School of Medicine
Summary Description
About the School of Medicine
Consistently ranked among the nation's top medical schools, the UCSF School of Medicine earns its greatest distinction from its outstanding faculty – among them are Nobel laureates, National Academy of Medicine members, American Academy of Arts and Sciences members, National Academy of Sciences members, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators.
More information about UCSF’s faculty, honors, and many achievements.
Mission
The UCSF School of Medicine strives to advance human health through a fourfold mission of education, research, patient care and public service.
History
Founded in 1864 as Toland Medical College, the school joined the University of California in 1873, and in 1898, moved to its present Parnassus Heights campus. The first UC hospital opened here in 1907, eventually growing into Moffitt-Long Hospitals and later Benioff Children’s Hospital. These facilities, together with Mount Zion Hospital, now comprise the UCSF Medical Center.
UCSF faculty have also treated patients and trained students at Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center since 1873 and at the San Francisco VA Medical Center for over 50 years. UCSF is affiliated with a number of other hospitals in the Bay Area and Fresno, including Children’s Hospital Oakland.
More information about UCSF clinical learning sites.
Policies
The Guidelines and Policies for medical students at UCSF can be found online at Medical Student Policies. The Policies section features the regulatory mandates that students need to follow for institutional and/or compliance reasons. Unless otherwise indicated, all UCSF Medical Student Policies also apply to UCSF medical students who are conducting their learning at regional campuses. The Guidelines represent the deans' recommended approaches to the items below based on their years of experience. Each Guideline also includes instructions for how to request a different approach based on individual circumstances.
Links to policies of particular relevance for medical students are given below.
This policy outlines expectations of medical students at UCSF and provides a set of professionalism milestones to be achieved across the curricular phases.
These principles serve as an essential guide for UCSF medical students throughout their academic, clinical, and research work.
This policy provides guidance for the ethical and secure use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in undergraduate medical education.
This policy outlines the ways the medical education program monitors progress on an ongoing basis to continuously improve the quality of its courses and programs.
These are the essential abilities and characteristics required for completion of the MD degree to assure that candidates can participate fully in all aspects of medical training while at UCSF.