The University of Kansas School of Medicine is a public

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

located on the

University of Kansas Medical Center The University of Kansas Medical Center, commonly referred to as KU Med or KUMC, is a medical campus for the University of Kansas. KU Med houses the university's schools of medicine, nursing, and health professions, with the primary health science ...

campuses in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, and also

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in, and the county seat of, Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1 ...

, and

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

. The Kansas City campus is co-located with the independent

University of Kansas Health System The University of Kansas Health System, commonly known as KU Med and formerly known as The University of Kansas Hospital, is a nonprofit, academic medical center located in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, with branch hospitals and education c ...

, and they are commonly known collectively as KU Med.

History

Medical instruction in the University of Kansas School of Medicine began in the 1880s with instruction in medical topics in the undergraduate school, influenced principally by chemistry professor Edgar Bailey. Medical degrees were not awarded. The idea was more fully developed when professor

Samuel Wendell Williston Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from ...

came to Kansas from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1890 and proposed that a specific two-year course of study for medicine should be implemented at KU. In 1899, Williston was named the first dean of this two-year program at KU. The official establishment of the school came in 1905, when the KU Board of Regents authorized the creation of a full four-year

at KU, accomplished by merging the existing two-year school in Lawrence with three medical colleges in the Kansas City area. The School of Medicine was officially opened on September 6, 1905.

Wichita campus

The School of Medicine elected to open a campus in Wichita in 1971. This campus received third and fourth year medical students for their clinical education and these students serve rotations at the Via Christi Health hospitals,

Wesley Medical Center Wesley Medical Center, located in Wichita, Kansas, is an acute-care center licensed for 760 beds and 102 bassinets. The medical staff of 900 physicians and 3,000 employees provide a full range of diagnostic and treatment services for patients fro ...

, and the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center. Since 2011, the KU School of Medicine-Wichita has expanded to a four-year campus, serving students in their didactic and clinical education. There are over 200 students and 75 full-time faculty at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. The KU School of Medicine-Wichita also sponsors 13 residency programs in coordination with Via Christi Health and Wesley Medical Center. KU School of Medicine-Wichita also operates a multitude of patient care clinics such as Adult Health, Breast Cancer, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology. In addition to their MD program, the school offers an Office of Research and a Masters in Public Health graduate degree program. The KU-MPH program ranks the sixth best community health graduate degree program in the country by ''U.S. News & World Report''.

Notable alumni

* Barney S. Graham, NIH virologist, Zika and

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

vaccine specialist *

Jeff Colyer Jeffrey William Colyer (born June 3, 1960) is an American surgeon and politician who served as the 47th governor of Kansas from January 31, 2018, to January 14, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 49th lieutenant governor of Kans ...

, plastic surgeon and former

Governor of Kansas A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

* Debora Green, physician who pleaded no contest to setting a 1995 fire which burned down her family's home and killed two of her children, and to poisoning her husband with ricin * Paul Harrington, orthopaedic surgeon * Theodore K. Lawless, dermatologist and philanthropist *

Roger Marshall Roger Wayne Marshall (born August 9, 1960) is an American politician, physician, and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Kansas since 2021. A memb ...

, junior

United States senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and p ...

from

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

* Robert Simari, executive vice chancellor KU Medical Center (2017– ) * Kathryn Stephenson, plastic surgeon *

George Tiller George Richard Tiller (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide ...

, physician known for performing late term abortions, homicide victim *

Milton R. Wolf Milton R. Wolf (born April 8, 1971) is an American physician. He is a Tea Party movement-aligned activist who ran against incumbent Kansas U.S. Senator Pat Roberts for the Republican Party nomination in the 2014 United States Senate election. ...

, physician *

Barbara Bollier Barbara Goolsbee Bollier (born January 13, 1958) is an American physician and politician. From 2017 to 2021, she was a member of the Kansas Senate representing the 7th district, which includes Mission Hills, Kansas in Johnson County. Bollier i ...

, anesthesiologist, Kansas senator and gubernatorial candidate

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Kansas Medical Center, The Medical schools in Kansas University of Kansas Education in Wyandotte County, Kansas Education in Wichita, Kansas Educational institutions established in 1905 Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Kansas Buildings and structures in Wyandotte County, Kansas 1905 establishments in Kansas