Hi all,
Howard University College of Medicine is located in Washington, DC. It is one of three medical schools located within the city limits and one of five medical schools located within the Baltimore-Washington Corridor. Howard is one of the HBCUs or Historically Black Colleges and Universities and has chosen as it’s mission for the 21st century, to be a magnet treatment center for diseases that are rampant in the African-American population. Howard University College of Medicine grants the MD and MD-Ph.D degrees after study.
The student body of Howard is very diverse. At present, it is about 40% of African descent (African-American, Caribbean and African) and 60% other (Latino, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Native American and White). The faculty tends to mirror the student body population. If you are reading this and thinking that you can’t get into Howard because you are White, Asian or Middle-Eastern, forget the thought because while Latino and students of African descent make up a majority of the student body, others groups are well represented and very welcome at Howard. There is no reverse discrimination here. We value our diversity and celebrate it at every opportunity.
The curriculum at Howard is intergrated with the first year consisting of blocks of study such as Cellular Mechanisms and Structural Mechanisms. Second year is still pretty traditional with Pharm, Physiology, Pathology and Physical Diagnosis.
You must take and pass USMLE Step I before you are allowed to proceed to the Third year which is the year of required clinical clerkships. The class is divided into three groups with four subgroups. You start and end the year with you subgroup. Group I starts with Medicine, Group II starts with Surgery or OB/Gyn and Group III starts with Peds or Psych. Required clerkships are Pediatrics- 8 weeks; Psychiatry 6-weeks; Family Practice 6 weeks, Surgery 8-weeks; Ob-Gyn 8 weeks; Medicine 12 weeks; Neurology/Neurosurgery-4 weeks.
The fourth year is spent in electives but there are two required rotations: Senior Medicine and Senior Surgery. Senior Medicine may be: Acting Internship, Medical Subspecialty. Senior Surgery may be: SICU or Acting Internship. You are required to do your Senior Surgery or Medicine at one of Howard affiliate hospitals or at university hospital. You also required to do a primary care clerkship which does not include Senior Medicine. After the above and the exams for Senior Medicine and Senior Surgery, you may take away electives. You must take and pass USMLE Step II before you can graduate from Howard University.
Howard has a rich tradition and legacy in medicine. The first open heart surgery was performed by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams at Howard; the first C-Section in the United States was performed at Howard; Dr. Charles Drew operated the first blood bank at Howard University. We have Dr. LaSalle Lefalle who was the first African-American president of the American College of Surgeons and the developer of most of the techniques of anastomoses in Colo-rectal surgery used today. We have Dr. Ernest Myers in ENT who has written the definite textbook on Head and Neck Cancer in use today; we have Dr. Charles Curry who is the American Heart Association’s Physician of the Year. We have the premier tissue typing laboratory under the direction of Dr. Georgia Dunston and we have Dr. Clive Callender who is a world-renouned renal transplant surgeon and Dr. Gary Dennis who is the chief of Neurosurgery and holder of several patents for intraventricular pain delivery devices. We have been named in US News & World Report as a top center for Endocrinology and Rheumatology.
Finally Howard has trained most of the African American physicians practicing in the United States today including: Edward Cornwell, III, chief of trauma surgery at Johns Hopkins, R. Sean Benoit, trauma surgeon at Inova Fairfax, LaSalle Lefalle Jr, former president of the American College of Surgeons.
Strong departments at Howard include General Surgery, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
Graduates of Howard University typically match at places such as Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, San Francisco General Hospital, UCLA Medical Center, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Yale Medical Center as well as Georgetown, GW and Howard.
