The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is one of the seven Ivy League medical schools. Several milestones in medical care and research have taken place at Dartmouth, including the introduction of stethoscopes to U.S. medical education (1838), the first clinical x-ray (1896), and the first intensive care unit (ICU) in the United States (1955). The Geisel School of Medicine grants the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. The school has a student body of approximately 700 students and more than 2,300 faculty and researchers. Geisel organizes research through over a dozen research centers and institutes, attracting more than $140 million in grants annually, and is ranked as a top medical school by U.S. News & World Report for both primary care and biomedical research. Geisel has numerous clinical partners, including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, White River Junction Veterans Administration Medical Center, California Pacific Medical Center, and Manchester Veterans Administration Medical Center. History Foundation and early years Dartmouth's medical school was founded in 1797 as the fourth medical school in the United States, following the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1765), the medical school of King's College (now Columbia University) (1767), and Harvard Medical School (1782). The founder was Nathan Smith, a Harvard University and University of Edinburgh Medical School educated physician from Cornish, New Hampshire. Noting the dearth of medical professionals in the rural Connecticut River Upper Valley area, Smith petitioned the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College in August 1796 to fund the establishment of a medical school to train more physicians for the region. Though Dartmouth College as a whole was financially strapped, the Board approved the request, and Smith began lecturing on November 22, 1797. For much of its early life, the school consisted only of Nathan Smith and a small class of students, operating in borrowed space at Dartmouth College. Students of Smith were educated as apprentices, and received a Bachelor of Medicine degree upon graduation. Like Dartmouth College as a whole, the medical school had continual funding shortages. As time passed, however, the popularity of both the medical instruction and the basic sciences taught at the school drew undergraduates and training physicians alike. Soliciting funds from the