Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine: A Comprehensive Overview

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, stands as a prominent institution for medical education and research. Formerly known as Northwestern University Medical School from 1906 to 2002, it is the medical school of Northwestern University. Through its clinical affiliates which are Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), Feinberg provides extensive clinical training opportunities for its students and residents. The Feinberg School of Medicine is an integral part of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University.

Historical Context and Evolution

The Feinberg School of Medicine has a rich history, tracing its origins back to 1859 with the Lind University medical department and the Chicago Medical College in 1863. Its affiliation with Northwestern University began in 1870, officially becoming Northwestern Medical School in 1906. The school was renamed the Feinberg School of Medicine in 2002, a reflection of a substantial $75 million donation from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation. This donation was initiated by Reuben Feinberg after he was hospitalized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a heart attack, with the first contribution in 1988 establishing the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute with $17 million.

Campus and Facilities

In June 2019, Northwestern University inaugurated the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center, a $560 million, 625,000 square-foot facility on the Chicago campus. This building is connected to the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center, significantly expanding the university's biomedical research capabilities. On May 8, 2015, exactly 90 years after Northwestern University first broke ground on its Chicago campus, Feinberg broke ground on the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center.

Curriculum and Academic Programs

Feinberg School of Medicine is home to 631 medical students. The class of students who graduated in 2023 are the 164th graduating class. The school offers a comprehensive medical education with a focus on integrating science, clinical practice, health & society, and professional development. In 2012, Feinberg's entering medical students began a new curriculum, organized into three phases and emphasizing integration of four main curricular elements: science in medicine, clinical medicine, health & society, and professional development.

For medical students, the school offers four-year dual degree programs, which combine the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree with a Master of Public Health (MPH), a Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics (MA), a Master of Science in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (MS), or a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Students electing to pursue the additional degrees enroll in evening classes and graduate with both degrees.

Read also: Northwestern University Feinberg

Admissions

The Feinberg School of Medicine is highly competitive. For the 2023 entering class, 7,836 people applied for 145 seats.

Clinical Training

Ann & Robert H. Feinberg medical students and McGaw residents receive their clinical training at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, where nearly all the attending staff members have faculty appointments at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Residents also train at affiliates such as John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

Research and Innovation

The Feinberg School of Medicine is dedicated to advancing medical knowledge through research. The school's research activities span a wide range of disciplines, supported by state-of-the-art facilities and resources. The opening of the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center in 2019 significantly bolstered the university's research infrastructure.

Notable Discoveries

Two Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to researchers affiliated with the Feinberg School of Medicine:

John Eccles (1963): Shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin for their groundbreaking work on the synapse.
Ferid Murad (1998): Shared the prize with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro for demonstrating that nitroglycerin and related drugs release nitric oxide into the body, relaxing smooth muscle by elevating intracellular cyclic GMP.

Affiliations and Partnerships

On September 1, 2013, Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, the medical school's physician's group, joined Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (NMHC), the health system that includes Northwestern Memorial Hospital, forming a new physician's group called Northwestern Medical Group.

Notable Alumni

The Feinberg School of Medicine has produced numerous distinguished alumni who have made significant contributions to medicine and society:

Nicholas Senn (Class of 1868): An early surgeon-scientist and founder of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.
Mary Harris Thompson (Class of 1870, ad eundem): First female surgeon in Chicago and first female surgeon at Cook County Hospital.
Franklin H. Martin (Class of 1880): A prominent surgeon.
Joseph Bolivar DeLee (Class of 1891): An American physician who became known as the father of modern obstetrics.
George Jewett (Class of 1893): First African-American medical student who simultaneously played collegiate football in the Big 10.
Henry Stanley Plummer (Class of 1898): Internist, endocrinologist and one of the founding partners of the Mayo Clinic.
Julius Hess (Class of 1899): A pediatrician considered the father of American neonatology.
Alfred Bitini Xuma (Class of 1926): Surgeon in Johannesburg and later president (1940-1949) of the African National Congress, preceding Nelson Mandela.
Kermit E. Krantz (Class of 1948): Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, University of Kansas. Developed the Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz (MMK) and invented the expandable tampon.
Robert F. Spetzler (Class of 1971): J.N.

Student Life and Engagement

Student engagement is a central feature of the Northwestern University MSTP. Students have the unique ability to shape the program by working closely with leadership to evaluate its activities and develop initiatives to meet changing student needs.

Student Council

The Student Council consists of elected student leaders who meet regularly with program directors and staff to share student concerns and discuss program-related matters. The Student Council co-chairs oversee and coordinate the council's responsibilities, which include (but are not limited to): brainstorming programming for the annual Student-Faculty Retreat; organizing surveys and other student initiatives to gather student feedback related to the program; and developing student wellness initiatives.

Outreach Committee

The Outreach Committee meets regularly with program leadership to assist with various initiatives that connect current students with other members of the physician-scientist community at Northwestern and beyond to share perspectives on dual-degree training, clinical specialties, and career goals.

Admissions Task Force

The Admissions Task Force is a student-led committee that works closely with our chair of admissions and our admissions committee.

Student Senate

Dhivya Sridar, from Novi, Mich., received her bachelors of Arts in Neuroscience in 2018 (summa cum laude) and has since been enrolled as a medical student at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. While in medical school, she co-founded a chapter of Chicago Street Medicine, a non-profit organization providing medical care to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. She has served as president of the Feinberg Student Senate and is active in myriad volunteer organizations dedicated to social justice and public health. This commitment to social justice led Dhivya to take a leave of absence from Feinberg to enroll in a Master’s program in journalism at Medill.

Student Lounges

When sixth-year Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences student Patrick Madden arrived at Northwestern in 2016, students in The Graduate School could access two lounges in NU’s Chicago Campus. These lounges have been opened up to the broader Chicago Campus or allocated specifically to Feinberg School of Medicine students. “This is not a burden on really anyone because it would literally take (the University) five minutes to give us access,” Madden said. The only spaces on the Chicago Campus TGS manages are a conference room in Abbott Hall and a few adjacent office spaces, according to University spokesperson Hilary Hurd Anyaso. Flores, who serves as advocacy chair of the Chicago Graduate Student Association, said a space on the Chicago Campus for TGS students could help resolve this problem. Even the conference room in Abbott Hall and office spaces can sometimes be difficult to secure because they are shared with medical students, Flores said. Madden, a former member of the DGP Student Council, said finding space to study on the Chicago Campus can be challenging. “We don’t have any graduate student-specific place for us to meet,” Potluri said. Flores said CGSA is pursuing efforts to advocate for a lounge space for DGP and TGS students. Prior to 2018, TGS students had access to the Traisman Medical Student Center in the Tarry Research and Education Building. “The crazy thing was that they didn’t tell anyone,” Madden said. In December 2019, Madden and the DGP Student Council conducted a survey for Chicago graduate students regarding student lounges. “There are graduate students who spend 80 hours a week working in that building that don’t have access to that student lounge,” Madden said.

Rankings and Recognition

The Feinberg School of Medicine consistently ranks among the top medical schools in the United States.

Financial Resources

The Northwestern University endowment is US$3.0 billion.

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