Howard University College of Medicine

History

Founders of Howard University appreciated the urgent need for medical education in the District of Columbia after the Civil War. Howard University is named after Major General Oliver Otis Howard. The civil war had just ended, and freed African-American people were migrating to the nation's capital in large numbers.

The first opening exercise for the newly created Medical Department was held at the First Congregational Church of Christ on November 5, 1868. The charter approving incorporation of Howard University specified that a department would be devoted to medicine. Dr. Silas Loomis, one of the University’s founders, was named the Medical Department’s first dean in 1868. One of the first five faculty members was Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta, reportedly the first African-American to serve on a medical school faculty in the United States.

The first classes began on Nov. 9, 1868, with eight students and five faculty members (Drs. Silas Loomis, Robert Reyburn, Joseph Taber Johnson, Lafayette Loomis and Alexander Thomas Augusta). Dr. Augusta is often recognized as the first African American to serve on a medical school faculty in the United States.

In 1869, a building for the Medical Department and Freedmen’s Hospital was constructed by the Freedmen’s Bureau on Pomeroy Street, presently Fifth Street NW. The building housed the medical and pharmacy program (and later the dental program), as well as the Freedmen’s Hospital. In 1927, a new facility was constructed on W Street. The College of Medicine’s first alumni association was formed in 1871 by the five graduates of that year (William Bennit, James Bowen, George Brooks, Danforth Nichols and Joseph Sladen). In 1945, the Howard University Medical Alumni Association (HUMAAA) was incorporated in the District of Columbia.

Deans of the College

The current interim dean of Howard University College of Medicine is Edward E. Cornwell, III, M.D., FACS, FCCM.

Former Deans:

Graduate programs

Howard University College of Medicine has six training programs leading to the MS or Ph. D. degrees. These are anatomy, genetics & human genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and physiology & biophysics.

The largest training program in the College of Medicine is their 4-year MD program. HUCM is known for producing physicians who provide healthcare to under-served communities throughout the United States. A major emphasis of HUCM is preparing physicians for under-served communities. Much of the experience these medical students gain with under-served communities is at Howard University Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for HUCM, but students also gain experience with other demographics by working at other hospitals in the DC Metropolitan Area including Washington Hospital Center, St. Elizabeths Hospital and Inova Fairfax Hospital. Howard University Hospital's surrounding community is under-served and serves as an excellent teaching environment for HUCM's students.

The Howard University Health Sciences Simulation Center opened a major state-of-the-art virtual medical training facility to advance the education of medical students and healthcare professionals. The center provides students with hands-on hospital experience using cutting-edge technology. The simulation center, a 6,000-square-foot facility, is a simulated hospital environment that promotes improved communication skills between healthcare workers and their patients.

Service

The Howard University College of Medicine, in conjunction with the New York chapter of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH) and the Haitian American Alliance, has engaged in an ambitious service-learning-based medical project in Haiti. The team from the College of Medicine consists of doctors from the departments of obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, pediatrics, pathology and anatomy. The team travelled to the country seven years ago as a humanitarian response to the devastating earthquake in 2010.