This year, as the school matriculates its first class of 60 students, what the gift means to the school and its commitment to help ensure quality healthcare in the community for generations to come has become evident.
Established by
UnitedHealth Group
in 1999 as a not-for-profit, private foundation dedicated to improving health and healthcare, the United Health Foundation has committed nearly $315 million to health programs around the world.
With the foundation’s help, we have hired faculty members, postdoctoral graduate assistants and one expert consultant, to develop and implement the specialty educational programs in population health, bioethics, and hospitality healthcare.
Faculty associated with the medical school and the UNLV William F. Harrah College of Hospitality are preparing to employ hospitality and population health principles at the UNLV Medicine
Ackerman Autism Center
, the first clinical practice for the school. Patient visits have soared to more than 9200 since its July, 2016 opening.
The foundation’s gift also provides the seed money to the medical school for a community clinic learning module in the curriculum allowing students to experience first-hand the specialties of family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. Students will get to know their patients and community over 18 months, developing relationships with all members of the healthcare team while gaining a knowledge of common medical problems.
This model, which replaces a traditional block rotation where students learn specialties one at a time through eight week rotations, improves recruitment and retention of doctors through increased community engagement.
The partnership between UnitedHealth Group and the UNLV School of Medicine helps to ensure that the next generation of physicians in Southern Nevada are positioned to make our healthcare system the most innovative, modern and effective in the world.
