It was the first medical school in the southern United States. The college pioneered in clinical teaching and its faculty members wrote some of America’s first medical textbooks. For over 170 years, the College of Medicine has been dedicated to the training of physicians.

It has expanded from a small private college for the training of physicians to a state university with a medical center and six colleges for the education of a broad range of health professionals, biomedical scientists and other health related personnel. According to Annual hospital survey MUSC will reach an important milestone this year, when they receive $200 million in research grants with half from the National Institute Health.

The MUSC has a Health Care Simulation Center directed by international simulation expert Dr. John Schaefer. The center houses over fifty advanced adult and infant simulators, including machines that simulate childbirth, trauma patients, CPR (resuscitation), heart attacks, and more. College of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing and Dental Medicine are some of the colleges which come under the University of South Carolina.

University Status

By the late 1960s, with six fully operational schools of professional education in the health sciences, the Medical College of South Carolina had become an institution of university size and scope. In 1969, the state legislature changed the name to the Medical University of South Carolina. By this act it established MUSC as the state's only free standing academic health sciences center, exclusively providing a full range of professional education, clinical services and biomedical research.

In 1970 the six schools of the university were designated as colleges, each with its separate administration and faculty organization. Each college awards appropriate degrees along standard academic lines connected with its educational activities. All professional education programs, and the MUSC Medical Center, are accredited by the appropriate professional accrediting agency.

MUSC Medical Center

The Medical College of South Carolina was one of the first medical schools in the United States to establish, in 1834, an infirmary specifically for teaching purposes. In the 1840s the college also entered into agreements for clinical training opportunities at the Poorhouse, the Marine Hospital, and the local "dispensary." In 1856, Roper Hospital was opened, and for 100 years Roper was the Medical College's primary teaching hospital.

The Medical College recognized the need for its own facilities to expand clinical teaching opportunities, as well as to serve as a major referral center in South Carolina for diagnosis and treatment of disease.

In 1985 the name of the hospital and its clinics was changed to MUSC Medical Center, reflecting its function in an academic health institution and its wide range of services to the public. This comprehensive facility now consists of three separate hospitals (the University Hospital, the Institute of Psychiatry, and the Children's Hospital). The Medical Center includes centers for specialized care (Heart Center, Transplantation Center, Hollings Cancer Center, Digestive Diseases Center). Numerous outpatient facilities include the Family Medicine Center, University Diagnostic Center, and affiliated faculty practice association ambulatory care centers.

Among the programs which have earned distinguished reputations at the Medical University of South Carolina are: Pathology, neuroscience, vascular medicine, substance abuse, cardiovascular medicine, drug sciences, perinatal medicine, burn care, ophthalmology, hearing loss, genetics, pediatric emergency services, rheumatology, and cancer care.

The Medical University serves as the "home" institution for the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC), a statewide consortium of teaching hospitals and rural health education centers. South Carolina AHEC maintains partnerships between the university and communities across the state, as evidenced by more than 200 full time faculty members and hundreds more part time and consulting faculty who teach in South Carolina AHEC programs in virtually every county of the state.

Advantages:

• The medical university of South Carolina is the 10th largest state medical university in USA
• Ranks the 3rd largest in Central Nervous system
• Amongst top 5 in heart and cardiovascular Facilities
• MUSC is the largest employer in South Carolina
• 4 teaching hospitals
• Its faculty members wrote some of America’s first medical textbooks
• MUSC has been named for the 12th consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country's best hospitals USA.
• Rated amongst top university to receive 33% of funding from National Institute of Health
• In Clinical research from last 30 years
• Over 1800 Medical practitioners as teaching faculty
• The library has 2,00,000 bound volumes, approximately 12,600 E-Journals subscriptions and vast area of online databases and knowledge bases