Harvard Medical School is one of the world's preeminent institutions in medical education and research. The breadth and depth of its scientific and clinical disciplines are unsurpassed. The School has over 9,000 faculty and 18 affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutions.

HMS Mission:
"To create and nurture a community of the best people committed to leadership in alleviating human suffering caused by disease."

At the core of the Medical School are its educational and research programs. The student body is composed of 714 men and women in the MD program; 592 students in the PhD program; and 151 in the joint MD-PhD programs, part of which is sponsored in collaboration with MIT. Medical students follow the New Pathway curriculum, a problem-solving, case-method approach to learning, offering the opportunity to come in contact with patient cases early in their studies.

The Medical School has 10 departments in basic and social science disciplines: Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, Pathology, Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Health Care Policy, Social Medicine, and Systems Biology.

The Medical School is the largest of Harvard's graduate faculties and has traditionally been a trend-setter for many University-wide initiatives.