BISEP - Why BAU Medicine

1) BAU Medicine trains not only good physicians but also good "Scientist/Physicians". BAU Medicine students are educated both to provide superior-quality care to today's society and patients as good medical doctors, and to find solutions to tomorrow's health problems through their scientific research as good scientists.
BAU Medicine trains "Scientist/Physicians" who possess the qualities and tools of scientific thinking, have made universal ethical values part of their mindset, embrace the principles of "medicine for humanity", "technology for humanity" and "physicians for humanity", know and apply scientific research methodology, have not only in-depth knowledge but also practical skills and creativity, and see medicine as a way of life rather than merely a profession.

2) In the BAU Medicine approach, the field of education and research is the network of knowledge and organization created in the world of medicine. In this approach, our science and medicine campus, consisting of our Basic Sciences and Advanced Medical Research Centers in Istanbul and Bahçeşehir University Göztepe Medical Park Research and Training Hospital, forms the core of the BAU Medicine knowledge and organization network. Beyond historical, geographical and political boundaries, the BAU Medicine network regards humanity's accumulated knowledge of science and medicine as its own common mind and field of thought, and therefore regards the whole world as its campus.
BAU Medicine is a laboratory for turning dreams into reality for students and faculty members with the right mindset. Scientists and physicians trained in this location-independent knowledge and organization network of BAU Medicine are supported in pursuing their own intellectual and educational journeys under their own responsibility and in a way that allows them to realize their dreams. In this way, whatever field of specialization or science a BAU Medicine student dreams of excelling in, he or she is given the opportunity to develop at the best international institutions in that field.

3) Driven by the energy to turn dreams into reality, BAU Medicine students benefit from the study and work abroad opportunities of Bahçeşehir University, which, through the BAU Global network, has campuses and academic centers on three continents and where one in every ten students is international. Throughout their studies, students have the opportunity to receive training and conduct research at leading hospitals and laboratories in the USA, Europe and the Far East, such as Harvard Medical School, Yale University, the University of Geneva and the RIKEN Research Center in Tokyo.
4) BAU Medicine offers, for the first time in the field of medicine in Türkiye, two education programs within the same year: one training "Scientist/Physicians" and one training physicians. From the first year onward, students are placed in one of these two programs according to their achievements and goals. Students who wish to become excellent physicians and provide high-quality healthcare to patients in Türkiye or abroad continue their medical education in the physician training program, while students who wish to become good research-oriented physicians together with scientific mentors and to graduate having published articles in international journals continue in the scientist/physician training program.

5) BAU Medicine provides preparation opportunities within the faculty for major accreditation and specialization examinations recognized worldwide and in Türkiye; students can receive the necessary support for examinations such as the USMLE, FLEX and TUS without leaving the campus.

6) At BAU Medicine, the scientists and physicians of the future are also trained as the intellectuals of the future. Our students are given the opportunity not only to receive vertical intellectual specialization and skills training in medicine, but also to develop a global mindset and devote time to diverse interests. The unusually wide range of elective courses offered at the BAU Beşiktaş campus in the heart of Istanbul (history of science, philosophy, philosophy of science, communication, jazz, cinema, etc.) offers the future intellectual scientists trained in the highly intensive working environment of BAU Medicine an intellectual world shaped by the cultural richness of Istanbul, the capital of three empires, and the indescribable "blue" of the Bosphorus.

7) At BAU Medicine, the Basic Medical Sciences Building and the Advanced Medical Research Application Center, located next to our faculty research and training hospital, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology (digital cadaver dissection table, 3D surgical imaging system, instant sharing of laboratory data, etc.) and meets international standards (JCI accreditation), and integrated with it through its information system, will be open to our students from the first day of the academic year; these facilities keep basic scientists and clinical specialists in constant interaction and bring students and faculty members together in the same environment.

8) In every era and in every part of the world, medical teaching and academic work have been a "labor of love". The mentor-apprentice relationship, the most fundamental element of this education, is the weakest point of medical education today. Training good "Scientist/Physicians" is only possible with highly qualified faculty members. BAU Medicine, which strives to bring the best faculty members in our country into its national knowledge and organization system by offering scientific and social conditions worthy of their distinction, is the first and only medical faculty in Türkiye to apply the h-index criterion (an objective measure of a scientist's contribution to world science in his or her field) rigorously and at the highest values in selecting its academic staff. In this way, our students learn both to be physicians and to be scientists at BAU Medicine through a "mentor-apprentice" relationship with role models who are themselves both good physicians and outstanding scientists (72% of Nobel Prize winners or nominees were trained by Nobel Prize winners or nominees). The average h-index of the professors on our strong faculty is 15.37. In terms of h-index, BAU Medicine has achieved yet another first in Türkiye.

9) BAU Medicine is a research-oriented medical school. For this reason, it offers high-level financial resources and professional opportunities to basic science faculty members, who are the driving force of scientific research. BAU Medicine's understanding of success is based on building collaboration among students, clinical faculty members and basic science specialists.

10) BAU Medicine was born of the collaboration between Bahçeşehir University, a fully institutionalized university with 27,000 students, and Medical Park Hospitals, also fully institutionalized, which has the largest number of hospital beds (6,000 beds) and the largest number of physicians in Türkiye. The two wings a medical school needs in order to fly are provided in the BAU Medicine system, because a medical faculty without a hospital, or one with a hospital but lacking the support of a fully institutionalized university, cannot be a true medical school. From the first day, BAU Medicine students will gain hospital experience at Bahçeşehir University Göztepe Medical Park Research and Training Hospital, which has 100 outpatient clinic rooms, 12 operating theaters and 353 beds, holds JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation and features state-of-the-art technological facilities.

BAU Medicine believes that education in science and medicine should take place in class sizes that allow for a mentor-apprentice relationship. Educating groups with similar goals and similar initial levels of knowledge together is also a requirement that enhances quality. For these reasons, BAU Medicine offers separate classes for students who aim to become both medical doctors and scientists and for students who aim to become medical doctors.
Classes are named after physicians or medical scientists who have been awarded the BAU Medicine Science Medal.
Our Class of 2020 medical doctor class will be named after Prof. Dr. Joseph Martin, and our medical doctor-medical scientist class after Prof. Dr. Afksendiyos Kalangos.
Our Class of 2021 medical doctor class will be named after Prof. Dr. Peter Black, and our medical doctor-medical scientist class after Prof. Dr. Yücel Kanpolat.
Our Class of 2022 medical doctor class will be named after Prof. Charles D. Stiles, and our medical scientist class after Prof. Dr. İskender Sayek.
Our Class of 2023 medical doctor class will be named after Prof. Dr. Canan Erzen, and our medical doctor-medical scientist class after Prof. Dr. Gürsel Ortuğ.
Our Class of 2024 medical doctor class will be named after Prof. Dr. Ossama Al-Mefty, and our medical doctor-medical scientist class after Prof. Dr. Nu Viet Vu.