Our History

The Yale Affiliated Hospitals’ Program (YAHP) is the largest and most well established consortium of internal medicine training programs in the country. It was initiated in 1975 by Dr. Samuel O. Their, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University at the time. The YAHP was initially modeled after the Yale Affiliated Gastroenterology Program (YAGP), originated by Dr. Howard Spiro, then the Chief of Digestive Diseases at Yale. The YAGP began as an informal partnership between faculty gastroenterologists at the University and those in private practices throughout Connecticut. Its goal was to improve patient care, medical education and research in digestive diseases throughout the state. Similarly, at its inception, the YAHP was founded as a means by which the Department of Medicine at Yale University in conjunction with affiliated institutions could improve medical education, and, as a result, patient care in southern Connecticut. For the past 30 years, it has done so with far-reaching effects on medical care within the region. During this time, the YAHP has grown significantly in both the size and the comprehensiveness of its efforts, while maintaining its original goals.