First American Medical Schools

The Medical Department of the College of Philadelphia, 1765 There were only two medical schools in the British American colonies before the

American Revolution (1775-1789). As indicated before, the first medical school program was the Medical Department of the College of Philadelphia (1765), which today is the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.5,7 The second medical school was the Medical Faculty of King’s College, New York, which began in 1767 and is now the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. The thirst for medical knowledge spread quickly through the most important English-speaking cities of the continent, and several other medical schools were founded.