MS.........................................................................55
MD/PhD ...............................................................13
Levander, who graduated in 2012, spent a year
in television before returning to complete her
MD. She worked as a researcher for "The Dr.
Oz Show," the syndicated medical-affairs
program hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian/
Columbia cardiac surgeon and frequent
“Oprah” guest Mehmet Oz, MD.
She worked long, intense hours in the show’s
offices in Rockefeller Center, where “Dr. Oz”
tapes, across the hall from Jimmy Fallon’s “Late
Night.” Her work meant reviewing transcripts of
shows that were taped, medically clearing
scripts that were written and doing research for
shows that were to be written.
Work was a three-week cycle, six episodes
a week, with a week’s break in between.
Levander's internship delved into topics from
constipation to back pain, Alzheimer’s to
alternative medicine. Applicants for the
internship had to show their research skills,
and after making it to the final round she was
interviewed by Dr. Oz himself.
Real Patients,
Real Care
Since 2003, the student-run Weill Cornell
Community Clinic has provided free healthcare
services to the uninsured patients of New York
City. That means students run everything from
setting up appointments to raising money.
For example, prescription costs, which are
covered by the clinic, could bankrupt the clinic
if not managed. So, students compile lists of all
available low-cost generics and help enroll
eligible patients in assistance programs run by
pharmaceutical companies when higher-cost
non-generic drugs are required. This ensures
that all patients receive the drugs they need
regardless of cost.
The clinic provides a full range of specialty
referral services. To keep down the costs of
these referrals, the clinic pre-arranges a low or
no-cost billing schedule with outside clinicians.
The clinic remains open every Monday evening
and serves about 150 patients in the course
of a year.
In this way, students receive the clinical practice
they need while patients receive care. More than
70 percent of first-year students participate in
the program to get the experience of working
with patients. Senior students get the
opportunity to teach junior students.
In 2010, the clinic began a continuity project to
pair students with patients who have a chronic
illness. Before then, patients could see a
different student each time. So far, about 20
students have participated in the continuity of
care program, allowing them to follow a patient
until they graduate.
Community
Clinic
Programs
Monday Night Clinic
Volunteer medical faculty oversee medical
students to provide patient history, physical
examination, assessment and a care plan for
uninsured patients.
New York Insurance Screen for Eligibility
Volunteer medical and social work students
screen patients for insurance and Medicaid
eligibility and assist patients with the
enrollment process.
“Heart to Heart”
Community Outreach Program
Volunteer students and medical faculty provide
health fairs to educate and screen the public in
partnership with local leaders.
Psychosocial Services and
Mental Health Screening
Volunteers from Weill Cornell Medical College
and the Hunter College School of Social Work
collaborate to screen and refer patients for
appropriate care.
Diversity in the City
Women’s Health Clinic
Volunteer medical students and physicians
provide routine OB/GYN screening services,
reproductive health counseling and specialty
referrals for complex needs.
"Melting pot" was coined to describe New York City's neighborhoods,
rich with different ethnicities, languages and cultures. For Weill Cornell
students, New York City provides the opportunity to learn in one of the
most clinically diverse centers of the world.
The clinical education of Weill Cornell students
begins in the first year with preceptorships,
more than half of which are outside Manhattan.
Third- and fourth-year students can do part or
all of their required clerkships in affiliated
hospitals located in communities as diverse as
the predominantly Chinese area served by the
New York Downtown Hospital to the Hispanic
neighborhood of the Bronx’s Lincoln Hospital to
the New York Hospital Queens, located in one
of the world’s most ethnically diverse enclaves.
The principal teaching site for Well Cornell
Medical College is NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital, one of the world's leading hospitals.
But clinical instruction is as diverse as the
population. Some of it takes place in leading
teaching hospitals. Some of it takes place in
small community hospitals. Students also have
the opportunity to study outside New York and
around the globe.
During the clinical portion of their medical
studies, students learn by actively providing
care to patients, under the supervision of the
faculty. Weill Cornell's model for clinical
learning encourages the student to analyze
clinical problems rigorously, then discuss the
interpretation with the faculty, then implement
the clinical plan. This encourages the student to
develop independent clinical skills, while safeguarding the highest level of patient care.
The Five
Centers
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the
largest hospital in New York and one of
the most comprehensive and respected
academic hospitals in the world. It provides
state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and
preventive care in all areas of medicine.
The five main facilities are:
• NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian/
Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/
Columbia University Medical Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/
Weill Cornell Medical Center
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division
Partners in
Education
Unique medical training requires a unique hospital partner. At NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell students rotate through clinical
clerkships led by world-class doctors in a world-class facility that
redefines the cutting-edge in medicine every day.
For more than 10 years, NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital has been included in the U.S.News &
World Report Honor Roll of America's Best
Hospitals. This distinction places NewYorkPresbyterian among the most prestigious,
world-class medical institutions. The hospital is
also affiliated with the Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Students are able to train at the main hospital
campuses and at affiliated hospitals in the
NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, which
includes 32 hospitals, six long-term care facilities,
12 home health agencies, three specialty
institutes and 97 ambulatory care centers.
Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital are also affiliated with The Methodist
Hospital in Houston, Texas.
www.nyp.org
High-tech
Clinical Skills Training
“What you are about to experience is similar to what’s done during flight
training for pilots. You’ll learn by being placed in a situation that is as
realistic as possible.”
With those instructions, Dr. Yoon Kang, director
of Weill Cornell’s Margaret and Ian Smith Clinical
Skills Center, introduces students to hands-on
training designed to polish their patient skills.
The Observed Structural Clinical Exercise allows
students to practice taking medical histories,
giving physical exams and asking the right
questions to narrow a diagnosis.
Every exercise is observed through two-way
mirrors and assessed both by the center and
the actors portraying patients. Students begin
to use the center, a 10,000-square-foot teaching
facility on the 10th floor of the Weill Greenberg
Center, soon after entering school to help assess
the progression of their clinical skills over time.
The students spend 15 minutes on each case
taking a history and performing a physical exam
on the actor, or in some cases, practicing
telemedicine on a “distant” patient using
webcams and an iPad®. Students may examine
several actors during the course of the exercise.
State-of-the-art audiovisual equipment records
the interactions and digitally streams images
to a database for later analysis. After each case,
students have 10 minutes to write up a
patient note, which includes diagnoses and
recommendations.
The exercises help students prepare for the
Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam of the United States
Medical Licensing Exam, which ensures that
young doctors have good clinical skills. Scoring
of their performance identifies students’
strengths and weaknesses in gathering
information, performing exams and
communicating findings to patients and
colleagues.
Weill Cornell Medical College is one of
the first medical schools to equip all first-,
second- and third-year medical students
with iPad 2 tablets to provide students
with a wealth of medical information and
educational tools at their fingertips, as well
as preparing them to be better clinicians
in our electronic age.
iPad
Tools
The Clinical Skills Lab uses iPad’s FaceTime video-conferencing
technology to improve each medical student’s telemedicine skills,
including patient interactions, communication skills, medical history
taking and diagnostic capabilities. The experience allows medical
students to become more comfortable using multi-media to
communicate with patients outside the traditional exam room.
Medical Student
Research Day
For 10 years, Weill Cornell's Medical Student Research Day has allowed
students to share their studies and findings with their fellow students,
faculty and other investigators.
The day-long, student-run event features oral
and poster presentations from 30 student
researchers, who dedicate summers, evenings –
some even take a year off from school – to
conduct their studies. Research Day familiarizes
students with the scientific process and allows
them to conduct rigorous research and present
it to the scientific community.
To assess the prevalence of undiagnosed and
under-treated cardiovascular disease in at-risk
populations, two students established a
community-based research study that brings
point-of-care testing to underserved
communities in New York and its suburbs.
The Heart-to-Heart Campaign is funded
through a two-year pilot grant from the Clinical
and Translational Science Center. In addition
to the $50,000 award, the CTSC also staffs
the community events with a community
coordinator and liaisons.
Another student took a year off between her
third and fourth years at Weill Cornell to
conduct a study comparing the ability to break
down blood clots in patients with sepsis and
healthy volunteers at the Medical Intensive
Care Unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Some research is supported through a
competitive TL1 Training Award from the CTSC,
providing an annual stipend for 100 percent
protected research time to students and early
stage investigators.
The projects are judged by faculty members
and prizes are awarded for best oral
presentations and poster presentations.
Graduate School of
Medical Sciences
At the Weill Cornell Graduate School of
Medical Sciences, more than 250 faculty are
committed to providing an intellectually
challenging environment and outstanding
training, with mentoring as a top priority for
pre-doctoral and doctoral students. Training the
future leaders in basic and translational science
is the number one goal of the Graduate School.
So far, more than 1,000 students have earned
Cornell University PhDs that prepare them for
careers in the biomedical sciences. Enrollment
has taken a two-fold increase in the past
decade to more than 400 PhD students today.
www.weill.cornell.edu/gradschool
Bridging the Distance
Ithaca, NY and New York City are separated by 250 miles, but the
campuses of Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical College
have always been close. And they are getting closer.
Cornell University will build a two-millionsquare-foot applied science and engineering
campus in the East River of New York City on
Roosevelt Island – a tram ride from the Weill
Cornell campus. Called Cornell NYC Tech, it will
fashion New York City into a high-tech capital.
Every day, dozens of students, physicians,
scientists and engineers bridge the distance
between Cornell and Weill Cornell, working
together in innovative interdisciplinary
partnerships that hold dramatic potential
for the development of new discoveries,
technologies and therapies.
With the new Cornell NYC Tech campus,
Weill Cornell will collaborate on the Healthier
Life hub, a core focus of the campus, where
researchers will focus on developing promising
technologies to promote healthier living
and improve the quality of healthcare while
addressing issues that are driving healthcare
costs up. Future projects may include creating
sensors for the iPhone® that provide feedback
on a person’s health to using social media to
understand mental health concerns.
The Cornell NYC Tech campus promises
to forge a new paradigm of collaboration
between academia and industry.
Initial full-time classes will begin in 2013
in space donated by Google and the first
campus on Roosevelt Island is expected
to open in 2017.
www.cornell.edu/nyc
From Bench to Bedside
The Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) works
to move the “eureka moments” of basic research into practical
treatments to help patients.
Founded in September 2007, it is one of 60
translational centers nationwide created by the
NIH to promote community health. In 2012, the
NIH awarded Weill Cornell $49.6 million to
continue the CTSC's goal of accelerating new
patient preventive interventions and treatments
through translational research.
Feeding a continuum of basic research, clinical
research and community treatment, the CTSC
concentrates on encouraging researchers,
enhancing their work and seeing it through to
patient treatment.
Its multidisciplinary biomedical network
includes researchers from:
• Weill Cornell Medical College
• Weill Cornell Graduate School of
Medical Sciences
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell
Medical Center
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Hospital for Special Surgery
• Cornell University, Ithaca including Cornell
University Cooperative Extension,
New York City
• Hunter College of the City University of New
York with its School of Nursing, School of
Public Health and Center for the Study of
Gene Structure and Function
• The Animal Medical Center
The CTSC's education program, now with more
than 50 students, develops a pipeline of highly
trained clinical researchers who are experts in
moving ideas from the bench to the bedside.
It provides training in clinical investigation
through a one-year advanced certificate or a
two-year master’s degree, as well as MD-PhD
programs and an MDMS. The programs are
open to medical students, doctors, MD-PhD
students, senior residents, fellows, dentists,
faculty, PhD nursing candidates, as well as
certified physician assistants and clinical
research project coordinators.
The center also offers “seed money” to help
student investigators get their research off the
ground. The idea is to help researchers get the
preliminary data necessary to apply for grants.
www.weill.cornell.edu/ctsc
Weill Cornell
Research Is
Supported
By:
Belfer Research Building
In 2014, Weill Cornell Medical College will
open the Belfer Research Building, a stateof-the-art facility that will more than double
the institution's existing research space and
allow for the recruitment of more than three
dozen additional top-tier physician-scientists.
The 18-story, $650 million building is the
centerpiece of Weill Cornell's $1.3 billion
Discoveries that Make a Difference Campaign,
the nation’s largest philanthropic campaign for
a medical college. Located at East 69th St.
between York and First Avenues, the
480,000-square-foot building will include
16 program floors and become the hub for
significantly expanded bench-to-bedside
translational research initiatives.
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute
National Institutes of Health
U.S. Department of Defense
National Science Foundation
National Cancer Institute
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
James S. McDonnell Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Starr Foundation
Ellison Medical Foundation
Simons Foundations
March of Dimes
Michael J. Fox Foundation
Hartwell Foundation
Susan G. Komen Foundation
Leukemia/Lymphoma Society
Lymphoma Research Foundation
The V Foundation for Cancer Research
The Sohn Conference Foundation
Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation
JPB Foundation
Leon Levy Foundation
Making History
In 1898, the world was changing quickly.
Electricity was becoming a fixture of cities and
industry. Aspirin was about to be marketed and
radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre
Curie. The industrial age had begun and the
age of medical discovery was about to begin.
Within this time, Col. Oliver Hazard Payne was a
man of success and means. He left Yale College
to enlist as an officer in the Union Army during
the Civil War. He became a principal stockholder and treasurer of Standard Oil of Ohio
and held investments in the American Tobacco
Company, Tennessee Coal and Iron Co., which
later merged into U.S. Steel and several
railroads. On April 14, 1898, Col. Payne gave
a gift of $1.5 million to establish the Cornell
University Medical College in New York City.
He had been approached to fund the medical
school by Dr. Lewis Atterbury Stimson, a friend
from Yale, and Dr. Henry Patterson Loomis, his
doctor’s son.
The foundation of the institution started with
research. As Cornell University President Jacob
Gould Schurman said at Weill Cornell’s opening
ceremonies, “What is needed for the training of
physicians and surgeons today? I answer, first,
science; secondly, science; thirdly, science.”
Cornell University Medical College quickly
became a national leader by emphasizing
instruction, clinical care and research. In 1912,
Cornell formalized its relationship with New
York Hospital, the second oldest hospital in
the United States and now part of NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital. By 1927, the two
institutions agreed to build a joint medical center
where faculty and staff held joint appointments
to the hospital and medical school.
In 1998, the centennial of the founding, Joan
and Sanford I. Weill, long-time benefactors of
the medical college, awarded $100 million to
assist it in continuing cutting-edge medical
research. The institution now has a new name:
Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate
School of Medical Sciences.
Today, Weill Cornell is the first medical school in
the U.S. to offer medical education and its MD
degree in a foreign country with the founding
of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.
With NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell created
an historic affiliation in 2004 with The Methodist
Hospital in Houston, Texas, to collaborate on
patient care, research and education. These
achievements are part of our continuing
commitment to the globalization of medicine,
biomedical research, education and healthcare.