June 04, 2010 02:10am EST 

The School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center is responsible for the preclinical and clinical education of 450 medical students. It is the only School of Medicine in the region and offers excellent research and clinical opportunities, as well as possessing a faculty of national and international renown. The primary goal of the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University is to educate caring and skilled physicians to be well-prepared to enter graduate and specialty training programs.
Graduates understand, value and apply the scientific method to the solution of clinical problems. They are capable of integrating clinical, biomedical and behavioral knowledge to promote the health and well-being of patients and communities. They value lifelong learning and locate, evaluate critically and integrate new scientific and clinical findings that advance the practice of medicine. Additionally, training of medical students, residents, physicians and nurses is enhanced through the Clinical Skills Center, a state-of-the-art facility in which the trainees interact with standardized patient-actors and with simulated patient mannequins. Capable of providing high competent and compassionate, patient-centered care while maintaining professionalism and sensitivity to the complex cultural and personal context in which medical care is delivered, graduates of Stony Brook University are among the best in the field.
The three goals of Stony Brook School of Medicine are:
Educational: Achieve excellence in education of students for careers in medical practice or research by providing broad knowledge and skills, developing appropriate professional behavior, mastery of essential competencies, and preparing students for continued intellectual growth.
Research: Advance medical knowledge by conducting active programs in basic and applied research.
Service: Provide the highest quality of medical care, as well as ensure access to health and educational services for the local, national, and international communities.
The School of Medicine at Stony Brook does not focus only on health on the local level, but its staff, doctors, and students help people all over the world with their commitment to global education and healthcare outreach. The school is offering students with international health opportunities in the form of successful programs that include The Barry Coller Fund, which supported international research opportunities for dozens of students. Additionally, the School of Medicine secured a working relationship with the University of Nicaragua School of Public Health that will bring an exchange of students and faculty between the two schools on a regular basis. The School of Medicine is also developing relationships with other medical and public health programs worldwide to establish student exchanges and global health electives, keeping the school in the forefront of the growing issue of global health.
Recently, researchers from the Department of Orthopaedics at Stony Brook University Medical Center developed an injectable form of the enzyme, collagenase, that significantly improves outcomes of Dupuytren’s contracture (or disease), a debilitating disorder caused by progressive accumulation of collagen that deforms fingers and limits motion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously to recommend the drug be used as a treatment to fight the hand disorder, bringing it one step closer to FDA approval.
The breakthrough is but one example of how The Stony Brook University Medical Center and the School of Medicine impact its communities in more ways than just training physicians. The Stony Brook University Medical Center stands as Long Island’s foremost health care provider, offering state-of-the-art care in almost all specialties. The School of Medicine remains the only medical school in the region, and empowers its students to become physicians capable of providing high-quality health care to Long Island, the United States, and the entire world.