Penn State University College of Medicine


Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, known simply as Penn State College of Medicine is the medical school of Penn State. While the main Penn State campus is in State College PA, this school is located in Hershey Pennsylvania in order to align with Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the medical school’s principal affiliate. The medical school includes 26 basic science and clinical departments and a broad range of clinical programs conducted at its hospital affiliates and numerous ambulatory care sites in the region.

History

In 1963, the M. S. Hershey Foundation offered $50 million to the Pennsylvania State University to establish a medical school and teaching hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Penn State Health

Penn State Health was formed in 2014 to consolidate health care providers in the area. In 2015, it acquired St. Joseph Regional Health Network in Berks County from Catholic Health Initiatives.

Statistics

As of May 2011, the Penn State College of Medicine has graduated 3,907 physicians and 1,004 scientists with Ph.D. or M.S. degrees. The College of Medicine offers degree programs in anatomy, bioengineering, biomedical sciences, bioinformatics and genomics, genetics, immunology and infectious diseases, integrative biosciences, molecular medicine, molecular toxicology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and physiology. Two postdoctoral programs leading to an M.S. degree are offered, namely in Laboratory Animal Medicine, the only such program in Pennsylvania, and Public Health Sciences. Each year, more than 550 resident physicians are trained in medical specialties at the Center.

LionCare student-run free clinic

Since 2001, the students of the College of Medicine have operated a free clinic for the underserved of Central Pennsylvania. The clinic is called LionCare and is based out of the Bethesda Mission, a homeless shelter, in midtown Harrisburg, PA. It has specialized has clinics for Women's Health, Orthopedics, Neurology, Psychiatry and Dermatology. The clinic is staffed and serviced by the students of the college, under the supervision of faculty physicians.