Jump to content

Imperial College School of Medicine: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 51°29′52″N 0°10′35″W / 51.49778°N 0.17639°W / 51.49778; -0.17639
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m added a history section and used the text from the ICSMSU website, which I administrate
updated ranking from 2022 to 2024
 
(410 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Medical school of Imperial College London}}
{{Infobox University
|name =Imperial College School of Medicine
{{About|the medical teaching school|the research faculty historically of the same name|Imperial College Faculty of Medicine}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
|image =[[Image:Imperial_logo.gif|200px]]
{{Infobox university
|motto =
|name = Imperial College School of Medicine
|established =1997{{smallsup|1}}
|image = [[File:ICSM Logo.png|center|Imperial College School of Medicine logo]]
|type =[[Medical school]]
|established = '''1821''' ([[Charing Cross Hospital Medical School]])<br />'''1834''' ([[Westminster Hospital Medical School]])<br />'''1854''' ([[St Mary's Hospital Medical School]])<br />'''1984''' ([[Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School]])<br />'''1997''' (Imperial College School of Medicine)
|staff =
|dean =[[Professor]] Stephen Smith
|type = [[Medical school]]
|students =
|director = Professor Amir H. Sam
|undergrad =1800
|undergrad = 2,200
|postgrad =
|city = [[London]]
|city =[[London]]
|country = England
|state =
|parent = [[Imperial College London]]
|country =[[England]]
|affiliations = [[United Hospitals]]
|website = {{URL|https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/study/undergraduate}}
|affiliations =[[Imperial College]], [[University of London]]
|website =http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine
|footnotes =<sup>1</sup> 1834 as separate schools
}}
}}


The '''Imperial College School of Medicine''' is the medical school of [[Imperial College London]] in [[England]]. The Faculty of Medicine was established in 1997, bringing together all the major West London [[medical schools]] into one world-class institution. It incorporates the old '''[[St Mary's Hospital (London)]] Medical School''', the '''National Heart and Lung Institute''', the '''Royal Postgraduate Medical School''' and the '''Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School'''.
'''Imperial College School of Medicine''' ('''ICSM''') is the undergraduate medical school of [[Imperial College London]] in [[England]] and one of the [[United Hospitals]]. It is part of the college's [[Imperial College Faculty of Medicine|Faculty of Medicine]] and was formed by the merger of several historic medical schools. Its core campuses are located at [[South Kensington]], [[St Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's]], [[Charing Cross Hospital|Charing Cross]], [[Hammersmith Hospital|Hammersmith]] and [[Chelsea and Westminster Hospital|Chelsea and Westminster]]. The school ranked 4th in the world for medicine in the 2024 ''[[Times Higher Education World University Rankings]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-18 |title=World University Rankings 2024 by subject: clinical and health |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2024/subject-ranking/clinical-pre-clinical-health |access-date=2024-09-23 |website=Times Higher Education (THE) |language=en}}</ref>


==History==
The Faculty is one of [[Europe]]'s largest medical institutions - in terms of its staff and student population and its research income. Over 700 Faculty members are active in research, with an annual research income approaching £100 million. It houses many centres of excellence, including the National Heart And Lung Institute, a centre for excellence for [[cardiovascular]] and [[respiratory disease]]s.
{{For timeline}}
[[File:St_Mary%27s_Hospital,_Paddington,_London._Coloured_lithograph_Wellcome_V0013627.jpg|thumb|The original [[St Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's Hospital]]]]
The medical school at Imperial College dates back to the founding of [[Charing Cross Hospital Medical School]] in 1823, which was followed by other medical schools including Chelsea and [[Westminster Hospital Medical School]], [[St Mary's Hospital Medical School]], and the [[Royal Postgraduate Medical School]]. [[Imperial College London]] first gained a medical school by merger with [[St Mary's Hospital Medical School|St Mary's Medical School]] in 1988. The current School of Medicine was formed in 1997 by the merger of [[St Mary's Hospital Medical School|St Mary's Medical School]] with [[Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School]] (formerly [[Charing Cross Hospital Medical School]] and [[Westminster Hospital Medical School]]), the [[Royal Postgraduate Medical School]] and the National Heart and Lung Institute. In 2001, the non-teaching aspects of the school were moved to the new Faculty of Medicine, which the school became a part of. In 2019, the medical school launched their new curriculum, integrating more team-based learning, social science, and early clinical experience into their course, which translates into broader fields of medicine, such as psychology.<ref name=hg>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BpqDQAAQBAJ|title=The History of Imperial College London, 1907-2007|pages=628, 669, 757|first=Hannah|last=Gay|date=2007|publisher=Imperial College Press|isbn=9781860947087}}</ref><ref name="timeline">{{Cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/history/college-developments/|title=A timeline of College developments|website=www.imperial.ac.uk|publisher=Imperial College London|access-date=2018-12-27}}</ref><ref name="fomHistory">{{Cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about-us/history/|title=History|website=imperial.ac.uk|publisher=Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London}}</ref>


[[File:Sir Alexander Fleming Building Front-On (SW angle), Imperial College Road.jpg|thumb|upright|Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington]]
The Faculty takes more than 300 medical undergraduates a year for a six year course (including an intercalated BSc science year), and has over 1,500 postgraduate students.


== Academics ==
Joint research projects with other faculties include initiatives in [[imaging technology]], [[tissue engineering]], [[bioinformatics]] and [[structural biology]].
===Study===
The school runs two undergraduate courses, on either a six-year course leading to an [[MBBS]] and [[BSc]], or a three-year BSc course in medical biosciences.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/study/undergraduate/|title=Undergraduate|publisher=Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London|access-date=4 Apr 2018}}</ref> Graduates of the school are also awarded the [[Associateships of Imperial College London|Associateship of Imperial College School of Medicine]], AICSM, alongside their medical degrees.


====Six-year MBBS/BSc====
It was ranked the country's top medical school by [[The Guardian]] in 2005, and ranked fourth among medical schools globally by the [[THES]] in 2005.
As of 2019, Imperial College School of Medicine updated their entire curriculum, shifting towards a more integrated spiral curriculum, in which students cover most topics multiple times, adding more depth and range each year. They also vastly increased the amount of early clinical contact and team-based learning the students experience. The course is split into 3 'Phases'.


Phase 1 spans years 1-3 of the course (Phase 1a 1b, and 1c). Phase 2 is the BSc year, with the final two years of the course containing Phase 3a and 3b.
Students are supported by the [[Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union]]


In Phase 1a students begin by learning the biochemistry underpinning medicine in their first module. By the end of Term 1 they move onto their main systems-based medicine module. Each system is covered both in Phase 1a and 1b, with a more clinical focus in Phase 1b, building on the scientific basis established in the year prior.


There is also a module that focuses on the wider determinants of health, looking at social, political, and economical factors which affect patients spanning the first two years of the course.
== History ==


Across modules, there are other themes covered such as communication skills, medical ethics, professionalism and law. Teaching primarily comprises interactive lectures followed up often by smaller group tutorials. Other teaching methods include learning with cadaveric prosection (and later dissection), laboratory practical and clinical skills classes, independent study, and a lot of team-based learning.
For years, the schools that constitute ICSM have been renowned for producing a special breed of student (and eventually doctor): friendly, enthusiastic, fun.


Unique to Phase 1b is a clinical research experience, where students are attached to a medical research team in a company, hospital, or university to learn about and partake in research.
Here’s a taste of the ICSM history and tradition. ICSM is a fairly young institution, founded in 1997, from the medical schools of St Mary’s, Charing Cross and Westminster. However, despite the name change, the ideals and traditions of the old institutions have been upheld, and built upon, by the new school.


Phase 1c consists of three eight-week placements - the Medicine in the Community Apprenticeship (general practice placement), hospital medicine, and surgery. Within this, students will rotate through a number of specialties and wards - including a two-week hands-on anaesthetics placement during the surgery rotation.
Charing Cross


Teaching consists of three weeks of induction at the start of the year; in-hospital clinical teaching, tutorials, simulations, history-taking, and examination practice; a mid-weekly central teaching program delivered by the university, and finally two weeks of intensive consolidation teaching at the end of each placement.
Charing Cross, or CX, is the oldest of the schools, founded in 1818 by Dr Ben Golding, to meet the needs of the poor who flocked to the cities in search of work in the new factories. This was a revolutionary notion at a time when doctors mainly practised privately. The hospital was, unsurprisingly, well patronised, and soon had to move to larger premises off Strand, where it first became Charing Cross.


Finally, an innovative series of team-based cases integrating the clinical and scientific approach to various common diseases running through the first three years, where students work in, and are assessed, as a team.
In the 1960s, the hospital again needed to grow and moved to its present site on Fulham Palace Road. The hospital elders elected to retain the name Charing Cross, despite now being a good distance from this area, a decision that continues to have ramifications decades later, as freshers rock up in Trafalgar Square, expecting to find a medical school there. (Getting lost appears to be something of a feature of CX students, as one of their most famous alumni is Dr Livingstone, of “…I presume” fame, who went missing in Africa for five years).


(The new curriculum started four years ago. The information about the latter two years is based on the old course but is likely to be similar.)
Charing Cross remains a hospital on the forefront of medicine; in recent times pioneering the use of CT scanning, reflective of its position as one of the most important neurological centres in London, and chemotherapy, with oncology another of the foremost departments at Charing Cross. In 1976, the Reynolds Building was completed. The CX students’ union building, it saw the start of the annual Invasion of London, perpetuated under the auspices of ICSM (ask the RAG crew), houses a mysterious elephant/dinosaur skull (investigations are ongoing) in the Reynolds Bar (the only medic bar in Imperial College, following the closure of Gladys’ at St Mary’s); and is now the epicentre of ICSM’s social activities.


Phase 2 involves study for the BSc, comprising three 5-week modules then a 10-week supervised research project or specialist course, leading to a BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences with one of the following: Anaesthesia and Critical Care; Biomedical Engineering; Cancer Frontiers; Cardiovascular Sciences; Endocrinology; Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Global Health; Molecular and Translational Haematology; Humanities, Philosophy and Law; Immunity and infection; Management; Neuroscience and Mental Health; Pharmacology; Remote Medicine; Reproductive and Developmental Sciences; Surgical Design, Technology and Innovation; and Translational Respiratory Medicine. The following specialist courses are available instead of undertaking a research project: Medical Humanities, History of Medicine, Epidemiology, and International Health. BSc courses that have available places after the allocation of Imperial students are open to medical students from other universities who wish to intercalate.
Westminster


Phase 3a covers the specialties of obstetrics and genecology, radiology, pediatrics, psychiatry, oncology, general practice, critical care, infectious diseases, dermatology, rheumatology and orthopedics through clinical attachments. It includes a 4-week course in clinical pathology at the start of the year and a one-week teaching skills course.
The Westminster Hospital opened in 1719, following a meeting in a coffee house, where four men met to discuss a "charitable proposal for relieving the sick and needy and other distressed persons”. I had similar discussion myself in Starbucks the other day, but unfortunately it degenerated into a spirited debate on mango frappuccinos, blighting the hopes of the sick and needy (and other distressed persons) of Hammersmith.


Phase 3b, the final year, consists of seven three-week clinical attachments in accident and emergency medicine; general practice; cardiology and radiology; ear, nose and throat, ophthalmology and renal medicine; two professional work experience attachments (one in medicine and one in surgery); one specialty choice module; an eight-week elective period which may be spent in the UK or overseas, and a practical medicine course, which provides specific preparation for the foundation year after graduation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ugprospectus/facultiesanddepartments/medicine/coursestructure/medicine |title=Course structure |publisher=Imperial College |access-date=28 May 2013}}</ref>
The medical school was founded in 1834 by George Guthrie, an ex-military surgeon, whose forceful urgings on retaining the location of the hospital and school resulted in ructions between staff that climaxed in a pistol duel between two surgeons, who steady-as-a-rock, promptly missed each other. Seriously. (In a nod to tradition, pistol duelling remains the preferred method of settling disputes with consultants over firm grades). The winning majority remained in central London, but the losers went to St. George’s Hospital (some things never change). A student at Westminster at this time was John Snow, not a name that may mean much to you at the moment, but who became the founder of modern epidemiology. His greatest accomplishment, however, was to achieve every medical student’s dream, and get a pub named after him (The John Snow on Broadwick St, if you’re interested).


[[File:Campus of Imperial College in Hammersmith and Fullham, London, spring 2013 (3).jpg|thumb|[[Hammersmith Hospital]] has some of the school's main clinical teaching facilities]]
In 1984, in a move that no doubt brought out the pistols again, the medical school merged with rivals Charing Cross. This was a trend-setting move, heralding a flurry of mergers between the London medical schools in the following years. The two medical schools combined their resources, and together focused their rivalry on their Auld Enemy, St. Mary’s. Oh, wait a minute…


==== Medical Biosciences ====
St Mary's
{{Tone|section|date=February 2020}}
The school offers a 3-year BSc biomedical science degree which opened in 2006. The course was re-designed to reflect new teaching methods such as ‘[[flipped classroom]]’ and an intensive laboratory curriculum. Renamed Medical Biosciences, the course accepted its first cohort in 2017.


In the first and second years, students study fundamental human biology and the molecular basis of human disease. Modules on cellular and molecular biology and pharmacology underpin, for example, infectious diseases and immunology, cancer and neurobiology. Students learn to ‘think like a scientist’ with a research-intensive, laboratory-focused curriculum, whilst attending workshops on critical health issues and modules in science communication and ethics aimed to broaden their outlook and employability skills.
St Mary’s is the youngest of the schools, founded in 1854 as part of the new hospital in Paddington. [St] Mary’s was traditionally the refuge of sons of Welsh farmers and miners, stumbling off the train at Paddington to study medicine in the big smoke; and consequently became renowned for its prowess on the sporting field, with the rugby club actually predating the Rugby Football Union. The sporting traditions of Mary’s have been a constant theme throughout its history, and the school can count amongst its alumni the Welsh rugby captain JPR Williams (commemorated in the annual ICSM vs. Imperial Varsity match, the JPR Williams Cup); and Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, and after whom the new lecture theatre is named (I still think I’d prefer a pub). Unfortunately, the Boxing Club has been disbanded, and so no longer holds its bouts in the Outpatients department (seriously, you just can’t make this stuff up).


In the third-year students will choose specialist modules, each of which examines a global health problem, and a final year project. Students have the option to complete a 20-week intensive research project; a placement; or undertake a dissertation on a biomedical science topic. Placement possibilities may include industry, hospitals, publishing houses, museums, charities and government agencies.
Mary’s has an equally rich history in the arts. Despite a faltering music society (which has nevertheless taken off in recent years, following the influx of talent from Charing Cross and Westminster), the dramatic society staged performances of operettas, which on occasion were graced with a royal visit. This royal association continued until recent times with the Queen Mother being the patron of the soirée – the post opera comedy night – until her death in 2002 (the post has remained unfilled following its failure to be won in the post-soirée raffle of the same year). If there is one thing for which Mary’s will always be remembered, however, it is the work of Alexander Fleming; the father of antibiotics, following his discovery of penicillin at the hospital in 1928. The room in which the discovery took place can be seen from the road outside the medical school.


Mary’s continued comparatively unmoved by the other nomadic medical schools in the area, until its merger with Imperial College in 1988, and the foundation of ICSM in 1997.
Students also have the option of studying for a 4th year with Imperial College Business School, graduating in BSc Medical Biosciences with Management.


==Student life==
Imperial College
===ICSM Students' Union===
{{Main|Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union}}
In contrast to other universities, rather than a departmental society the School of Medicine has a separate and independently run constituent union, a part of the wider [[Imperial College Union]]. Around 65 clubs and societies are part of ICSMSU, dedicated for its students. Further, ICSMSU also has access to facilities located in the Reynolds building at the [[Charing Cross Hospital]] campus, as medical students live or spend more time around that area than the South Kensington campus.


===ICSM Gazette===
The foundation of medicine at Imperial College resulted in the largest medical school in Europe. Imperial College was established in 1907, following the cultural and scientific revolution instigated in Kensington by Prince Albert (which also spawned the local museums and the Royal Albert Hall). It has a world-class scientific reputation, having turned out fourteen Nobel Prize winners, owns it own nuclear reactor, supplies wind tunnel facilities to top F1 teams, masterminds cutting-edge medical research, encompassing the National Heart and Lung Institute and Hammersmith hospital and more importantly, counts Brian May of Queen amongst its past students.
The Gazette is the magazine of the Medical School, derived from the publications of the founder schools: the St Mary's gazette, Charing Cross gazette and the Westminster Broadway. Copies of the Broadway since 1948 are available from the Imperial College archives and issues of the St Mary's Gazette since 1894 are collected in the St Mary's archives. The magazine in its current format is produced twice a year and features a report from the Students' Union and sections for news, alumni, events, academics, features, careers, travel and clubs and societies. Articles are also published online, and previous issues of the gazette are available on the website.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icsmgazette.co.uk|title=ICSM Gazette|website=ICSM Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2018-10-19}}</ref>


===Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner===
Academically, ICSM students are part of an institution that brought the world the valuable field of public health medicine, and spearheaded the attack on infectious disease, saving, without hyperbole, millions of lives. You’ll have the chance to be taught by, and work alongside, the foremost research groups in the world. Socially, you’ll be a part of traditions stretching across three centuries, in a vibrant college with the best students on the best course. Everywhere you go from now on, when people see you are from Imperial College School of Medicine, they’ll know that they’re dealing with someone special. Be proud of it.
The [[Westminster Hospital Medical School#Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner|Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner]] started in 1940 during the Blitz at the old Westminster Hospital Medical School. Students and house staff decided to have dinner to alleviate the oppressive mood. A senior member of staff was invited to address the assembled doctors and whilst he was talking a caricature was sketched on the tablecloth by one of his audiences. It was cut out, passed round, signed and mounted and started the unbroken tradition that has evolved into the Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner that has continued even after the amalgamation of Westminster Hospital Medical School into Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and then Imperial College School of Medicine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stfyd.co.uk|title=Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner 2019|website=www.stfyd.co.uk|access-date=2018-10-22}}</ref>


Since 1997, the Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner has since been a fully student-led event run by the Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union.
Oh, and hate GKT.


===Alumni associations===
History lesson courtesty of Dr. Richard Hutchinson
The ICSM Alumni Association was founded in 2004 with the graduation of the first cohort of ICSM doctors. Still in its infancy, it is jointly run with help from ICSMSU and members of the alumni. The association aims to provide funding for the clubs and societies of the medical school, as well as offer support to students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/medic/icsm_alumni/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=1&Itemid=3|title=ICSM Alumni|website=www.union.ic.ac.uk}}</ref>


Two other alumni associations also exist for graduates of the original medical schools - the St Mary's Association and the Charing Cross and Westminster Alumni.
==Campuses==


==Campuses and associated hospitals==
Its main teaching campuses include:
[[File:St_Mary%27s_Hospital,_Paddington_-_geograph.org.uk_-_527713.jpg|thumb|[[St. Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's]] in Paddington is a main teaching hospital for the school, housing the Fleming Library]]
*[[South Kensington]] (which is the location of the main campus of the parent institution, Imperial College London)
*[[Charing Cross Hospital]]
*[[Chelsea & Westminster Hospital]]
*[[St Mary's Hospital (London)]]
*[[Hammersmith Hospital]]


The School's teaching campuses include:
Also attached to the faculty is the ''Brompton Hospital'' and 6 more district general hospitals: [[Central Middlesex Hospital]], [[Ealing Hospital]], [[Hillingdon Hospital]] - [[Hillingdon]], [[Northwick Park Hospital]], [[West Middlesex Hospital]] & ''Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals''
*Undergraduate campus
**[[South Kensington]] campus - Sir Alexander Fleming Building
**[[Charing Cross Hospital]] campus - The Reynolds Building
**[[Hammersmith Hospital]] campus - Wolfson Education Centre
*Main teaching hospitals
**[[Charing Cross Hospital]]
**[[St Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's Hospital]]
**[[Chelsea & Westminster Hospital]]
**[[Hammersmith Hospital]]


[[File:Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine East Side.jpg|thumb|upright|Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine]]
==Future==
Students in the 1st and 2nd years as well as those on the BSc courses attend lectures and labs mainly at the main campuses. Parts of the 4th year, as well as other clinical modules are also held at the postgraduate hospitals, where much of the faculty's research is based:


*Postgraduate hospitals
The Faculty is currently exploring merger options with [[Hammersmith hospital|Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust]] and [[St Mary's Hospital (London)]] to form the UK's first Academic Health Centre which is envisaged to be the UK's foremost medical research and innovation centre.
**[[Royal Brompton Hospital]]
**[[Harefield Hospital]]
**[[Queen Charlotte's Hospital|Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital]]
**[[Western Eye Hospital]]
*District general hospitals
**[[Ashford Hospital]]
**[[Central Middlesex Hospital]]
**[[Ealing Hospital]]
**[[Hillingdon Hospital]]
**[[Mount Vernon Hospital]]
**[[Northwick Park Hospital]]
**[[St Mark's Hospital]]
**[[West Middlesex Hospital]]
**[[St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey]]
*Mental health hospitals
**[[St. Bernard's Hospital]]
**[[St Charles' Hospital]]
**[[West London NHS Trust]]
**[[Gordon Hospital]]
**[[Broadmoor Hospital]]
**[[Cassel Hospital]]


Clinical attachments and teaching in years 1 (two weeks), 2 (five weeks), 3 (30 weeks), 5 and 6 (all year) are held at these hospitals.
==External links==
*[http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine Official site]
*[http://www.icsmsu.com Students' Union]


==Notable staff and alumni==
{{Medical Schools (United Kingdom)}}
{{Further|List of Imperial College London people}}
The list below, including five [[Nobel Laureates]] in Physiology and Medicine, shows the notable past or current staff and alumni from Imperial College School of Medicine or from the various institutions which are now part of it.
{{div col |colwidth=30em}}
* [[Christopher Addison]] (Ex Leader of the House of Lords, Ex Minister for Health) Charing Cross Hospital
* [[N.H. Ashton]] (ophthalmologist, Buchanan medalist)
*Sir [[Ernst Chain]] (Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine)
* [[Ara Darzi, Baron Darzi of Denham]], Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Leading Surgeon) St Mary's Hospital
* [[Carl Djerassi]] (chemist; first oral contraceptive pill progestin [[norethisterone]])
* [[Harold Ellis (professor)|Harold Ellis]] (surgeon and anatomist) Westminster Hospital
*Sir [[Joseph Fayrer]] (physician noted for his writings on medicine in India)
*Sir [[Marc Feldmann]] (expert on rheumatology) Kennedy Institute / Charing Cross Hospital
*Sir [[Alexander Fleming]] (Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine) St Mary's Hospital
*Sir [[Malcolm Green (physician)|Malcolm Green]], (respiratory physiologist), vice-president faculty of medicine and head of National Heart and Lung Institute.
* [[John Henry (toxicologist)|John Henry]] (clinical toxicologist who did crucial work on poisoning and drug overdose) St Mary's Hospital
*Sir [[Frederick Hopkins]] (Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine)
*Dame [[Rosalind Hurley]] (medical microbiologist, researcher, and ethicist)
*Sir [[Andrew Huxley]] (Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine)
* [[Thomas Huxley]] (notable biologist) Charing Cross Hospital
*Sir [[Bruce Keogh]] (medical director of the [[National Health Service]])
*Dame [[Louise Lake-Tack]], [[List of Governors-General of Antigua and Barbuda|Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda]] Charing Cross Hospital
* [[David Livingstone]] (congregationalist pioneer medical missionary in South Africa) Charing Cross Hospital
* Sir [[Ravinder Nath Maini]] (expert on Rheumatology) Kennedy Institute/Charing Cross Hospital
* [[Christine Moffatt]] (nurse in leg ulcer care) Charing Cross Hospital
* [[Albert Neuberger]] (chemical pathologist) St Mary's Hospital
* [[William Kitchen Parker]] (physician and zoologist) Charing Cross Hospital
*Sir [[William Stanley Peart]] (Buchanan Medalist) St Mary's Hospital
*Dame [[Julia Polak]] (tissue engineer)
*Sir [[Rodney Robert Porter]] (Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine)
*Lady [[Ann Redgrave]] (orthopaedic surgery, ex Chief Medical Officer of GB Rowing) Charing Cross Hospital
*Sir [[Bernard Spilsbury]] (pathologist and one of the pioneers of modern forensic medicine)
*Baroness [[Edith Summerskill]] (Politician) Charing Cross Hospital
* [[Joseph Toynbee]] (otologist) St Mary's Hospital
* [[Augustus Desiré Waller|Augustus Waller]] (the invention of the [[electrocardiogram]] (ECG))
*Professor [[Stephen Westaby]] (Pioneer in [[Cardiothoracic Surgery]] and Bioengineering)
*Sir [[Almroth Wright]] (advanced vaccination through the use of autogenous vaccines) St Mary's Hospital
*Professor[[Philip Poole-Wilson]], 1943-2009, McKenzie medal, pioneer of modern cardiology
*Sir [[Magdi Yacoub]] (expert cardiothoracic surgeon)
*Sir [[Roger Bannister]] (neurologist, runner of the first four-minute mile) St Mary's Hospital
* [[Jane Yardley]], (author) Charing Cross Hospital
* [[Adam Kay (writer)|Adam Kay]], writer and comedian
* [[Garry Moynes ("Actor")|Garry Moynes]], Supposed actor and barman<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mandy.com/uk/actor/garry-moynes|title=Garry Moynes, Actor, London, England }}</ref>
{{div col end}}


==References==
[[Category:Imperial College London|Medicine]]
{{Reflist|3}}
[[Category:Schools of Medicine in England]]


==External links==
*{{Official website|http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine}}
*[http://www.icsmsu.com ICSM Students' Union]
*[http://www.imperial.nhs.uk Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust]
*[http://www.icsmalumni.org ICSM Alumni Association]

{{Imperial College School of Medicine}}
{{Navboxes|list1=
{{Imperial College London}}
{{United Hospitals}}
{{Medical Schools (United Kingdom)}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|51|29|52|N|0|10|35|W|type:edu_region:GB-WSM|display=title}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Imperial College School Of Medicine}}
{{England-stub}}
[[Category:Imperial College School of Medicine|School of Medicine]]
[[Category:Medical schools in London]]

Latest revision as of 20:29, 23 September 2024

This article is about the medical teaching school. For the research faculty historically of the same name, see Imperial College Faculty of Medicine.

Imperial College School of Medicine
Imperial College School of Medicine logo
Imperial College School of Medicine logo
TypeMedical school
Established1821 (Charing Cross Hospital Medical School)
1834 (Westminster Hospital Medical School)
1854 (St Mary's Hospital Medical School)
1984 (Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School)
1997 (Imperial College School of Medicine)
Parent institution
Imperial College London
DirectorProfessor Amir H. Sam
Undergraduates2,200
Location
London
,
England
AffiliationsUnited Hospitals
Websitewww.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/study/undergraduate

Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) is the undergraduate medical school of Imperial College London in England and one of the United Hospitals. It is part of the college's Faculty of Medicine and was formed by the merger of several historic medical schools. Its core campuses are located at South Kensington, St Mary's, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Chelsea and Westminster. The school ranked 4th in the world for medicine in the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[1]

History

[edit]
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Imperial College School of Medicine.
The original St Mary's Hospital

The medical school at Imperial College dates back to the founding of Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1823, which was followed by other medical schools including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Medical School, St Mary's Hospital Medical School, and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Imperial College London first gained a medical school by merger with St Mary's Medical School in 1988. The current School of Medicine was formed in 1997 by the merger of St Mary's Medical School with Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School (formerly Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and Westminster Hospital Medical School), the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the National Heart and Lung Institute. In 2001, the non-teaching aspects of the school were moved to the new Faculty of Medicine, which the school became a part of. In 2019, the medical school launched their new curriculum, integrating more team-based learning, social science, and early clinical experience into their course, which translates into broader fields of medicine, such as psychology.[2][3][4]

Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington

Academics

[edit]

Study

[edit]

The school runs two undergraduate courses, on either a six-year course leading to an MBBS and BSc, or a three-year BSc course in medical biosciences.[5] Graduates of the school are also awarded the Associateship of Imperial College School of Medicine, AICSM, alongside their medical degrees.

Six-year MBBS/BSc

[edit]

As of 2019, Imperial College School of Medicine updated their entire curriculum, shifting towards a more integrated spiral curriculum, in which students cover most topics multiple times, adding more depth and range each year. They also vastly increased the amount of early clinical contact and team-based learning the students experience. The course is split into 3 'Phases'.

Phase 1 spans years 1-3 of the course (Phase 1a 1b, and 1c). Phase 2 is the BSc year, with the final two years of the course containing Phase 3a and 3b.

In Phase 1a students begin by learning the biochemistry underpinning medicine in their first module. By the end of Term 1 they move onto their main systems-based medicine module. Each system is covered both in Phase 1a and 1b, with a more clinical focus in Phase 1b, building on the scientific basis established in the year prior.

There is also a module that focuses on the wider determinants of health, looking at social, political, and economical factors which affect patients spanning the first two years of the course.

Across modules, there are other themes covered such as communication skills, medical ethics, professionalism and law. Teaching primarily comprises interactive lectures followed up often by smaller group tutorials. Other teaching methods include learning with cadaveric prosection (and later dissection), laboratory practical and clinical skills classes, independent study, and a lot of team-based learning.

Unique to Phase 1b is a clinical research experience, where students are attached to a medical research team in a company, hospital, or university to learn about and partake in research.

Phase 1c consists of three eight-week placements - the Medicine in the Community Apprenticeship (general practice placement), hospital medicine, and surgery. Within this, students will rotate through a number of specialties and wards - including a two-week hands-on anaesthetics placement during the surgery rotation.

Teaching consists of three weeks of induction at the start of the year; in-hospital clinical teaching, tutorials, simulations, history-taking, and examination practice; a mid-weekly central teaching program delivered by the university, and finally two weeks of intensive consolidation teaching at the end of each placement.

Finally, an innovative series of team-based cases integrating the clinical and scientific approach to various common diseases running through the first three years, where students work in, and are assessed, as a team.

(The new curriculum started four years ago. The information about the latter two years is based on the old course but is likely to be similar.)

Phase 2 involves study for the BSc, comprising three 5-week modules then a 10-week supervised research project or specialist course, leading to a BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences with one of the following: Anaesthesia and Critical Care; Biomedical Engineering; Cancer Frontiers; Cardiovascular Sciences; Endocrinology; Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Global Health; Molecular and Translational Haematology; Humanities, Philosophy and Law; Immunity and infection; Management; Neuroscience and Mental Health; Pharmacology; Remote Medicine; Reproductive and Developmental Sciences; Surgical Design, Technology and Innovation; and Translational Respiratory Medicine. The following specialist courses are available instead of undertaking a research project: Medical Humanities, History of Medicine, Epidemiology, and International Health. BSc courses that have available places after the allocation of Imperial students are open to medical students from other universities who wish to intercalate.

Phase 3a covers the specialties of obstetrics and genecology, radiology, pediatrics, psychiatry, oncology, general practice, critical care, infectious diseases, dermatology, rheumatology and orthopedics through clinical attachments. It includes a 4-week course in clinical pathology at the start of the year and a one-week teaching skills course.

Phase 3b, the final year, consists of seven three-week clinical attachments in accident and emergency medicine; general practice; cardiology and radiology; ear, nose and throat, ophthalmology and renal medicine; two professional work experience attachments (one in medicine and one in surgery); one specialty choice module; an eight-week elective period which may be spent in the UK or overseas, and a practical medicine course, which provides specific preparation for the foundation year after graduation.[6]

Hammersmith Hospital has some of the school's main clinical teaching facilities

Medical Biosciences

[edit]

The school offers a 3-year BSc biomedical science degree which opened in 2006. The course was re-designed to reflect new teaching methods such as ‘flipped classroom’ and an intensive laboratory curriculum. Renamed Medical Biosciences, the course accepted its first cohort in 2017.

In the first and second years, students study fundamental human biology and the molecular basis of human disease. Modules on cellular and molecular biology and pharmacology underpin, for example, infectious diseases and immunology, cancer and neurobiology. Students learn to ‘think like a scientist’ with a research-intensive, laboratory-focused curriculum, whilst attending workshops on critical health issues and modules in science communication and ethics aimed to broaden their outlook and employability skills.

In the third-year students will choose specialist modules, each of which examines a global health problem, and a final year project. Students have the option to complete a 20-week intensive research project; a placement; or undertake a dissertation on a biomedical science topic. Placement possibilities may include industry, hospitals, publishing houses, museums, charities and government agencies.

Students also have the option of studying for a 4th year with Imperial College Business School, graduating in BSc Medical Biosciences with Management.

Student life

[edit]

ICSM Students' Union

[edit]
Main article: Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union

In contrast to other universities, rather than a departmental society the School of Medicine has a separate and independently run constituent union, a part of the wider Imperial College Union. Around 65 clubs and societies are part of ICSMSU, dedicated for its students. Further, ICSMSU also has access to facilities located in the Reynolds building at the Charing Cross Hospital campus, as medical students live or spend more time around that area than the South Kensington campus.

ICSM Gazette

[edit]

The Gazette is the magazine of the Medical School, derived from the publications of the founder schools: the St Mary's gazette, Charing Cross gazette and the Westminster Broadway. Copies of the Broadway since 1948 are available from the Imperial College archives and issues of the St Mary's Gazette since 1894 are collected in the St Mary's archives. The magazine in its current format is produced twice a year and features a report from the Students' Union and sections for news, alumni, events, academics, features, careers, travel and clubs and societies. Articles are also published online, and previous issues of the gazette are available on the website.[7]

Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner

[edit]

The Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner started in 1940 during the Blitz at the old Westminster Hospital Medical School. Students and house staff decided to have dinner to alleviate the oppressive mood. A senior member of staff was invited to address the assembled doctors and whilst he was talking a caricature was sketched on the tablecloth by one of his audiences. It was cut out, passed round, signed and mounted and started the unbroken tradition that has evolved into the Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner that has continued even after the amalgamation of Westminster Hospital Medical School into Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and then Imperial College School of Medicine.[8]

Since 1997, the Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner has since been a fully student-led event run by the Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union.

Alumni associations

[edit]

The ICSM Alumni Association was founded in 2004 with the graduation of the first cohort of ICSM doctors. Still in its infancy, it is jointly run with help from ICSMSU and members of the alumni. The association aims to provide funding for the clubs and societies of the medical school, as well as offer support to students.[9]

Two other alumni associations also exist for graduates of the original medical schools - the St Mary's Association and the Charing Cross and Westminster Alumni.

Campuses and associated hospitals

[edit]
St Mary's in Paddington is a main teaching hospital for the school, housing the Fleming Library

The School's teaching campuses include:

Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine

Students in the 1st and 2nd years as well as those on the BSc courses attend lectures and labs mainly at the main campuses. Parts of the 4th year, as well as other clinical modules are also held at the postgraduate hospitals, where much of the faculty's research is based:

Clinical attachments and teaching in years 1 (two weeks), 2 (five weeks), 3 (30 weeks), 5 and 6 (all year) are held at these hospitals.

Notable staff and alumni

[edit]
Further information: List of Imperial College London people

The list below, including five Nobel Laureates in Physiology and Medicine, shows the notable past or current staff and alumni from Imperial College School of Medicine or from the various institutions which are now part of it.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "World University Rankings 2024 by subject: clinical and health". Times Higher Education (THE). 18 October 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  2. ^ Gay, Hannah (2007). The History of Imperial College London, 1907-2007. Imperial College Press. pp. 628, 669, 757. ISBN 9781860947087.
  3. ^ "A timeline of College developments". www.imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  4. ^ "History". imperial.ac.uk. Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London.
  5. ^ "Undergraduate". Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  6. ^ "Course structure". Imperial College. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  7. ^ "ICSM Gazette". ICSM Gazette. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  8. ^ "Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner 2019". www.stfyd.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  9. ^ "ICSM Alumni". www.union.ic.ac.uk.
  10. ^ "Garry Moynes, Actor, London, England".
[edit]

51°29′52″N 0°10′35″W / 51.49778°N 0.17639°W / 51.49778; -0.17639

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Imperial_College_School_of_Medicine&oldid=1247323797"