A closer look at the medical school, from a new angle

Nearly every college and university admissions office in the country produces a glossy book introducing the school to prospective students with the aim of attracting ever-higher numbers of highly qualified applicants. Medical school viewbooks adopt much the same format, organizing their presentation around the three primary missions of research, patient care and medical education.

This year, Yale is breaking that mold, choosing instead to examine itself in a series of vignettes that make up a typical week at the medical school. 24/7: Medicine at Yale, published in August, takes a photographic look at the life that fills Yale’s laboratories, classrooms and clinical spaces, as well as its involvement with the rest of Yale, the New Haven community and the wider world. Black-and-white photographs and accompanying text explore the world of medicine at Yale over the course of seven days, from a difficult childbirth on a Saturday morning to a discussion among faculty and students the following Friday afternoon. Altogether, more than 40 glimpses of medical school life, accompanied by sidebars of facts and figures, occupy the book’s 52 pages.

“We wanted to do something a little different and not just tell the typical story,” says Associate Dean Jane E. Reynolds, who directed the book project and collaborated with Director of Admissions Richard A. Silverman, writer Catherine Iino, photographer François Robert, the Yale Medicine staff and the design firm Pentagram. The book will be mailed to several thousand prospective applicants each year and was sent to alumni and friends of the school in October.