Oldest medical school?

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PathOne

PathOne

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Since a track record is usually desirable for a medical school, I wonder which one has the longest (track record, that is)...

Personally, my vote would go to Universita di Padova in Italy, which apparently has been training physicians since 1222 A.D. Anyone older out there? :)
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well, my school has been around since 1348....i thought that was old, but those crazy italians were letting blood more than 100 years earlier! jeez..
 
OK. But 1348 is still pretty respectable, in my humble opinion! :)
 
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Would have thought that was Oxford or Cambridge. But don't know when they started medical training... One would think they might have had a fun party in Aberdeen back in 1995 :)
 
Medical teaching in medieval times was very much ad hoc and it's only in the last 200 years that medical schools have come under the control of universities (this is especially true in Dublin).

Trinity College, Dublin was founded in 1592 and although medical degrees were conferred in the early years, it wasn't until 1711 that a physical medical school was accommodated within the walls of the College and a more formal approach to medical teaching was adopted.

Oldest isn't necessarily best ;)
 
Trinners Oldest isn't necessarily best said:
Surely, a school founded in 1770 would be better than one founded in 1880! :D
Seriously, thorugh, running a medical school is a fairly complicated business, and it takes quite a long time to iron out the problems. Also, it seems that the vast majority of the most highly regarded schools tend to be fairly old.
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I'm sure it's pretty cool to go to a school with ancient history but come on...

The Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876. UCSF in 1864. Washington University in 1891. (Just a few examples of young powerhouses.)
 
student.ie said:
I'm sure it's pretty cool to go to a school with ancient history but come on...

The Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876. UCSF in 1864. Washington University in 1891. (Just a few examples of young powerhouses.)
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i think it is pretty neat to be studying in the institute that jan purkynje founded, and did a bunch of research in...but, jan's research is old news! purkynje fibers and cells...talk about outdated! :laugh:

but, the history really does mean squat in practical terms, i think we are all aware of that. what on earth does the fact that they taught folks how to apply leeches in 1348 at my school have to do with the education now? nothing at all...

this is just something fun to talk about, and i don't think any of us think that the age of the school implies any special quality.
 
University of Copenhagen was founded in 1479 (offering medicine and law, and other subjects), and is the oldest university in northern europe.
 
If you are interested in this sort of thing you might like whonamedit.com where they describe medical eponyms. You can go find famous people from your home country or possibly from your school. Medical history is interesting, no?
 
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt was founded in 988 A.D. It primarily taught Islamic religion. 14 years later, the medical school was established (1002 AD)
 
Fascia Lata said:
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt was founded in 988 A.D. It primarily taught Islamic religion. 14 years later, the medical school was established (1002 AD)
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Fair enough, but Cairo is not Europe by any stretch of the imagination.

Also, was the medical school continously operating? (I'd bet that some of the schools mentioned above would also not meet this requirement.)
 
'tis true that the Arab world was clearly #1 in the pre- and early middle ages, especially in medicine and mathematics. In fact, a lot of the classic Greek texts are in fact translations from Arabic, because the Greek originals were lost.
However, they later declined extremely fast, and most were closed for extended periods.

In contrast, you CAN find quite a number of medical faculties in Europe which have in fact trained continously. But obviously, the training in the 1500's wasn't quite at the level available today. In fact, you'd probably need to go to the 18th or 19th century to find true Medical Science... (without blood-letting and the like).
 
PathOne said:
'tis true that the Arab world was clearly #1 in the pre- and early middle ages, especially in medicine and mathematics. In fact, a lot of the classic Greek texts are in fact translations from Arabic, because the Greek originals were lost.
However, they later declined extremely fast, and most were closed for extended periods.

In contrast, you CAN find quite a number of medical faculties in Europe which have in fact trained continously. But obviously, the training in the 1500's wasn't quite at the level available today. In fact, you'd probably need to go to the 18th or 19th century to find true Medical Science... (without blood-letting and the like).
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Al Azhar Universiry Has been in continuous operation since inception:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation
 
Miklos said:
Fair enough, but Cairo is not Europe by any stretch of the imagination.

Also, was the medical school continously operating? (I'd bet that some of the schools mentioned above would also not meet this requirement.)
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Not to be the devil's advocate or anything but the original question didn't specify Europe (although it's in the Europe section). Also, wasn't Egypt part of the Holy Roman Empire for a while? So while technically not Europe, still under the control of Rome ;).
 
Well, obviously one should hope that even the old (or ancient) medical schools have evolved since their founding... Just thought of the question after reading about the multitude of problems at some of the newly established off-shore schools, and as any medical school is inherently a complex organization, I guess that a certain "ageing" would be appropriate (just like good wine) --- although it probably wouldn't matter much beyond a certain point. :)
 
The medical school in Montpellier bills itself as Europe's oldest...one in Paris is from 1180.




PathOne said:
Since a track record is usually desirable for a medical school, I wonder which one has the longest (track record, that is)...

Personally, my vote would go to Universita di Padova in Italy, which apparently has been training physicians since 1222 A.D. Anyone older out there? :)
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prefontaine said:
The medical school in Montpellier bills itself as Europe's oldest...one in Paris is from 1180.
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The University of Bologna may predate Montpellier.
 
prefontaine said:
The medical school in Montpellier bills itself as Europe's oldest...one in Paris is from 1180.
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Miklos said:
The University of Bologna may predate Montpellier.
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I was taught that Montpellier was founded in 1220 or possibly 1221. I've heard of people referring to 1180 but I wonder if they're confusing that with the year Guillem VIII., Lord of Montpellier, signed a decree permitting Jewish doctors at Montpellier to practice Medicine.

I think the official founding of Bologna 1188 predates that of Montpellier but I'm not sure what this means since Montpellier was a renowned centre for training doctors long before it was officially founded. Technically, the University of Paris Medical School was founded about 5 years before Montpellier's. But, in fact, the Paris school was modeled after Montpellier's and very heavily influenced by it.

In a way all this is irrelevant since many of the earliest doctors at Montpellier were Jewish scholars who had studied Medicine at schools in Spain and in Salerno. So, regardless of what year you pick for the founding of the Med School at Montpellier, there were European med schools that preceded it.

Someone could argue that this is academic since these other schools don't exist anymore but, technically, neither does the University of Montpellier. It ceased to exist back in 1970 when new educational reforms divided it into the universities Montpellier I, Montpellier II, and Montpellier III.

For the oldest, continuously operating, European med school still in existence, I think the smart money is on Bologna.
 
brightblueeyes said:
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For the oldest, continuously operating, European med school still in existence, I think the smart money is on Bologna.
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yes, you got it right. university of bologna is the oldest university teaching medicine in Europe (and maybe in the world). it has been in continous existance since its foundation in 1088.
i am a product of the university and we had always known for sure that it was the first university in the world.
 
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