Member Institutions

GUMC is comprised of the School of Medicine (founded in 1849), the School of Nursing & Health Studies (founded in 1903) and the Lombardi Cancer Center (founded in 1970), with graduate programs in biochemistry, cell biology pharmacology, physiology, tumor biology, and neuroscience. Clinical care is provided at Georgetown University Hospital (GUH) through a partnership with MedStar Health, which has resulted in the formation of one of the largest regional healthcare networks in the US. GUMC has 717 full-time and 872 voluntary (clinician) faculty members in 8 basic science and 19 clinical departments and the Lombardi Cancer Center. The research community at Georgetown comprises over 300 principal investigators, occupying laboratory space both on campus and in leased locations in Washington and Maryland. In 2005, GUMC researchers were awarded over $138 million in extramural funding, with the majority (60%) deriving from the NIH and other Federal agencies. Considerable research activity occurs within the clinical environment, with over 400 active clinical trials, a large proportion funded through the NIH and the NCI.

The GUMC School of Nursing and Health Studies (GUSNHS) is the second oldest school at GUMC and has a long tradition of shaping the future of nursing and health professions for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students. GUSNHS’s undergraduate program, ranked among the top 30 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, currently enrolls 453 students and graduates approximately 100 students each year. In addition to 150 undergraduate nursing students, there are also 141 advanced practice nursing (APN) graduate students in Family Nurse Practitioner, Midwifery, Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Clinical Specialist and Nurse Anesthesia programs. Educational activities are centered in three departments: 1) Health Systems Administration provides a broad systems approach to the management of health care organizations and to the understanding of the social, professional, technical and political forces that is essential for leadership in the dynamic health care industry. 2) Human Science is designed for students who desire to study the application of scientific discoveries in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics to human health. 3) International Health blends public health and health systems management with an emphasis on how environment, culture, economics and politics interact to influence health status. Over 90% of GUSNHS undergraduate students pursue advanced degrees.

The Georgetown Center for Clinical Bioethics (CCB) was established in 1991 as a center of excellence at GU, complementing the activities in ethics of the other divisions and departments of GUMC. The CCB functions in concert with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Department of Philosophy on the main campus, as well as with faculty at the Law Center. The faculty of the CCB has primary appointments in many different departments, including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Nursing and Oncology. They teach, participate in patient care, and conduct research in the philosophy of medicine, end-of-life issues, beginning-of-life concerns, genetics, and organizational ethics.

Graduate degree programs are offered by the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Human Genetics, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology and Biophysics. MD/PhD and MD/MBA Programs are also available.

The principal teaching hospital for the College of Medicine is Howard University Hospital, a 500-bed facility completed in 1975 that houses the General Clinical Research Center. Howard University Hospital has 243 trainees in residency programs and 27 in fellowship programs. Each of these 270 trainees is encouraged, and many are required, to conduct clinical research during their educational program. HU also houses a College of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Health Sciences and a College of Dentistry (HUCD). The School of Pharmacy has entry-level and post-Baccalaureate programs leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD). The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers graduate preparation leading to a PhD, with specializations in Pharmaceutics, Medicinal Chemistry, and Pharmacy Administration. The Department is developing a pharmaco-epidemiological track with support from an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grant. 

The Division of Nursing offers the Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, a Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the Master’s and post-Master’s levels. The Office of Nursing Research at Howard University has grown out of the NIH P-20 Yale-Howard Center to Reduce Health Disparities by Self and Family Management (5P20 NR008353). The Division of Allied Health Sciences offers undergraduate programs in Clinical Laboratory Science, Health Management, Dietetics, Physician Assistant, and Radiation Therapy. The graduate programs include Master’s degrees in Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, and Master’s and PhD programs in Nutritional Sciences.

The HUCD established in 1881, is the fifth oldest dental school in the United States. The College has trained thousands of dental professionals to serve their communities, particularly the underserved. The College of Dentistry offers postgraduate programs in the fields of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, General Practice Residency and an Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry. Faculty research activity includes studies of dental consequences of sickle cell disease and pathogenesis of head and neck cancer. HUCD has established a relationship with the HU Cancer Center to collaborate in cancer screening, diabetic screening, and tobacco cessation programs.

HU received over $27.5 million in extramural support in 2008, of which approximately $15 million was from NIH. The biomedical centers and programs that house much of this research include the Center for Sickle Cell Disease, the Cancer Center, the National Human Genome Center, the Mood Disorder and PTSD Programs, and the Collaborative Alcohol Research Center.

The hospitals, which include both teaching and community facilities, are Franklin Square Hospital Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Harbor Hospital, and Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, MD, along with Washington Hospital Center (WHC), National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) and GUH in Washington, DC. Montgomery General Hospital is located in the northern Washington suburbs and St. Mary’s Hospital is in rural southern Maryland. MedStar Health is the third largest employer in the greater Washington/Baltimore area, with 27,000 employees and 4,600 affiliated physicians, and is the largest healthcare system in the mid-Atlantic region. MedStar Health hospitals collectively sponsor over 7 accredited GME programs in more than 50 different specialty areas. Currently there are 945 house staff trainees, rendering this the second largest GME program in the mid-Atlantic region. While each hospital maintains independent accreditation, many programs are integrated across several campuses, such as the GUH/WHC Endocrinology fellowship.

MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI), the research arm of MedStar Health, has 39 years of experience conducting biomedical research for the NIH and other Federal agencies, with a documented commitment to performing research in minority communities. With over $40 million in funded research (with 60% from federal sources), the MedStar Health Research Institute supports all aspects of clinical and translational research. There are more than 150 active principal investigators and over 500 trained research support staff spanning the MedStar clinical enterprise.  While the majority of research is conducted in MedStar facilities, the Research Institute also maintains a free-standing outpatient research facility with staff experienced in conducting clinical trials and outpatient metabolic studies. The Penn Medical Laboratory is a CLIA- and CAP-approved facility that serves as the core laboratory for several NIH multicenter clinical trials, and the MedStar Clinical Research Center has been one of the leading minority recruiting centers for the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) from NIH. Furthermore, the Research Institute has a free-standing pre-clinical animal research facility on their Washington campus. MHRI’s effectiveness in conducting clinical research derives from investigator expertise coupled with the MedStar Health’s large and diverse patient base.

During the 1950s and 1960s, ORNL became an international center for the study of nuclear energy and related research in the physical and life sciences. With the creation of DOE in the 1970s, ORNL's mission broadened to include a variety of energy technologies and strategies. Today the laboratory supports the nation with a peacetime science and technology mission that is just as important as, but very different from, its role during the Manhattan Project.

ORNL is home to the world's premier center for high performance supercomputing to enable scientific discovery. ORNL's partnership with GHUCCTS will offer unparalleled opportunity in high speed high volume computing to develop novel translational methodologies in drug discovery and genome-environment transactions.

The VAMC’s staff of 1,700 provides care to veterans residing in the District of Columbia and portions of Virginia and Maryland. The medical center treats over 50,000 veterans and has over 500,000 outpatient visits each year. The Washington DC VAMC is affiliated with HU, GW, and GU. It is also affiliated with many other colleges and universities in such areas as pharmacy, rehabilitation medicine, biomedical engineering, dietetics, social work, nursing and medical center management.

The medical center has a multi-million dollar research program that supports more than 100 investigators and 300 active research projects. Major research in alcoholism, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and spinal cord regeneration is being conducted.