Company Profile
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Company Overview
Formally known as The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn—but better known to our patients and Brooklyn neighbors as SUNY Downstate Medical Center—we are older than the Brooklyn Bridge. We trace our roots back to 1860, when a school of medicine was founded at the Long Island College Hospital. The new college’s faculty revolutionized medical education in this country by bringing the teaching of medicine to the hospital bedside, thus rejecting the idea that physicians should be trained exclusively in university lecture halls.
Today, SUNY Downstate is one of the nation's leading urban medical centers. SUNY Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, and University Hospital of Brooklyn.
The quality of our education, research, and patient care programs was confirmed with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Dr. Robert Furchgott, a member of our School of Graduate Studies faculty since 1956. Dr. Furchgott's identification of nitric oxide as a signaling molecule important in vascular health has revolutionized care for heart, stroke, impotence, and other diseases.
As the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, we serve a large population – over 2.3 million people – and one that is among the most diverse in the world. We are also an engine of opportunity for students interested in pursuing careers in health care. Many of our students are the first in their families to attend college.
More physicians who practice medicine in New York City received their training at our College of Medicine than any other medical center in the country. Nationally, our medical school ranks seventh in the number of graduates who are now engaged in academic medicine. Here in Brooklyn, our impact is even greater. We have trained nearly half of all doctors practicing in a number of specialty areas.
Our College of Health Related Professions and College of Nursing also play a unique role in the borough and the city. We have the oldest midwifery program in the country, and we recently made history again by establishing a joint program between the two colleges that trains midwives who are not nurses. The College of Nursing is particularly proud of its role in educating minority students. Approximately three-fourths of the students are minority-group members, and many are recent immigrants.
University Hospital of Brooklyn is the borough's only hospital located at an academic medical center. As such, it offers the most advanced and comprehensive care in Brooklyn. Many of its physicians are regularly rated among the best in New York City. Some are known throughout the world.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center enters the new century with a renewed dedication to serving the people of Brooklyn through its three-fold mission of education, research, and patient care.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Economic and Social Impact
Economic
With 5,500 employees, Downstate is the fourth largest employer in Brooklyn.
Approximately half of Downstate's workforce resides in Brooklyn.
Leader in Biotechnology
Downstate is leading efforts to bring the biotechnology industry to Brooklyn and New York City with its Advanced Biotechnology Incubator and Park and the BioBAT at the Brooklyn Army Terminal
Social Impact
Downstate has over 100 volunteer service projects that link students, faculty and staff to the community.
The Center for Community Health Promotion and Wellness provides free screenings and health lectures to over 11,000 Brooklyn residents each year.
Downstate hosts pipeline and science enrichment programs for middle, high school, undergraduate and graduate students to spark interest in health careers.
1,865 Students 932 Residents
5 Colleges
Medicine
Graduate Studies
Nursing
Health Related Professions
Public Health
PLUS:
Joint MD/PhD program offered with SUNY Polytechnic Institute (PhD in Nanoscale Science or Nanoscale Engineering)
Joint Biomedical Engineering program with the Tandon School of Engineering of NYU
Serving New York State's Health Education Needs
Leader in Physician Education:
More New York City physicians have trained at Downstate than at any other medical school
In some specialties, Downstate has trained more than half of the borough's physicians
The College of Medicine (COM) ranks in the 96th percentile in terms of African-American graduates
COM ranks sixth nationally in the number of African-American faculty members holding a position at a medical school (out of 145 accredited medical schools)
Downstate is fourth among medical schools in the number of graduates who hold an active license to practice medicine
It is twelfth among medical schools in the number of graduates who hold faculty positions at American medical schools
COM is twenty-third in the number of graduates who are chairs of medical departments
In 2014, the College of Medicine received over 5,000 applications and admitted a class of 181 students
99% of medical graduates from COM matched of those applying for residencies
Leader in Nursing Education:
One of only four colleges of nursing in the state to offer degrees in all advanced nursing specialties (clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, nurse midwifery, and nurse anesthetist)
The College of Nursing (CON) received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop innovative approaches to accelerated nursing education that can be taken to scale and replicated in a variety of educational settings
CON maintains close to 70 percent student diversity – while nationally, only 12 percent of the nation's 2.9 million nurses are minority group members
Leader in Health Related Professions Education:
The College of Health Related Professions (CHRP) is the only college in Brooklyn offering the MS degree in Medical Informatics
CHRP is the only public college in Brooklyn offering an MS degree in Occupational Therapy
Only public college in New York City offering a combined BS/DPT in Physical Therapy
First midwifery education program in the United States accredited by the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) to accept students with backgrounds other than nursing
Leader in Graduate Studies Education:
The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) awards PhD and MD/PhD degrees in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Neural and Behavioral Science
SGS awards PhD and MD/PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering which are offered jointly with the Tandon School of Engineering of NYU
MD/PhD program offered jointly with SUNY Polytechnic Institute (PhD in Nanoscale Science or Nanoscale Engineering)
The School of Graduate Studies is actively involved in pipeline programs and middle school mentoring with funding from the National Science Foundation
Leader in Public Health Education:
The School of Public Health (SPH) is the first public School of Public Health in New York City
SPH is the first public School of Public Health in New York State to focus on Immigrant Health
Research
$48.8 million in grant funding
Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (1998)
Birthplace of the MRI
In the top 5 of SUNY campuses for winning research grants
Third among SUNY's 4 medical schools for research expenditures
Centers and Major Laboratories:
Brooklyn Alzheimer's Disease Assistance Center
Brooklyn Health Disparities Center
Cancer Research Focus Group
Center for Treatment and Study of Endometriosis
Henri Begleiter Neurodynamics Laboratory (Genetics of Alcoholism)
HIV Center
The Institute for Genomic Health (IGH)
Northeast Terrorism Preparedness, Training, Education and Research Center
Alan R. Shalita Clinical Trials Unit in Dermatology
Technologies Developed and Available for Licensure:
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) portable & accurate diagnosis method (Bergold)
"Robo-Rat" remote surveillance in security, disaster situations (Chapin)
Glaucoma: long term intraocular treatment (Danias)
Novel brain-machine interface for "smart" artificial limbs (Francis)
Allergic suppression drugs and biomarker (Joks/Durkin)
Cancer stem cell clinical assay methodology (Lange)
Demyelinating neuropathies: novel diagnostic method (Maccabee)
Lymphocyte (B,T,NK) functional assays for clinical lab use (Norin)
Blood tests for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disease proteins (Rubenstein)
Memory modulation via cell signaling pathways (Sacktor)
Novel CNS-targeted inhibitor useful in tinnitus, brain injury (Shulman)
Less invasive, implanted, cardiac defibrillator device (Stewart)
Blood test for early stage breast cancer diagnosis and monitoring (Tiedge)
Lupus neuropsychiatric disease diagnosis/treatment (Tiedge)
Novel preservation solution for improved intestinal transplant outcomes (Zhang)
Patient Care
University Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB)
Two Locations – Central Brooklyn and Bay Ridge
Inpatient Visits – 15,000
Outpatient Visits – 294,000
Emergency Room Visits – 54,000
Ambulatory Surgery Visits– 7,000
People engaged at community health events – 11,700
People who received education or participated in a hospital-sponsored support group – 2,700
People who received free health screenings – 9,000
Satellite Centers
Midwood – 2171 Nostrand Avenue
Family Health Services – 840 Lefferts Avenue
Dialysis Center – 710 Parkside Avenue
Five school-based clinics located throughout Brooklyn
Benefits
SUNY provides comprehensive employee benefits programs designed to help keep our faculty and staff and their families healthy, safe, happy, and productive. For more information, see the summaries of fringe benefits for our different union employees, and Management/Confidential employees, on our website: http://hrlib.downstate.edu/cms/modules/benefits/