Thomas J. Lawley, MD, Dean
Emory University School of Medicine is ranked among the nation’s finest institutions for education, biomedical research, and patient care. The school had 43 applications in 2007 for each of its first-year positions, and its students perform extremely well compared with their peers at other schools. In 2007, for example, the pass rate for first-time takers of part 1 of the National Board Exam was 99%. On graduation, almost half of the school’s students pursue residencies in primary care.
Student totals for the entering class of 2011 increased by 15% to 133. This increase was made possible by the opening of a new medical school building in 2007, which enabled implementation of a completely revised medical curriculum. The school has a total of 480 medical students and trains more than 1,100 residents and fellows in 80 accredited programs. The school has 66 MD/PhD students in one of the 40 Medical Scientist Training Programs sponsored by the NIH and 454 postdoctoral fellows. Some of these MD/PhD students are in a joint program with Georgia Institute of Technology, with which the medical school shares a biomedical engineering department ranked second in the country in 2007 by U.S. News & World Report. The medical school has 14 MD/MPH and two MD/MBA students. More than 240 medical school faculty also train predoctoral bioscience researchers in one or more of the eight programs of the university’s Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.
Faculty in five health professions programs train 420 students. These include a physician assistant program ranked third in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and a physical therapy doctoral program ranked eighth.
The medical school’s faculty received $301.3 million in sponsored research in 2007, including $36.5 million received by medical faculty at Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Ranked 18th nationally in NIH dollars received, the school is one of the fastest-growing recipients of NIH awards in the country. The school has 2,053 full- and part-time faculty and 995 volunteer faculty.
School of Medicine, continued Physician faculty in Emory’s own hospitals, affiliated teaching hospitals, and outpatient venues are responsible for more than 3.6 million patient visits annually. The school has 13,287 alumni (5,221 medical school and 8,280 residency alumni), and one of every four physicians in Georgia was trained at Emory. In addition to the school’s regular education programs, 7,113 physicians and other health care professionals came to Emory last year to participate in continuing medical education.
In addition to Georgia Tech and other research institutions throughout the state and nation, the school maintains strong ties with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta through a joint venture agreement.
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (1905)
Marla E. Salmon, ScD, RN, FAAN, Dean
The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing produces nursing leaders who are transforming health care through science, education, practice, and policy worldwide. It has 207 baccalaureate, 194 master’s, and 12 doctoral students as well as six postdoctoral fellows. Students who complete their undergraduate degree go on to become national and international leaders in patient care, public health, government, and education. The school offers a dual-degree program with several colleges, providing undergraduates with a strong background in liberal arts and nursing. The school’s master’s program offers opportunities to specialize in advanced nursing practice in a number of clinical settings and roles. Graduates are qualified to seek certification as nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and/or clinical nurse specialists. A dual-degree option is available with the Rollins School of Public Health, allowing students to graduate with master’s degrees in both nursing and public health. In this program, students can major in international nursing, a rare offering in the United States or around the world. The school’s PhD program is focused on generating new knowledge to improve health and health care quality, with emphasis on research on bio-behavioral determinants of health, improving global health, and enhancing health systems.
In 2007, the school received $3.3 million in research funding. Nationally, the school ranks in the top 10 among private schools in research funding from the NIH. It currently is ranked 26th overall by U.S. News & World Report, which also ranked the school’s nurse midwifery graduate program eighth in the nation. Major programs include the Center for Research on Symptoms, Symptom Interactions, and Health Outcomes; the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing; and the Fuld Fellowship, which targets second-career students with a special interest in serving vulnerable populations. The nursing school has 65 faculty and is affiliated with more than 300 clinical sites and 25 sites for community service learning. Additional learning sites are available, including an alternative spring break in four countries and a multiuniversity, multidiscipline collaborative summer program with Georgia migrant farm workers. The school has approximately 10,000 graduates.
Rollins School of Public Health (1990)
James W. Curran, MD, MPH, Dean
The Rollins School of Public Health has 781 master’s degree students; 121 PhD students who choose from degree options in behavioral sciences and health education, biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental and occupational health, health policy and management, and global health; and 21 postdoctoral fellows. The school has approximately 4,500 alumni.
A leader in interdisciplinary studies, the school offers dual-degree programs with medicine, nursing, health professions, business, and law. Master’s degrees also are available with a concentration in clinical research. The Career MPH is a distance-learning program for mid-career professionals who wish to pursue a degree while employed.
In 2007, the school recorded $54.7 million in research funding. These funds support research efforts in cancer epidemiology, nutrition, environmental and occupational health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, addictive behaviors, youth violence, antibiotic resistance, micronutrient malnutrition, diabetes and obesity, and health care costs and allocation of health resources.
Many of the 180 full-time faculty and more than 250 adjunct faculty in six academic departments are linked by appointments, shared programs, or research grants with the CDC, The Carter Center, the American Cancer Society, CARE, the Arthritis Foundation, the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, and state and local public health agencies. Through these partnerships and in its role as a center for international health research and training, the school helps make Atlanta the public health capital of the world. The school is ranked 7th among peer institutions by U.S. News & World Report.
Yerkes National Primate Research Center (1930)
Stuart M. Zola, PhD, Director
One of eight national primate research centers funded by the NIH, Yerkes National Primate Research Center is dedicated to advancing scientific understanding and to improving human health and well-being. Supported by $42.6 million in funding, Yerkes’ research program includes approximately 115 projects. Studies involve 3,400 nonhuman primates, which provide a critical link between research with small laboratory animals and the clinical trials performed in humans. Approximately 1,150 of the animals are at the main center on the Emory campus and another 2,250 are at a 117-acre satellite facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In addition, the center has some 7,000 rodents in its research vivariums.
In addition to 331 staff members, Yerkes is home to 32 faculty scientists, 113 affiliate and 41 collaborative faculty, and 74 research associates from Emory and other institutions. More than 150 graduate and undergraduate students participate in research and educational programs at Yerkes, including 52 postdoctoral fellows.
Yerkes is making landmark discoveries in microbiology and immunology, neuroscience, psychobiology, and sensory-motor systems. One of the center’s primary goals, working with the Emory Vaccine Center, is to develop an AIDS vaccine to combat the global epidemic now affecting more than 42 million people.
Other significant research programs are seeking ways to increase understanding of progressive illnesses such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, unlock the secrets of memory, treat drug addiction, determine behavioral effects of hormone replacement therapy, address vision disorders, advance knowledge about the evolutionary links between biology and behavior, and interpret brain activity through imaging. Yerkes is the only U.S. primate center to have on-site MRI, PET, and cyclotron facilities.
Collaboration is key to Yerkes research. At the Living Links Center, scientists collaborate to study the animal roots of human social behaviors, such as cooperation, affiliation, and reconciliation. Yerkes researchers who also are members of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) collaborate with scientists from the CBN’s consortium of eight Atlanta-based institutions in research and education.
Because of their similarity to humans in genetic makeup, behavior, and organ-system function, nonhuman primates provide irreplaceable opportunities to better understand, prevent, and treat human disease.
Emory Healthcare (1997)
Fred Sanfilippo, MD, PhD, Chairman
John T. Fox, President and CEO
Emory Healthcare, the largest, most comprehensive health care system in Georgia (see pages 8-9), includes Emory University Hospital, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Emory University Hospital Northlake, Wesley Woods Center, The Emory Clinic, Emory-Children’s Center, the jointly owned Emory-Adventist Hospital, and EHCA, a limited liability company created in collaboration with Hospital Corporation of America. Emory Healthcare has $1.5 billion in net revenue and provides $53.6 million in charity care annually. It has 10,093 employees and 1,310 hospital beds (1,708 beds counting joint ventures).
A key business area of Emory Healthcare is Emory Specialty Associates, an outreach physician group practice organization that includes specialty divisions of primary care, cardiology, anesthesiology, pathology, and emergency medicine.
In conjunction with Air Methods Corporation, Emory provides medical oversight for four Emory Flight helicopters from centers in metro Atlanta, Griffin, Jefferson, and Cartersville that cover Georgia and surrounding states. The helicopters are on 24-hour standby to lift critically ill patients to the closest appropriate hospital.
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