Thursday, June 19, 2014

What's in a name? Med schools sell to the highest bidder

The 12th oldest medical school in the United States, Jefferson Medical College, has just changed its name to Sydney Kimmel Medical College after Mr. Kimmel donated $110 million.

Declining tuition revenues (ha!) and the reluctance to refuse such a large donation were important factors in the renaming.

When I checked, I found that several other allopathic and osteopathic medical schools are named after benefactors. The oldest medical school in the country, at the University of Pennsylvania, changed its name to the Perelman School of Medicine in 2011.

Some of the names are at least related to medicine like the Frank H Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Dr. Netter was a famous medical illustrator and author. There's also the Dr. Seuss Theodore Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth University.

Three years ago, I blogged about the increasingly forgettable names being attached to stadiums such as M & T Bank Stadium [aka Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards, PSINet Stadium, Ravens Stadium], O.com Coliseum [aka overstock.com Coliseum, Network Associates Coliseum, McAfee Coliseum, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum], and Sun Life Stadium [aka Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, and my favorite—Land Shark Stadium.]

How much money would it take to get a school to change its name to The Tostitos School of Medicine or Yahoo Medical College?

Taking a cue from all of this, I am willing to sell the naming rights to the Skeptical Scalpel blog for the right offer. Operators are standing by.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

25 dollars cash.

Anonymous said...

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: $200 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/nyregion/with-gift-mt-sinai-medical-school-to-be-renamed-for-carl-icahn.html?_r=0

Anonymous said...

Why not ads? Its good enough for the local newspapers to hide behind ad $$$, never putting out who is suing the local hospital chain because they don't want to offend the gravy train.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Robert-the cash is tempting, but somewhere between your $25 and Icahn's $200 million is what I'm looking for.

artiger said...

I'll go in at $100.

Does any part of those donations go toward reducing tuition and fees? Stop laughing, that was a serious question.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

$100 is still too low. Some of the money is going toward scholarship funds.

Anonymous said...

Your blog is priceless, do not demean it by putting a price on it....sarcasm is fully understandable..

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Jeevanshu, thanks.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, Loma Linda University just got a $100M gift and didn't have to change their name.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Anon, thanks. What a nice story. It looks like the Troesh family was simply interested in doing something good and not the glory.

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