The Yale System at 100 Years

In this review of 100 years of the Yale System of Medical Education, a portrait emerges of what it is and what it has made possible. Founded in the 1920s under the leadership of Dean Milton C. Winternitz, the Yale System abandoned most educational mainstays including: grades, class rankings, roll call, daily assignments, course exams, and class year affiliations. Instead, a thesis and two broad qualifying examinations were required. Revised over decades, the essential elements endure. The Yale System has cultivated generations of humane physicians, academics, and leaders through the rise of modern medicine, and medicine’s constantly evolving knowledge base.