On the cover: Mourners gathered for a candlelight vigil on the HMS Quad in March to celebrate the life of Paul Farmer, former head of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, a trailblazing physician and medical anthropologist who dedicated his life to caring for people in some of the world’s most underserved countries and communities.
“In a world riven by inequity, medicine could be viewed as social justice work.”
Left: Josefina del Mármol, HMS assistant professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, was one of six junior faculty hired this year following an international search. She researches new ways to combat diseases such as dengue and West Nile fevers and malaria.
have a right to fundamental health care may seem audacious, even controversial. To many, it’s common sense — perhaps never more so than during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has provided a powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of humanity. The philosophy that medical care, at its heart, is a human right was championed by Paul Farmer, a renowned Harvard Medical School physician, medical anthropologist, and humanitarian who once said, “In a world riven by inequity, medicine could be viewed as social justice work.” A skilled educator who fought for the health and dignity of those most in need throughout the world, Farmer’s life was an inspiring reminder that a doctor’s truest calling is to care for the sick and ailing.
At HMS, our mission to nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all has guided us through the trials and triumphs of the past year. By pursuing groundbreaking research aimed at understanding and curing human disease, by providing compassionate care, and by training the next generation of leaders in medicine and science, HMS rededicated itself to the essential work of ensuring that leading-edge health care is available to all. These steadfast efforts have advanced the School’s legacy of healing and have kept its beacon of service burning bright. n
The concept that all humanity should
of the critical role medicine and science play in addressing health care crises and responding to the health inequities they have exacerbated. This year, Harvard Medical School renewed its commitment to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through its innovative educational initiatives.
In the Program in Medical Education’s Essentials of the Profession course, for example, first-year medical and dental students, taught by a multidisciplinary faculty of more than 100 clinicians and researchers, develop the skills and acquire the knowledge needed to understand the social, economic, and political forces that contribute to the burden of disease for both individuals and populations, learning how health systems can ameliorate these factors. Grounded in the ethical principles underlying clinical care and research, students also evaluate the use of evidence in clinical decision-making and population health management as they work to understand the health policy contexts in which they will practice.
Recommendations made by the program’s Task Force to Address Racism have resulted in annual anti-bias training for admissions committees and a standing anti-racism subcommittee of the HMS Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee. Course directors and faculty are now provided with inclusivity training and can receive assistance with the development of case studies that represent all populations.
A new partnership with historically Black colleges and universities is creating additional HMS programs aimed at advancing diversity.
To promote meaningful connections between students and the surrounding Boston community, and foster impactful change in medicine, HMS’ newly launched Office for Community Centered Medical Education is providing students with opportunities to better understand diverse patient populations.
A Sexual and Gender Minorities Health Equity Initiative has integrated sexual and gender minority (SGM) health content throughout the core medical education curriculum, cultivating a climate that engages all students and faculty in SGM health education. Accomplishments include the successful development of nine SGM health competencies and an increase in LGBTQIA+ matriculants at HMS.
This initiative’s work helped secure the inclusion of several HMS-affiliated hospitals in the American Medical Association Foundation’s National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program, whose mission is to ensure that LGBTQIA+ patients receive the highest standards of care as the program works to transform the landscape of medical education.
The program will implement LGBTQIA+ health training for all fellows, residents, and faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Supplemental clinical elective sites include Boston Children’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, and Mount Auburn Hospital.
Initiated by student advocates and faculty members, disability and anti-ableism
curricular content has been integrated into courses over the past two years. The aim is to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to mitigate inequities. Subject matter ranges from how to create accessible clinical encounters to how to foster anti-ableist environments in health care. Faculty development includes training on how to incorporate disability concepts into instruction and cultivate anti-ableist learning environments.
The Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology curriculum is being redesigned for the next generation of physician-scientists. The program’s successful tradition of focusing on translational medical science and engineering will be maintained while its stellar basic science curriculum integrates components that address racism in medicine, social inequities, and other nonbiological and structural determinants of health. Curriculum reform will improve alignment between basic science courses, clinical experiences, and research. Cutting-edge topics, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in medicine, will receive increased emphasis.
To further strengthen students’ research experiences, the Pathways curriculum will reintroduce a summer of research at the end of the first year of study, beginning with the class entering in 2023. Reorganization of the Pathways academic calendar allows students to take the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 before their clerkship year rather than after it. The exam measures how well students understand and can apply important basic science concepts to the practice of medicine.
To ensure that all HMS students reach their greatest potential, the Professional Growth and Educational Support System, or PROGRESS, was launched in 2022. It provides continuous assessments of students’ mastery of program objectives and associated competencies so that individualized learning support and coaching can be provided when needed. An innovative, longitudinal career advising program has
The COVID-19 pan-
has provided incisive reminders
been effectively assisting students with their specialty selections, guided by mentors and advisors.
The HMS Wellness Initiative and Task Force is empowering students with strategies for self-care and stress management, increasing student access to counseling, and training for faculty and administrators on identifying and responding to students in distress. A mental-health awareness campaign is providing education and greater resources for maintaining wellness.
HMS’ first mind-body and resilience curriculum is weaving well-being into the student experience, teaching students about the neurobiology of stress and offering workshops and coaching to help them develop strategies to decrease and channel stress into productive energy.
The Student Well-Being Grant program, generously funded by HMS alumni donors and the Aesculapian Club, has empowered students to create well-being initiatives, such as Medicine in Motion, which seeks to reduce physician burnout by building community through fitness and philanthropy. The Christine and Dave Ament HMS Student Experience Fund has provided resources to alleviate daily stressors for students. Ninety-three student mini-grant applications have been approved since April 2022.
And a $5.5 million, three-year Manton Foundation grant is supporting the development of a new mental health curriculum to be integrated into students’ preclerkship courses and clinical clerkships to better
align physical and mental health MD training and address mental health care shortages for adolescents and children.
The Office for Graduate Education has experienced steady growth, with the number of completed applications to its nine master’s degree concentrations increasing by 221 percent in the past five years. A total of 569 students enrolled this academic year, with the Master of Science in Bioethics program seeing a 56.8 percent increase in overall enrollment from 2020 to 2021. Enrollment in the newly launched Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health program was nearly double what was projected. Four master’s programs will continue to offer primarily remote courses thanks to a five-year extension of the University’s waiver of a student residency requirement that was necessitated by the pandemic. This will result in learning opportunities for many more students.
Revenues derived from graduate education growth have fueled enhancements to graduate program financial aid offerings. HMS is home to roughly 75 percent of students pursuing a Harvard graduate degree in the life sciences, and interfaculty programs between HMS and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have been ranked No. 1 in all major fields of biomedicine. A revamped admissions technology system has streamlined support for the entire graduate education enterprise.
As they navigate the shifting frontiers of human health, health care professionals,
business leaders at all levels, and lay audiences looking to expand their knowledge are learning with HMS through the School’s Office for External Education offerings, which include live, virtual, and self-paced online courses, in-person workshops, interactive websites, and written content.
Understanding the critical role that equal access to health information plays as a social determinant of health, this year the office engaged with YouTube to launch an HMS Continuing Education channel. These videos provide clinicians with critical information, skills training, and updates on best care practices. Presented by HMS faculty, the videos incorporate the latest updates to medical literature.
In recognition of the School’s leadership in interprofessional education, HMS was recently awarded accreditation with commendation by the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, allowing HMS to provide accredited continuing education to nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers, dentists, and dietitians, in addition to physicians.
Philanthropically funded initiatives are addressing issues associated with autism, Lyme disease, and adolescent mental health, bolstered by educational resources and activities designed for clinicians as well as for patients and families.
Design and delivery of custom programs for health care companies has expanded, and executive-level, open-enrollment programs are helping corporate learners unlock opportunities in today’s dynamic health care landscape. One program teaches business leaders how to drive digital transformation in health care. Offered in four languages, it extends the expertise of HMS faculty worldwide. New HMX Pro courses on topics such as gene therapy and drug development are increasingly taken by industry professionals seeking a deeper understanding of cutting-edge advances in medicine. n
Philanthropically funded initiatives are addressing issues associated with autism, Lyme disease, and adolescent mental health.
The rapid acceleration of scientific discovery is spawning entirely new disciplines that were unimaginable only a few decades ago, such as genomics, synthetic biology, and biophysics.
Harvard Medical School scientists continue to define these new frontiers of knowledge in their quest to protect and improve human health.
For example, to track the molecular maneuvers of melanoma, a deadly skin
The thymus gland, shown here, is the birthplace and training ground of T cells, a type of lymphocyte. New research from the Mathis/Benoist lab shows thymus cells assume various identities to teach nascent T cells how to distinguish friend from foe.
cancer, they created spatial maps at the single-cell level, revealing in unprecedented detail how melanoma and immune cells interact as tumors develop.
They designed an artificial intelligence tool that can interpret the meaning of gene variants as benign or diseasecausing, an advance that promises to help boost the precision of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment choice.
HMS researchers detailed the oftenhidden toll gun violence has on survivors, who frequently face mental health issues, substance use disorders, and pain. They analyzed the associated costs that result in billions in health care spending.
One study forecast future SARS-CoV-2 mutations to predict the pathogen’s evolution and calculate how it will evade the immune defenses provided by protective agents, such as vaccines and antibody-based treatments.
These achievements would not be possible without the dedication of HMS scientists. For his extraordinary work developing an effective COVID-19 vaccine, Dan Barouch, the HMS William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was awarded Harvard University’s George Ledlie Prize, which honors outstanding contributions to science.
This year, four HMS faculty members were named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, 11 were elected to the National Academy of Medicine, four joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, three were inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, three were elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and six received Director’s Awards from the National Institutes of Health.
Timothy Springer, the Latham Family Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and Boston Children’s Hospital, was one of three recipients of the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discoveries that launched the field of integrin research.
Stuart Orkin, the HMS David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, received the Canada Gairdner International Award for work leading to a novel treatment for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.
Christopher A. Walsh, the HMS Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, was awarded
Norway’s Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for research into the structural and functional disorders of the human brain, including his discovery of more than 35 genes associated with neurological disease.
Ongoing investments reflect HMS’ commitment to advancing fundamental discovery that expands research into diseases that affect millions.
Since 2018, the Dean’s Innovation Awards program has invested $24 million in 92 research projects across the HMS community, spurring collaborations in fundamental, curiosity-driven research, advancing technology development, and improving health care quality, access, and delivery. Grants in the basic and social sciences alone have supported inquiry into diverse areas ranging from proteasome regulation to bacterial pathogenesis, with
many of the projects generating significant follow-on funding from external sources.
Since 2016, the Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research (Q-FASTR) has awarded $9.3 million to 57 projects that spawned three new companies, acquired 47 patents, and secured more than $100 million in follow-on funding. Projects range from the design and development of therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases, to a novel approach for delivering therapeutics to the brain, to new therapies for cancer or intractable chronic pain. The initial donor who made Q-FASTR possible contributed another $10.5 million this year to sustain the program’s momentum.
The Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards, intended to accelerate therapeutics research and development within HMS and
its affiliated hospitals, will have invested $20 million over five years to support an array of Quad and affiliate research projects, such as an initiative to develop a gene therapy for congenital deafness and blindness.
To provide the technology and infrastructure necessary to pursue transformative research, the HMS Foundry Award Program granted $4 million to 13 new projects this year. These include a major investment to establish the Gnotobiotic Core Facility, which focuses on microbiome research. Other awards are facilitating new software, tools, and equipment upgrades in existing research core facilities.
The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, a University-wide initiative funded by a $500 million gift from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, is co-led by Bernardo Sabatini, the Alice and Rodman W. Moorhead III Professor of Neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. The institute is exploring the fundamental principles that underlie both human and machine intelligence.
Researchers at the Allen Discovery Center for Human Brain Evolution received an additional $10 million from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group to continue working with ancient human DNA to determine how the human genome has changed over the past 10,000 years.
The Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research at Harvard University is investigating the biological basis of neurodevelopment in autism spectrum disorder.
It expanded its efforts with a $4 million gift establishing the Y. Eva Tan Postdoctoral Fellowship, which supports young researchers pursuing discoveries that can improve quality of life for people with autism.
The Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation provided nearly $3 million to establish the Ludwig Neurodegenerative Disease Seed Grants Program to advance early-stage research into new Alzheimer’s disease treatment approaches. The Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund continues to seed leading research into the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of rare cancers.
This year, HMS celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Bertarelli Program in Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, which has sought to understand the fundamentals of sensory neurobiology and to engineer cures and treatments.
In the last decade, the program provided seed support to 12 multidisciplinary teams representing 29 investigators who published more than 200 papers. Research from Bertarelli-sponsored projects led to the formation of at least two companies and the granting of 10 patents. The program offered a bootcamp in quantitative methods and a course in advanced mathematical tools so that PhD students could be trained in the rigorous analysis of neuroscience data. Two more courses are training neurobiologists on how to build automated lab instruments. More than 40 Bertarelli Fellows studied at HMS through a master’s student exchange program.
The new HMS Center for Computational Biomedicine is leveraging data and computation to assist investigators in transforming health. It is developing an education program with workshops designed to enhance data and analytic skills. The center is determining faculty members’ technology needs for specific goals and devising solutions to meet those needs, and creating computing systems to manage masses of critical scientific data that can be shared across HMS and Harvard. Already, it has assisted faculty with nearly a dozen projects that range from building a database to catalog C.elegansstrains to creating a gene-expression atlas of vascular endothelial cells based on RNA-sequencing.
Our Department of Biomedical Informatics this year continued to explore how artificial intelligence can be integrated seamlessly into frontline clinical care. This year its annual international Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Learning Health Systems focused on leveraging autonomous AI to solve challenges in the health care domain.
All these efforts benefited from the support and expertise of the HMS Information Technology department, which vastly improved access to essential information through the creation of a new data warehouse that securely houses administrative and education data. The system captures, cleans, and merges data from 45 internal and external data sources, delivering it to knowledge workers across HMS via secure dashboards, reports, and data feeds.
Given that some essential data are not yet stored in any database, HMS IT is developing solutions that streamline workflows while reliably collecting new data for analysis. n
Ongoing investments reflect HMS’ commitment to advancing fundamental discovery that expands research into diseases that affect millions.
en Salud
Health,
scientific collaboration, leadership, and service, the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR), led by Harvard Medical School, has provided funding for investigators who have published more than 500 research articles on myriad aspects of SARS-CoV-2 biology and COVID-19 disease since the consortium’s inception in 2020. Scores of additional scientists have benefited from MassCPR sample and information sharing, likely resulting in thousands of additional publications. With COVID-19 deaths worldwide exceeding 6.5 million, this work remains vital.
A collaboration of research scientists representing more than 17 institutions, including HMS academic teaching hospitals and research institutions, Massachusetts’ three other medical schools and their teaching hospitals, MIT, and biopharmaceutical companies, MassCPR is responding to the coronavirus crisis and creating a rapidresponse system for future health crises.
In the past year alone, its work generated pivotal discoveries related to potential biomarkers for long COVID, the etiology of
Paxlovid rebound, and the effect of immunotherapy on memory response to COVID vaccines. The MassCPR biobank network is supporting the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of biospecimens that researchers need to better understand this and future disease-causing pathogens.
One MassCPR team led the development of clinical treatment guidelines, wastewater surveillance systems, disease modeling, and optimal use of PCR and antigen tests; another supported testing of thousands of compounds in high throughput screening assays. Yet another team characterized the genetics, immunology, virology, and transmission dynamics of emerging variants. Other investigators are participating in the National Institutes of Health RECOVER Initiative (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery), which is focusing on long COVID.
Pandemic preparedness is crucial, and a MassCPR sustainability plan ensures tight coordination with government response teams and swift progress on vaccines and therapies as the consortium targets other persistent infectious disease threats. HMS and MassCPR are now part of the New England Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence, supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The New England group, led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, is responsible for training the national public health workforce in pathogen genomics and surveillance.
Harvard Catalyst supports clinical and translational science in diversity, inclusion, and community engagement, with an emphasis on providing training, consultations, and other biomedical resources for early-stage and underrepresented in medicine (URiM) investigators.
The center’s COVID Authors platform, an open-source, international database, has grown since its 2021 launch to more than 600,000 authors who have produced more than 173,000 coronavirus-related articles. Investigators at Harvard-affiliated
hospitals requested an unprecedented number of biostatistics consultations in fiscal year 2022, totaling approximately 650, with 44 focused on COVID-19 studies. Since 2020, the center’s SMART IRB has facilitated nearly 350 COVID-19-related multisite studies.
Education initiatives aimed at advancing diversity supported the center’s annual visiting internship program, which paired eight visiting URiM medical students with HMS faculty mentors this past summer.
Its Connector program offers guidance and support at all phases of clinical translational research at affiliate hospitals. It provided consultations for more than 2,600 studies, 62 percent of which were with early-career investigators, and implementation support for more than 300 studies, including 102 related to COVID-19.
Many of the most transformative treatments used in medicine today — such as medications for high blood pressure, heart failure, cancer, and mRNA vaccines — can be traced to basic discoveries in fundamental biological mechanisms of disease.
To support the transition of basic science born within the Harvard community to the medicines of tomorrow, the HMS Therapeutics Initiative, located within the new $8 million Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood, has established a comprehensive pipeline for therapeutic development to advance the School’s mission of alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all.
From fundamental discovery to translational research, regulatory approval, and business incubation, the initiative’s aim is to speed the transition of basic insights in the lab to lifesaving therapies.
The initiative also serves as a home base for education, training, and community-building through the Therapeutics Graduate Program. This HMS certificate program for graduate students in any of the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences programs celebrated its 10th anniversary this fall. The curriculum focuses on phar-
macology, toxicology, and drug discovery, training researchers who will engage in therapeutics discovery throughout the workforce.
The lifeblood of HMS is its more than 12,000 faculty members. Demonstrating the School’s commitment to supporting its faculty, HMS made significant investments in the recruitment of new research faculty for the Blavatnik Institute at HMS this year.
The Office for Faculty Affairs has clarified and streamlined promotions processes, and worked to ensure that faculty members have the tools and support they need to achieve their goals in academic medicine. It updated faculty on HMS promotion criteria and processes through the creation of more accessible virtual faculty development programs and on-demand seminars.
In academic year 2022, 54 faculty were promoted to full professor, including 20 women (37 percent) and four from URiM populations (7 percent). One hundred and ninety-two faculty were promoted to associate professor (47 percent were women and 7 percent URiM), and 416 were promoted to assistant professor (52 percent women and 11 percent URiM), a 7 percent increase in all promotions for associate and assistant professor faculty in the past year — a record number at HMS. Women now make up 46 percent of all HMS faculty, with URiM faculty constituting 8 percent of the faculty population.
To address unconscious bias and ensure that diversity is a consideration in both forming faculty search committees and assembling candidate pools, a new faculty search portal was developed and implemented at affiliate hospitals. The portal improves HMS’ ability to support searches by codifying best practices and engendering further accountability and transparency in faculty diversification efforts.
Approval of a new significant supporting activity in diversity, equity, and inclusion now ensures that substantial faculty contributions, such as those aimed at increasing workforce diversity or addressing disparities in health outcomes and research, will be recognized in promotions, in addition to a faculty member’s achievements in their Area of Excellence. A diversity dashboard now in development will enable HMS to better track and share progress toward its diversity goals. The endowed chair nomination process was also updated to ensure that HMS’ inclusive excellence values factor into considerations for the selection of new incumbents.
Recognizing that an ever-broader spectrum of medical, scientific, and clinical contributions and excellence merit consideration in the promotions process, HMS is also finalizing a proposal for a new professorial title that would not only recognize clinical faculty members’ academic contributions, but weigh their impact on advancing the
To carry on Paul Farmer’s legacy of improving health care access and delivery to those most in need, the endowed Paul Farmer, MD ’88, PhD ’90 Memorial Scholarship Fund was created.
clinical practice of medicine at the national or global level.
Diversity and inclusion are critical to providing equitable health care, and this year HMS collaborated with Massachusetts Black and Latino health care and business leaders to launch the Health Equity Compact, an initiative aimed at addressing racial and ethnic health disparities and reducing health equity gaps that lead to higher mortality and morbidity rates in communities of color. HMS also joined King Boston, a Boston Foundation program, in hosting a Juneteenth panel discussion on healing from racialized trauma.
Supporting staff diversity efforts is also vital to the School’s success. HMS’ new Black Staff Caucus received grants from the Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund and
President’s Administrative Innovation Fund to create a pilot mentorship program that matches staff mentees and mentors across the Longwood campus and facilitates connection through a new software platform.
The newly launched HMS Equity, Social Justice, and Advocacy awards this year recognized eight faculty, staff, students, and trainees for work advancing equity, social justice, and advocacy to further promote HMS’ anti-racism efforts and reduce health disparities affecting marginalized communities.
To carry on the late professor Paul Farmer’s legacy of improving health care access and delivery to those most in need, the endowed Paul Farmer, MD ’88, PhD ’90 Memorial Scholarship Fund was created. Seeded by contributions from the Class of
1988 and family and friends, it will provide financial aid to deserving HMS global health and social medicine students, with a preference given to students from areas where Farmer focused many of his efforts, from Haiti to Lesotho and Rwanda to Sierra Leone.
HMS recognizes the pandemic has fundamentally altered the way we teach, work, and learn. A pilot flex work program is helping us assess the most effective ways to maintain campus engagement while promoting work environments that simultaneously nurture productivity and accommodate changing employment needs. Planning and design are underway for renovations to optimize department space and free resources that can be applied to HMS research and education missions, with forward-thinking sustainability initiatives that prioritize the School’s efforts to protect the environment.
The recent renovation of the Frances A. Countway Library of Medicine is providing greater opportunities to connect, collaborate, and build community. The redesign garnered a 2022 American Library Association/International Interior Design Association Library Interior Design Award. Thanks in part to the generous support of an anonymous donor, an overhaul of one of the library’s lower levels will add additional classrooms, IT support space, a technology hub, and interdisciplinary learning spaces. West Quad laboratory renovations and upgrades to the Tosteson Medical Education Center are furthering efforts to facilitate community interactions and collaborations.
We have come through a transformative time stronger and more committed to training leaders in medicine and science who are prepared to respond to the health challenges of an ever-changing world. n
Total students: MD 702 I PhD 914 I MD-PhD 192, basic sciences 162, social sciences 30 (total included in MD and PhD counts) I DMD 143 I master’s 569 (520 HMS, 49 HSDM) I DMSc 33 I Trainees (residents and postdoctoral fellows) 9,166
Total faculty: 12,311 I Tenured and tenure-track faculty on campus in 11 preclinical departments 198 I Voting faculty on campus and at affiliates 6,579 I Full-time faculty on campus and at affiliates 10,243
Nobel Prizes: Physiology or Medicine (cumulative) 10, Peace 16 recipients I National Academy of Sciences members (current) 89 I National Academy of Medicine members (current) 171 I Howard Hughes Medical Institute (current) 36 (35 Investigators, 1 Professor)
MD applicants: 6,914 I Admitted 226 (3.3%) I MD entering 2022 164 (includes 14 MD-PhD) Men 69 (42%) I Women 92 (56%) I Different identity 3 (>2%) I Underrepresented in medicine (Black or African American, Mexican American, Native American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, other Hispanic) 33 (20%) I Asian 77 (47%)
Entering 2022: PhD 159 I DMD 35 I master’s 320 (305 HMS, 15 HSDM) I DMSc 8 I Additional combined degree programs: MD-MAD, MD-MMSc, MD-MBA, MD-MPH, MD-MPP
Medical school living alumni: 11,041 (MD and master’s)
Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, poet Amanda Gorman, AB ’20, wrote, “The question isn’t if we will weather this unknown, but how we will weather this unknown together.” At Harvard Medical School, that question has been answered in a resounding way by our loyal circle of 3,818 supporters who gave more than $197 million in fiscal year 2022 to advance our mission of improving health and well-being for all. Faithful philanthropic support allows our faculty, staff, postdocs, and students to lead the way toward a new era of possibility in science and medicine.
The contributions from generous alumni, friends, volunteers, faculty, staff, foundations, and corporations have been wide-ranging and hugely impactful. To carry on the legacy of Paul Farmer, the former Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, our community rallied to create an endowed scholarship in his name, which will support students interested in global health and social medicine for generations to come.
Baker Center for Children and Families
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston Children’s Hospital
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Cambridge Health Alliance
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
Hebrew SeniorLife
Joslin Diabetes Center
Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Massachusetts General Hospital
McLean Hospital
Mount Auburn Hospital
Spaulding Rehabilitation Network
VA Boston Healthcare System
Together with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, we are working toward a deeper understanding of human brain evolution. The Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation is helping to advance early-stage research toward treatment approaches for Alzheimer’s disease. The Manton Foundation is helping to address acute needs in child and adolescent mental health care. Phill Gross renewed his support of Q-FASTR to help identify and expedite nascent research projects with translational potential. Dana and Jim Tananbaum, MD ’89, MBA ‘91, are strengthening ties between HMS and Harvard Business School as part of an effort to more broadly apply machine learning and artificial intelligence to health care and its delivery.
Samir and Puja Kaul are solidifying collaboration between HMS and HBS via the professorship they established to promote entrepreneurship, therapeutic translation, and academia-industry partnership. Additionally, we increased the number of scholarships, financial aid packages, and fellowship funds for our students and boosted funding for postdoctoral researchers. n
Harvard Medical School reached a financial milestone in FY22, achieving breakeven on unrestricted cash flows for the first time since FY09. This result is the culmination of years of hard work by many at HMS to secure the School’s financial health. We reached this milestone one year ahead of plan, despite uncertainty and disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic, inflation, and supply shocks exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
As reported, according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), FY22 revenues grew by $23 million, or 3 percent, to $856 million, driven by direct research revenue,
additional endowment distributions attributable to strong prior year returns, continued growth in our master’s and external education programs, and other revenue, including housing, as occupancy on campus returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, FY22 expenses increased by $50 million, or 7 percent, to $815 million — which was anticipated due to strategic investments combined with our spending ramping up to pre-pandemic levels. However, the increases amounted to $2 million less than projected in the FY22 budget. The reported positive GAAP operating margin of $40 million is $30 million better than budgeted.
The GAAP surplus is a reflection of having received certain gifts that are counted as revenues in one year, but with expenses being invested in subsequent years.
This year’s strong financial results allowed us to contribute $4 million toward our stabilization reserve fund, which fortifies HMS against unanticipated economic change, and to decrease our outstanding debt by $6 million, its lowest level since 2018.
We have balanced our budget this year while continuing robust investments in our mission, our priorities, and our people. In FY22, we launched the newly constructed
Gnotobiotic Core Facility, provided pandemic research supplements to junior faculty, opened a renovated Countway Library to the broader Longwood/Mission Hill community, commenced operations in the Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood, strengthened student support programs, and saw further success in our master’s and external education programs.
HMS has much to be proud of and many reasons to be optimistic. The results we achieved this year have left us better prepared to weather whatever adversity may lie ahead.
Dean George Q. Daleyn Research grants and contracts $306,628,233 36%
n Endowment distribution $210,223,396 25% for operations
n Other revenues* $144,375,962 17%
n Gifts for current use $111,126,593 13%
n Rental income $46,424,565 5%
n Net student income $37,333,737 4%
Total $856,112,486
* Includes continuing medical education, publications, service income, and royalties
n Personnel costs
$330,389,071 40%
n Supplies and other expenses $241,161,448 30%
n Research subcontracts $112,145,989 14% and affiliates
n Plant operations and interest $83,335,838 10%
n Depreciation $48,700,545 6%
Total $815,732,891
25 Shattuck Street Boston, Massachusetts 02115 www.hms.harvard.edu
Credits: Writing and editing by M.R.F. Buckley, Allison Eck, and Brandy Newlon; design and art direction by Paul DiMattia; copyediting by Bobbie Collins, Susan Karcz, Ann Marie Menting, and Christine Paul. Photography and images by Gretchen Ertl, Steve Lipofsky, Daniel Michelson/ Mathis-Benoist lab/HMS, nazarethman/E+ via Getty Images, William Rodriguez for Partners In Health, David Salafia, and John Soares. Printed by Lane Press.
Produced by the HMS Office of Communications and External Relations: Laura DeCoste, Chief Communications Officer, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115, communications@hms.harvard.edu.