About the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

The Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, founded in 1797, strives to improve the lives of the people it serves: students, patients, and local and global communities. The School builds healthier communities through innovations in research, education, and patient care. As one of America's top medical schools, the Geisel School of Medicine is committed to creating new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare.

Our Five Guiding Principles
Create Leaders and Leadership
Students and Faculty First
Revitalize Education and Research
Reach Out and Connect Diverse People & Ideas
We Win Together as a Team

A History of Firsts
The Geisel School of Medicine—the fourth oldest medical school in the nation—has produced many firsts and advancements in education, research and medical practice, including:

  • The first clinical X-ray in America
  • The first multispecialty intensive care unit
  • The first comprehensive examination of variations in health care costs in US medical practice (The Dartmouth Atlas)
  • Discovery of the mechanism for how light resets biological clocks
  • The groundbreaking national model, Supported Employment, which improves outcomes for those with serious mental illness
  • The first Center for Health Care Delivery Science launched in 2010, as well as a new Master's in Health Care Delivery Science degree
  • The first use of the stethoscope in medical education--introduced by the Geisel School poet-physician faculty member, Oliver Wendell Holmes

Leaders in education, research & health delivery

  • 17 faculty elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
  • 10 faculty elected to membership in the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (previously the Institute of Medicine).
  • Three faculty who are members of the renowned National Academy of Sciences.
  • Geisel School of Medicine research funding accounts for 75% of Dartmouth College's total research activity.
  • Recognized excellence in research, including leadership in genetics, bioinformatics, population health, cancer, cystic fibrosis, neuroscience, psychiatry, and health care delivery science research, among others.
  • Home of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and its Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which has revealed national disparities in health care spending.
  • Creating national models for programs that greatly improve health for those living with mental illness.
  • Transforming work in global health, including leading development of a TB vaccine in Tanzania, and creating a new system for educating physicians in Rwanda as one of seven medical schools in the world chosen by USAID and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Other health equity partnerships include Peru, Kosovo, Haiti, China, American Indian communities and U.S. rural and urban health settings.