Proud Traditions

Throughout its history, the Boston University School of Medicine has embodied and demonstrated a strong commitment to the study and practice of medicine, based on a mission of service to society. We’re proud of our history, which is rich with groundbreaking and exceptional achievements.

In 1873, Boston University merged with the New England Female Medical College—the first U.S. institution to train women in medicine, and the first to graduate a black female physician. The BU School of Medicine was thus created as the first coeducational medical school in the country.

Many other firsts followed. BUSM also:

• Graduated the first Native American MD, Charles Eastman (MED’1890), who was the central figure in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
• Graduated the first African-American psychiatrist in the U.S., Solomon Carter Fuller (MED’1897).
• Was among the first schools in the country to offer a combined BA-MD degree.
• Established the first combined cancer research and teaching laboratory in U.S.
• Created the country’s first section of gastroenterology in 1942.
• Conducted the first studies on the use of penicillin in civilians with infectious diseases, in 1944.
• Became the first medical school to work with the U.S. Public Health Service’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease, joining the world-famous Framingham Heart Study in 1971.
• Houses the NIH-funded National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories, one of only a handful of such secure research facilities in the nation.