Medical Center & FacultyAcademic medical centers are complex institutions with a tripartite mission of patient care, education, and research. The faculty members are committed to their educational responsibilities and make themselves readily available as teachers and mentors. During the first two years, each course is organized by the central administration of the school, and each involves faculty members from a number of departments. Faculty members from the School of Medicine’s five basic science departments play an essential role in the two “basic science” courses, Structure-Function (M1) and the Scientific Basis of Medicine (M2). Clinical faculty members are also actively involved in the first two years’ curriculum as lecturers, tutors in small-group settings, and in clinical skills instruction. The clinical faculty is composed of 1,509 full-time salaried medical school faculty members (full time research faculty = 256) and 1,128 "contributed service" faculty members. These latter physicians practice medicine in the school’s affiliated hospitals and teach students and residents as a condition of their faculty appointment. They do not receive payment for these contributed services. Clinical education for medical students is mainly conducted through four major affiliated hospitals and their respective outpatient practices. These hospitals are: - Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH)
- Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH)
- Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC)
- Jesse Brown VA Hospital
These institutions comprise the McGaw Medical Center which coordinates the residency and fellowship training at Northwestern. The residents and fellows participating in the education of undergraduate medical students are under the direction of the Feinberg academic faculty. Nearly all medical staff members at the McGaw Medical Center hospitals have faculty appointments at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Department chairs and section or division chiefs at the School of Medicine hold the same appointments in their corresponding hospital units. Similarly, the chair of pediatrics serves as physician-in-chief of CMH. The chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation serves as the medical director of RIC. Many of the full-time faculty members in clinical departments are active investigators in basic science laboratories as well as practicing physicians. A number of interdisciplinary centers (such as the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University) bring together faculty members in the biomedical and social sciences with students from both the Evanston and Chicago campuses. Approximately 65% of students tap these resources and participate in significant research activity while in medical school. | 
