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University of Edinburgh Medical School

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Edinburgh School of Medicine
File:Edinburgh university crest.svg
TypeMedical school
Established1726
DeanProf John Savill
Students1090
Undergraduates?
Postgraduates?
?
Location,
CampusThe Medical School, Teviot Place; The Royal Infirmary Chancellors Building, Little France, The Western General; Royal Hospital for Sick Children
ColoursDark Red, Light Red and Pale Yellow (or "Liver, Blood and Pus" according to the history books)
AffiliationsUniversity of Edinburgh
Websitehttp://www.mvm.ed.ac.uk/


The University of Edinburgh Medical School is part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Edinburgh.

History

Although the college of medicine did not gain formal recognition until 1726, medicine had been taught at Edinburgh since the beginning of the sixteenth century. It's formation was dependent on the incorporation of Surgeons and Barber Surgeons, in 1505 and the foundation of the Royal College of Physicians in 1681.

The College was modeled on the sixteenth century University of Padua, and later on the University of Leiden in an attempt to attract foreign students, and maintain potential Scottish students in Scotland.

Since the Rennaisance the primary facet of medical teaching was anatomy and therefore in 1720, Alexander Monro was appointed Professor of Anatomy. Later his son and grandson (both of the same name) would hold the position, a reign of Professor Alexander Munroes for 128 years. In proceeding years four further chairs completed the college allowing it to grant the qualification of the Medical Doctorate (MD).

Success in the teaching of medicine and surgery through the eighteenth century was achieved thanks to the first teaching hospital, town physicians and the town guild of Barber Surgeons (later to become the Royal College of Surgeons). By 1764 the numbers of medical students were so great that a new 200-seat Anatomy Theatre was built in the College Garden. Students were attacted to Edinburgh Medical School from Ireland, America and the Colonies by a succession of brilliant teachers, such as William Cullen, James Gregory and Joseph Black, the Medical Society and a flourishing Extra-Mural School.

The origins of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary began in Robertson's Close, near Old College in Newington (around Infirmary Street and High School Yards). Only four beds were available from 6 August 1729 and medical students visits were limited to two tickets only per student (to prevent crowding). This was clearly inadequate, and in 1741, shortly after the foundation of the college, a 228-bed purpose-built hospital designed by William Adam. Due to overcrowding throughout this High School Yards site, David Bryce was commissioned to design a new hospital - the splendid Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Lauriston Place close to the university and next door to where the medical school buildings would be built in 1880.

In August 1998 a contract was signed to build a new Royal Infirmary at Little France, a replacement hospital on a mostly green field site in the south-east of the city. In May 2001 the original 20 acre Lauriston Place site was bought for £30 million by Southside Capital Ltd., a consortium comprising Taylor Woodrow, Kilmartin Property Group, and the Bank of Scotland. It is to be redeveloped as the Quartermile housing, shopping, leisure and hotel development.

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland.

The Edinburgh Botanic Garden was created in 1670 for study of medicinal plants by Dr Robert Sibbald (later first Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh University) and Dr Andrew Balfour. It gave a base for the development of study of Pharmacology (Materia Medica) and Chemistry. Originally at St Anne’s Yards adjacent to Holyrood Palace, the garden measured a meagre 40 square feet. It wasn't until 1820 that the garden and it's contents began the move to it's present day location in Inverleith ('The Inverleith Garden') by Robert Graham (appointed Regius Keeper, 1820–45). It is currently recognised as the second oldest botanic garden in Britain after Oxford (OBG founded in 1620).

The nineteenth centuary saw a growth of new sciences at Edinburgh, noteably of Physiology and Pathology, and the development of Public Health and Psychiatry. Midwifery was finally admitted as an essential part of the compulsory medical curriculum

Women and Medical School

In 1869 Sophia Jex-Blake was reluctantly accepted to attend a limited number of classes in the School of Medicine, enrolling Edinburgh in the heated international battle for women's to enter medicine. Full equity between the sexes was not achieved at Edinburgh Medical School until 20 years later. British medical schools openly refused to accept women students at this time. Jex-Blake persuaded Edinburgh University to allow not only herself, but also her friend, Edith Pechy, to attend medical lectures.

The Medical Buildings

In the 1860's the medical school was constrined within Old College and by 1880 the new Royal Infirmary had been built on Lauriston Place. Whatsmore, the construction of new medical buildings began and were complete by 1884, on Teviot Row, adjacent to the Royal Infirmary. Together they housed the Medical Faculty with proper facilities teaching, scientific research and practical laboratories.

The competition to design the Universities new buildings was won by architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson (who's notoriety originated from his addition of the dome to the Adam/Playfair University building (1887), his design of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Queen Street (1889); and in Glasgow he built the Central Station Hotel, 1884). After extensive European travel, he decided upon a 'Cinquecento' Italian Renaissance style which he judged "more suitable than Greek or Palladian, where the interior would have been constrained by the formal exterior, or mediaeval, which would have been out of keeping with the spirit of scientific medical enquiry". Initially the design incorporated a new University Graduation Hall, but as this was seen as too ambitious. A seperate building was constucted for the purpose; McEwan Hall after funds were made available by Sir William McEwan in 1894. The final grand structure took three years to decorate including elaborate ceiling murals and organ.

The Medical School was designed around two courts, with a grand public quadrangle at the front and, for discreet delivery of cadavers to the dissection rooms, a second private yard entered from the lane behind. Professor of Anatomy, Sir William Turner (Professor 1867 to 1903, Principle 1903 to 1917) was placed in charge of the building project lead to the construction of a three-storey galleried Anatomy Museum with displays of everything from whales to apes as well as human anatomy, an associated library and a whole series of dissecting rooms, laboratories, and grand anatomy lecture theatres with steeply raked benches rising above the central dissecting table.

The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh

The Polish School of Medicine was established in 1941 as a "a wartime testament to this spirit of enlightenment". The project was initiated by Lt. Col. Professor Francis Crew, then Commanding Officer at the Military Hospital in Edinburgh Castle, and to Lt. Col. Dr Antoni Jurasz, the School's organiser and first Dean.

http://www.mvm.ed.ac.uk/polish_school/index.htm

Template:This is a polish stub. please expand it

The Current Course and Curriculum

Degrees available for study: Medical Sciences (BSc), Medicine (5-year course) (MBChB), Medicine (6-year course) (MBChB), Nursing Studies (BN).

Entry qualifications include: SQA Highers: AAAAB. AAAAB at one sitting to include Chemistry and two of Biology, Maths or Physics. Students unable to take two of Biology, Maths, Physics in S5 may take the missing subject(s) in S6. Human Biology may replace Biology. Standard Grade Credit (or Intermediate 2) in Biology, Chemistry, English, Maths.

GCE A Levels: AAA. AAA plus grade B at AS-level. A levels must include Chemistry and one of Biology, Maths or Physics. Biology at AS level required as minimum. Only one of Maths or Further Maths will be considered. Human Biology may replace Biology. GCSE grade B in Biology, Chemistry, English, Maths. Double Award Combined Sciences at grade BB may replace GCSE grades in sciences.

Additional requirements include the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) is a mandatory requirement for all students applying to study Medicine at Edinburgh and you will be required to sit the test during the summer prior to application. Please visit the UKCAT website to register for the test.

The 5 year MBChB course can extend a pre-entry year for applicants without adequate qualifications, or an extra 'intercalated year' between years 2 and 3 to gain a BSc in a separate scientific discipline.

Year 1 & 2

Students undertake the study of Biomedical Science and Health and Society, which provide an introduction to the scientific, sociological and behavioural principles for the practice of medicine. Practical clinical and resuscitation skills are also taught. Contact is made with patients and their families in Talking with Families and Health Needs of Older People and will have the opportunity to work in a clinical setting and investigate a chosen healthcare issue.

In year 2, students undertake basic history-taking and examination in teaching general practices.

Intercalated year

This optional year achieves the student an intercalated Bachelor of Medical Sciences honours degree. 18 fields of scientific study are available and covered in great depth.

Year 3 & 4

Clinical attachments are undertaken, and an understanding of clinical medicine is taught. Bedside teaching is enhanced with lectures and opportunities are made available to students within the Royal Infirmary.

Year 5

Recovers all the topics of year's 1-4 and includes an elective period of eight weeks, when many students broaden their clinical experience by studying overseas.

Most applicants including overseas applicants are not interviewed prior to admission.

Admission FAQ's: http://www.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studying/admissions/MBChB%20Applications%20FAQ.pdf

Facilities

Undergraduate teaching through year 1 and 2 center mainly in the Medical School buildings on Teviot Row in the university quarter of Edinburgh city centre. Clinical years, 3, 4 and 5 are spent spread accross the three main teaching hospitals in Edinburgh, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) in Little France, in the cities southern Green Belt; the Western General Hospital just west of the city centre, and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the centre of the city.

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh is the main clinical teaching environment of the Medical School. The Chancellor's Building at Little France, next to the new Royal Infirmary was opened on 12th August 2002 by HRH Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh, Chancellor to the University.

  • The Biological Sciences and Hospital-based Clinical Subjects both gained a 5 rating.
  • Only two other UK undergraduate medical schools also achieved a 5 rating in Hospital-based Clinical Subjects

EEMeC

Edinburgh Electronic Medical Curriculum is an online facility which allows students securely protected access direct to any of the information on or for the MBChB course. It also encompasses announcements, discussions and the use the tools embedded in EEMeC to facilitate and manage your progress through the course including exam results and computer aided learning programmes. This was one of the first of it's kind in the world and has since provided a model for other medical schools to follow (notable The University of St Andrews 'GALEN').

http://wwweemec.med.ed.ac.uk/

Research

Edinburgh University is a member of the Russell Group of universities, receiving a quanta of a third of British research funding. In the last UK-wide Research Assessment Exercise, three quarters of the College's research staff were in academic units rated 5 or 5 star (the maximum possible ratings). This was more noteworthy in view of the large size of the College's research groupings. The College has average research income in excess of £45 million/annum, and the figure has been steadily increasing each year.

Main sources of research funding include UK research councils, UK medical and veterinary medical charities, industry and commerce and European Union bodies.

The Royal Medical Scociety

The Royal Medical Society, the medical society at the University of Edinburgh is the oldest Medical Society in the UK. Known originally as 'the Medical Society' from 1737 it became known as 'the Royal Medical Society' from 1777. It has its own premises and a fine library built up throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, unfortunatly sold at 3 sales at Sotheby's London in 1969. Much of the collection was purchased by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Famous Alumni

Contact

e-Mail: College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

 College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
 The University of Edinburgh
 The Chancellor's Building 
 49 Little France Crescent 
 Edinburgh, EH16 4SB

MBChB undergraduate admissions medug@ed.ac.uk Telephone: 0131 242 6407 Fax: 0131 242 6791

Elective Attachments Electives@ed.ac.uk Telephone: 0131 242 6543 Fax: 0131 242 6479

BVMS undergraduate admissions vetug@ed.ac.uk Telephone: 0131 650 6130 Fax: 0131 650 6585

BSc Medical Sciences undergraduate admissions bmto@ed.ac.uk Telephone: 0131 650 3717 Fax: 0131 650 4193

Postgraduate enquiries: Email (general enquiries): mvmpg@ed.ac.uk Telephone: 0131 242 6461 Fax: 0131 242 6479

Links