Yael Francois

Downstate Health Sciences University

Formally known as The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn—but better known to our patients and Brooklyn neighbors as SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University — we are older than the Brooklyn Bridge. We trace our roots back to 1860, when a school of medicine was founded at the Long Island College Hospital. The new college's faculty revolutionized medical education in this country by bringing the teaching of medicine to the hospital bedside, thus rejecting the idea that physicians should be trained exclusively in university lecture halls. Today, SUNY Downstate is one of the nation's leading urban medical centers. SUNY Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, and University Hospital of Brooklyn.