Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
Established	1952
Type	Private
Dean	Pascal Goldschmidt, MD
Faculty	1,441
Students	725 medical, 420 graduate
Location	Miami, Florida, USA
Campus	Urban
Website	http://www.med.miami.edu/

The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) is the school of medical education of the University of Miami. The school is located in downtown Miami, Florida within the 153-acre UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center complex. The medical center includes three University-owned hospitals that make up the University of Miami Health System: University of Miami Hospital, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, home to the top-ranked Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Affiliated hospitals on the medical campus include Jackson Memorial Hospital, Holtz Children's Hospital, and the Miami VA Medical Center. Plans are underway to build the UM Life Science Park with two million square feet of space adjacent to the medical campus. The facility will bring together academia and industry for collaboration in bioscience research and innovation. Jackson Memorial Hospital serves as the school's major teaching facility and is one of the largest hospitals in the United States with more than 1,550 beds.[1]

Rankings

The UM Miller School of Medicine was ranked 51st in research by U.S. News & World Report in 2009.[2] In 2006, the magazine listed Bascom Palmer Eye Institute as the number one hospital in the country for ophthalmology for the third year in a row. Five other specialties were also listed among the nation's best: ear, nose, and throat, digestive disorders, neurology and neurosurgery, kidney disease, and urology. With more than 1,300 ongoing projects funded by more than $180 million in external grants and contracts, the school ranks in the top third among U.S. medical schools in terms of research funding awarded.[3]

Academic Programs

• Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is the top facility in the country for ophthalmic clinical care and research. The Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital annually serves 160,000 outpatients of ophthalmology and other specialties, largely for microsurgery procedures.
• For its pioneering work in islet cell transplantation, the Diabetes Research Institute joined the National Institutes of Health and the Naval Medical Research Center as the only academic partner in the national initiative to cure diabetes through transplantation.
• The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center treats 3,000 newly-diagnosed cancer patients each year, and treats thousands more in ongoing treatment from throughout the United States and Latin America. Approximately 200 clinical trials are under way, supported by more than $31 million in research grants.
• Dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, researchers at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis found the first direct evidence of successful regeneration of adult human central nervous system tissue. The Miami Project conducts basic and clinical research trials, as well as a program that permits spinal cord injured men to father children.
• The University of Miami Ear Institute houses the nation’s second most active cochlear implant program, restoring hearing to adults and children with profound deafness.
• The School of Medicine’s Mailman Center for Child Development has a number of model programs that help children with developmental disabilities.
• The UM/Jackson Transplant Program is one of the nation’s busiest, responsible for half of the pediatric multivisceral transplants in the world. UM/Jackson has an active transplant program for bone marrow, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas and intestines.
• Significant federal funds support research at the Comprehensive AIDS Program, including HIV studies in pregnant women, pediatric AIDS clinical trials, various drug protocol studies, heterosexual transmission of AIDS, transfusion safety studies, and the national cooperative drug discovery group.
• The Center on Aging, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for older people, conducts significant research on geriatric issues.
• The Miami Institute for Human Genomics seeks to apply genetic understanding to the practice of medicine. In 2007, Margaret Vance, MD and colleagues reported a new gene responsible for multiple sclerosis.
• The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute seeks to understand the biology of stem cells and translate basic research into new regenerative therapies. In 2007, Joshua Hare, MD and colleagues reported that a new stem cell therapy was safe for the treatment of myocardial infarction and reduced complications from the condition.[4]

Admissions

For the medical class entering in 2007, 176 students were selected out of 4,462 applicants, making the UM Miller School of Medicine Florida's largest and most selective medical school.[5] The entering class presents an average GPA of 3.68 and MCAT of 31.2.[6]

Regional Medical Campus

In 2004, the UM Miller School of Medicine, in partnership with Florida Atlantic University, established a regional medical campus on the FAU campus in Boca Raton, Florida approximately 60 miles north of the parent campus in Miami. Known as the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University (UMMSM at FAU), the program enables students to complete all four years of the medical curriculum in Boca Raton with an emphasis on continuity of care and community-based medicine.[7] Full time UMMSM clinical faculty, working with community-based faculty physicians at multiple Palm Beach County hospitals and clinics provide the supervision and venues for clinical training. Among these sites are Boca Raton Community Hospital, Bethesda Memorial Hospital, JFK Medical Center, and the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center.[8]

In late 2006, Boca Raton Community Hospital announced construction of a new 530 bed teaching hospital on the regional medical campus. This new facility will eventually serve as the primary teaching hospital for students at UMMSM at FAU and is scheduled to open in 2011-12.[9]

Donation

In December 2004, the University of Miami School of Medicine received a $100 million donation from the family of Leonard M. Miller, former President and CEO of Lennar Corporation. It was the single largest donation in University of Miami history and the second largest gift ever given to a university in Florida. The school was renamed in Mr. Miller's honor.[10]

External links

• University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
• Jackson Memorial Hospital