Academic Medicine
A leader in academic medicine for the Great Lakes Bay Region
The CMU College of Medicine educates diverse students and trains culturally-competent physicians to provide comprehensive care and services to underserved populations in Michigan and beyond. Our faculty, staff, and graduates advance health and wellness through exceptional education, innovative research, quality patient care, and strategic collaborations to improve the health and wellbeing of individual communities.
CMU College of Medicine and its clinical health care system, CMU Health, are leading academic medicine in the region in collaboration with our partner teaching hospitals, Covenant HealthCare and Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital.
Nearly 75 renowned CMU faculty physicians and almost 150 resident physicians provide care for patients from across northern and central Michigan at eight clinical locations – and within our medical education partners’ clinical facilities.
Whether we are educating the next generation of health care professionals, pioneering medical discoveries, or providing high-quality patient care, the College of Medicine plays a vital role in improving health care and the health of our nation.
Together, with our partners, we are transforming health care in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
The Value of Academic Medicine
Medical schools and teaching hospitals play a significant role in improving the nation’s health. Collectively known as academic medicine, these institutions work together to educate and train the next generation of physicians, conduct cutting-edge research that spurs innovation, and care for the sickest and most medically complex patients. Academic medicine also focuses on the future and prepares America to meet its health challenges. Read about how academic health centers save millions of lives, watch a short video that tells the story of academic medicine, and explore an interactive timeline of major medical breakthroughs.
Key Facts
- By bringing together training, patient care, and medical research under one roof, medical schools and teaching hospitals improve the health of their local communities.
- Academic medicine supports more than 6.3 million American jobs.
- Patients treated at America’s teaching hospitals have up to 20% better odds of survival than those treated elsewhere
- Medical research conducted at U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals created 313,604 jobs and added $25.4 billion to local economies in 2017.
- Cancer research conducted at U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals has saved more than 2.4 million lives since 1991
*Data pulled from Association of American Medical Colleges.
The Importance of Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals
Medical schools and teaching hospitals educate the next generation of physicians, conduct cutting-edge research that saves lives, and care for the sickest and most medically complex patients.
Many medical innovations and advances were pioneered at medical schools and teaching hospitals. These institutions are responsible for many of the most important breakthroughs in medicine and patient care of the past century.
Medical schools and teaching hospitals save lives as a critical part of the nation’s crisis response network – providing support in emergencies, from hurricanes to the Ebola crisis.
Teaching hospitals, with their expert physicians and state-of-the art facilities, train the next generation of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals. Because these professionals learn and work together in teams, with access to the latest medical advances and innovations, patient care improves.
- In fact, patients treated at teaching hospitals have up to 20% better odds of survival than those treated elsewhere. That’s not just for complex care but also for the most common medical and surgical conditions.
- Although they represent only 5% of the nation’s hospitals, major teaching hospitals make an outsize contribution to U.S. health care— especially because the doctors they train go on to advance care wherever they practice.