America's first English-speaking medical schools

In summary, since the first American medical school opened in 1765, American medicine and medical teaching practices have followed some of the European models. Leyden, London, and Edinburgh were prominent examples of European descent that were fresh in the minds of English American medical schools. On this continent, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Harvard, and Dartmouth presented themselves as the heirs of American medical genesis. Other schools in the mid-nineteenth century such as the University of Michigan founded medical departments to prepare medical students to a better way of medical practice. With the advent of schools based more in the German system such as Johns Hopkins University and the introduction of dedicated and full-time faculty physicians, America started on its own unique and distinguished path in the history of the world's best medical schools.