The History of Brigham and Women's Hospital

A major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital has a legacy of excellence that continues to grow year after year. Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital include 150 outpatient practices and serves patients from New England, throughout the United States, and from 120 countries around the world.

Brigham and Women's Hospital is an internationally known referral center for the most complex cases in nearly all areas of medicine. In fact, U.S. News & World Report recognizes us as a top hospital and among the best in specialty areas including:

• Cancer
• Heart and Vascular
• Diabetes and endocrinology
• Ear, nose and throat
• Gastroenterology and GI surgery
• Geriatric care
• Neurology and neurosurgery
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Orthopedics
• Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Urology

The Brigham and Women's Hospital name is a reflection of our history. In 1980 three of Boston’s oldest and most prestigious Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals - the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital, and the Boston Hospital for Women – merged to form Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

As a national leader in improving health care quality and safety, we have helped to develop some of the industry’s best practices including computerized physician order entry (CPOE) to prevent medication errors. The CPOE is now a nationally-accepted safety practice.

Brigham and Women's Hospital is the third largest recipient of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding among independent hospitals in the United States. With over $1 billion in total research funding and over 1,000 principal investigators, Brigham and Women's Hospital has long had great success in research as measured by the number of important discoveries made, the size and scope of its research portfolio and the volume of publications annually.

Brigham and Women's Hospital is a training ground for physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. We have 1,100 trainees in over 140 of the most sought-after training programs in the world and also host Harvard Medical School students in rotations throughout our programs. As our global health services expand, our clinical trainees have rich opportunities to contribute and learn in challenging environments around the world.