History
In 1913, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (PBBH) was established adjacent to the newly relocated Harvard Medical School "to care for the sick persons in indigent circumstances, residing in the county of Suffolk." PBBH was the nation's first hospital to offer a full-time academic staff model and the first to expand internship training into multi-year residencies with opportunities for further post-graduate specialization. PBBH was instrumental in establishing combined clinical and research training, and many of the nation's academic leaders graduated from the PBBH and BWH residencies.
In 1975, the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital and the Boston Hospital for Women merged to form the Brigham and Women's Hospital; a non-profit institution dedicated to excellence in patient care, teaching and research. Continuing its rich tradition that has included many "firsts" (iron lung, organ transplant, DC cardioversion and others) and 4 Nobel Prizes, the Brigham is committed to staying in the forefront of patient care, research and education.
Brigham and Women's Hospital
A modern 777 bed facility now houses the programs and services of the merged hospital which provides expertise in virtually every medical and surgical subspecialty. The Brigham and Women's Hospital is a major teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School, and the staff and house staff physicians have Harvard University appointments. The great majority of the Medical Staff is geographically full-time at the hospital.
BWH serves a diverse local patient population, as well as regional, national, and international referral patients. In 2008, there were approximately 17,914 admissions to the inpatient medical service, 80,000 medical out-patient visits and 57,531 Emergency Department visits. The inpatient services provide intensive experience in acute care, more than half of the patients being admitted on an emergency basis.
BWH Department of Medicine offers thirteen nationally recognized ACGME accredited fellowship programs and additional opportunities for advanced training, including the following:
Allergy and Immunology
Cardiac Electrophysiology
Cardiology
Endocrinology and Metabolism
Gastroenterology
General Internal Medicine
Hematology and Oncology
Infectious Diseases
Interventional Cardiology
Nephrology(DF
Pulmonology and Critical Care
Rheumatology
Sleep Medicine
Recent new fellowship programs include palliative care and pain management, vascular medicine, advanced endoscopy, adult genetics and global health equity.
Partners Healthcare
In 1994, the Brigham and Women's Hospital joined the Massachusetts General Hospital to form the Partners Health Care System. The decision to build an integrated health care system was motivated by the desire to permit the two institutions to continue to pursue, in the new health care environment, their traditional missions of providing outstanding clinical care, developing new health care information and training the next generation of leaders in both the practice and teaching of medicine. The partnership has been most fruitful and the merging of several of our sub-specialty programs over the last few years has raised them to new levels of clinical and academic excellence.
Affiliated Hospitals and Facilities
The Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) is adjacent to BWH, and all clinical services are integrated. DFCI is a large referral center for oncologic diseases, and considered to be among the top cancer treatment and research centers in the world. New ambulatory facilities at the DFCI see 400,000 yearly visits, and are the site of our combined hematology and oncology ambulatory practices.
The inpatient and outpatient services of the cardiology division are housed in the newly built Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, a state-of-the art facility offering comprehensive care in every aspect of cardiovascular medicine and surgery.
Medical house staff also participate in both inpatient and ambulatory services at the VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Campus. This facility has 60 acute care beds and 25 intensive care beds, a full-time Harvard and Boston University faculty and is the major VA system referral hospital for New England.
In 1999, the Faulkner Hospital, a nearby community teaching hospital with a long tradition of teaching excellence, merged with the Brigham and Women's Hospital and now provides experience in inpatient, general and ICU medicine and ambulatory care for residents.
Summary
The Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Partners Health Care System, our faculty and our administration remain committed to providing our trainees with outstanding clinical and academic training. The remarkable combination of primary care and referral patients, a talented and experienced faculty, extraordinary academic and research opportunities and, above all, a commitment to providing our trainees the clinical, academic and personal resources to enable them to develop clinical excellence and achieve academic success, characterizes the medical residency programs at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Send Feedback to: 
