PROVIDENCE – Brown University is set to kick off a more than yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Warren Alpert Medical School.
The celebration begins with a community event on April 29 and will continue through June 2023.
As the year progresses, Brown plans to host lectures, seminars, exhibitions and other events to mark 50 years of medical training at the university.
Established in 1972, the medical school has graduated 3,893 physicians.
“Whether caring for patients in Rhode Island’s hospitals and clinics, battling health crises around the world or turning scientific discoveries into medical breakthroughs, Brown medical school students, faculty, alumni and staff have built a half-century track record of positive impact,” said Brown President Christina H. Paxson. “Brown’s contributions to health and medicine far exceed what even the most optimistic program founders might have envisioned in 1972.”
Events throughout the celebration will highlight the medical school’s focus on patients’ and communities’ overall health.
“Focusing on the social, as well as the personal dimensions, that affect an individual’s health was a novel concept 50 years ago,” said Dr. Michele G. Cyr, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the medical school and chair of the 50 Years of Medicine Steering Committee. “The founders were ahead of their time to be thinking about that as central to medical education at Brown. But what they started in 1972 has now been widely adopted – today, any well-trained physician is constantly factoring in the ‘social determinants’ of health as they approach a person’s care.”
Details on the April 29 kickoff event can be found at events.brown.edu. More information will be posted as additional events are organized.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
