Boston University Medical Campus
Medicine

History

The Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) was established in 1873 when the University assumed responsibility for the New England Female Medical College. Among its historic distinctions are its commitment to equal education for women and men and the development of the nation’s first academically affiliated Home Medical Service. In more recent decades, the School developed an extensive program of biomedical research based in several major research facilities. Department of Medicine faculty are important contributors to the research programs of the School and are able to take full advantage of the research facilities and core research support centers of the School.

Boston University Medical Center Hospital (BUMCH) was founded in 1855 as the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital. In 1910 the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research was established by a series of gifts by Mrs. Maria Antoinette Evans to endow a research department of medicine at the Hospital. The Evans Department was one of the few research institutions of its kind when its activities began in 1912. Although technically a separate research institute, the Evans Department has always functioned as an integral part of the clinical care and training programs of Boston Medical Center and of the Department of Medicine at BUSM. This is in accordance with Mrs. Evans’ stipulation that research, clinical care, and teaching should be intimately interrelated in the Department that she endowed.

Boston City Hospital (BCH) opened in 1864 and was the first municipal hospital established in the United States. In 1923 the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory was established with support provided by Dr. George L. Thorndike in memory of his brother, William, a long-time BCH staff member. The Thorndike became one of the nation’s most distinguished research facilities under the aegis of the BCH Harvard Medical Services. In 1968, the Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases was established at BCH in honor of Dr. Maxwell Finland, a leading clinical investigator in infectious diseases. When academic and clinical responsibility for BCH passed to Boston University in 1973, these laboratories were incorporated into the research programs of the Department of Medicine faculty.

In July, 1996, BUMCH and BCH were merged into the Boston Medical Center, a not-for-profit institution that fully retains the missions and commitments of its predecessor institutions.

The Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center was the first Dean’s Committee VA hospital, i.e., the first specifically designated as a teaching hospital. It is a major training site for students and residents. In addition, its faculty conduct a varied research program, including active, basic, clinical, and health services research efforts.

Current Status
Departmental faculty are responsible for major NIH-sponsored specialized research centers and program projects. These include a Specialized Center of Research in Hypertension (one of only six such centers in the nation); a Specialized Center of Research in Ischemic Heart Disease (one of only four such centers in the nation, and one of only two that focus on ischemic heart disease in African Americans); a Specialized Center of Research in Pulmonary Fibrosis; a National Multipurpose Arthritis Center; a Program for Interdisciplinary Study of Fungal Infections and another for study of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (each one of only two such nationally designated NIH centers); a participating center in the national AIDS Clinical Trials Group; program projects in pulmonary immunology and lung development; a federally established health care research advisory center; programs with the internationally famous Framingham Heart Study; and cooperative programs with the Naval Blood Research Laboratory (which is located at Boston University Medical Center).

Training programs are available in internal medicine and in all traditional medical subspecialties, as well as in a number of novel research areas. Clinical training programs currently involve approximately 150 medical residents and more than 100 subspecialty and research trainees, including M.D. fellows and pre- and postdoctoral Ph.D. students.

The Department of Medicine is based at the Boston University School of Medicine and at two principal teaching hospitals: Boston Medical Center (BMC), and the Boston Veterans Administration Health Care System (BVAHCS). The integrated medical residency and fellowship programs take advantage of training facilities in both hospitals. Important affiliations with the Boston Neighborhood Health Center network (HealthNet) and with a number of community hospitals contribute importantly to the clinical and teaching activities of the department.

The faculty are organized in a number of Sections, which include not only the usual medical subspecialties but also a number of special research sections such as Biomolecular Medicine and Preventive Medicine/Epidemiology. Many of the research programs of the Department involve extensive collaboration between Sections and with other departments of the School of Medicine. The research and research training programs of the Department are supported by $72.8 million (total direct) a year in grants from outside agencies, principally the National Institutes of Health, as well as by endowment income. (The Department is one of the top 12 nationally in amount of NIH support.)

Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research
The Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research was established on June 19, 1910, when Mrs. Maria Antoinette Evans made the first in a series of gifts to University Hospital (then Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital) to endow a research department of medicine. Her purpose was to create a memorial to her husband, Robert Dawson Evans, a very successful businessman, whose estate also provided a wing for Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The current Evans Building, which is the third structure to house the ever-growing Department, was dedicated in 1971. It contains more than 100,000 square feet of research laboratories and offices for the staff of the Department of Medicine. This building was purchased by Boston University in fiscal year 2000. All Evans Department of Medicine researchers were relocated to the new Evans Biomedical Research Center located at 650 Albany Street.

Directors of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research

Evans Medical Foundation
The Evans Medical Foundation was founded in 1975. The faculty of the Department of Medicine voted to reorganize themselves as a non-profit corporation, the Evans Medical Foundation, to improve medical care for all patients and to provide one-class, first-class care for all. In addition, the reorganization facilitates the use of income from clinical activities of the departmental faculty to enhance patient care and to support teaching and clinical research at Boston University Medical Center. The title, Evans Medical Foundation, was chosen to indicate the close relation of the Foundation to the Evans Department of Medicine, the formal name for the research activities of the Department of Medicine at the Boston Medical Center. By supporting research, education, and clinical care, the Foundation has developed a new approach to fulfilling the mandate of Maria Antoinette Evans.

Boston University Medical Group
In 1977, the Foundation contracted with the former University Hospital to provide ambulatory services for the Hospital, both in general medicine and in all the subspecialties of internal medicine. The Foundation represented the legal mechanism for reorganizing the clinical practice of the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital. Before that time, the full-time faculty of the Department had maintained separate office practices. The offices were scattered around the Hospital, typically in association with the laboratory facilities of each faculty member. The patients were “private” patients of the faculty. At the same time, there were general medical and subspecialty clinics of the Hospital in which “public” patients were seen. These clinics were staffed by residents and fellows, usually with limited faculty supervision. They were old-fashioned, “hard-bench” clinics with few amenities.

At the same time a new Section of the Department of Medicine, General Internal Medicine, was organized to develop academic and clinical programs in that area. The Hospital outfitted a floor of the Doctor’s Office Building to house the Evans Medical Group, that is, the ambulatory activities of the Department of Medicine. The Evans Medical Group undertook to provide clinical care in a uniform manner for all patients, ending the traditional separation of private and public patients. At the same time, the new facility and a new support staff enhanced the style and amenities of the practice for all patients receiving ambulatory medical care at University Hospital.

During the first decade of activity, the number of patient visits to the Evans Medical Group more than doubled, from approximately 21,000 visits in 1977-78 to more than 45,000 visits by 1986-87. By 1995, it had reached approximately 55,000. In accordance with its charter as a non-profit academic support corporation, the Foundation has used clinical income to recruit and support faculty, to help pay research costs, and to enhance educational programs within the Department of Medicine. The Foundation has also assumed full financial responsibility for the practice expenses of the Evans Medical Group. By virtue of its steady growth, indicating patient satisfaction, and the substantial improvements inpatient care amenities, the Foundation has fulfilled its original mission.

Following the creation of the Boston Medical Center on July 1, 1996, the Evans Medical Group changed its name to the Boston University Medical Group to reflect its expanding, integrated clinical practice. The Boston University Medical Group represents the clinical arm of the Department of Medicine and all of its ambulatory practices. The number of patient visits in the integrated ambulatory practices in fiscal year 2007 was approximately 218,000.