On Aug. 22, 2014, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents approved the two-year budget for the school’s start-up costs and submitted this budget to the governor and Nevada Legislature – officially establishing the UNLV School of Medicine (rebranded the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV in 2021).
Since that day, it has been 10 years of hard work, dedication, and growth – all to fulfill the mission of being a transformational force for improving healthcare in Nevada.
“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years,” says Dr. Barbara Atkinson, planning and founding dean of the school.
Hired by UNLV in May 2014, Atkinson was tasked with creating the school’s 10-year budget, and she shaped what the school still looks like today. From the get-go, Atkinson knew that the community would continuously play a part in the school’s mission and vision.
“The first six months, my main goal was to talk to people in the community right away and find out what the city needed,” Atkinson says. “…I had meetings with every group that I could talk to and all different kinds of people – from business people, other doctors, nurses, people in healthcare, but also, just community people to find out what the school needed and what the community needed the school to do.”
In June 2015, the school’s first budget of nearly $27 million was approved by the Nevada Legislature, and Senate Bill 514 – the state’s appropriations bill – was signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval. By the following year, the school of medicine was able to quickly acquire the medical school necessities, including approximately nine acres of land at 625 Shadow Lane, transferred from the Clark County Commission, for the school's first academic building. With the assistance of donors, the school’s Founding Scholarship campaign raised $13.5 million that would provide 135 student scholarships, allowing the school’s first class to complete medical school tuition-free.
Expanding Graduate Medical Education
In August 2016, the school was granted accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and became an institutional sponsor of graduate medical education (GME), jump-starting its GME programs. Starting with 11 residencies and six fellowship programs, the school’s GME programs have now increased to include an additional six fellowships. There’s no denying that Nevada has a need for more physicians, which is why the school’s GME office works every day to establish additional GME programs.
“Despite facing difficult odds, we are bringing new GME programs into existence on a regular basis. Each year, we celebrate another first — another first fellowship program — in a much-needed specialty like rheumatology,” states Dr. Kate Martin, the associate dean for graduate medical education and designated institutional official. “We are forging the path for our medical students to remain in the state to pursue their professional aspirations and, at the same time, take care of this community.”
Along with the accreditation for GME, the school was granted preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in October 2016. Quickly after, the school launched its medical student admissions process, and the school’s charter class – a cohort of 60 students – started their journey at the school in July 2017.
UNLV Health Created for Clinical Operations
Also in the same month, the school’s affiliated practice, UNLV Health, began operations – marking the beginning of a relationship based on improving healthcare in Nevada. Joann Strobbe, the executive associate dean for administration and UNLV Health’s president and CEO, believes a medical school is a “unique organization within higher education” as it has different components such as the undergraduate medical education experience, the training of residents and fellows, and a “fully-functional clinical operation and separate 501(c)3 that houses the clinical component of all the practitioners.”
“This creates interesting challenges within an existing state organization that has traditionally been focused on educational and research activities,” says Strobbe. “This is truly the blend of education and business practices at its highest level to achieve state-of-the-art healthcare with evidence-based medicine. We are making a difference in the region and bringing new physician talent into Las Vegas. It has been exciting to watch the school and practice plan grow.”
The Milestones Continue
Within a few years of the charter class’s arrival and the opening of UNLV Health, the school of medicine continued to hit significant milestones. In 2019, the LCME granted the school provisional accreditation, and Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that a group of private donors, the Nevada Health & Bioscience Corp. (NHBC), agreed to fund the construction of a medical education complex that would be the school of medicine’s permanent home – with the school’s first permanent building, the Kirk Kerkorian Medical Education Building (MEB), opening later in 2022.
The spring of 2021 saw more firsts for the school of medicine. Not only was it granted full accreditation by the LCME, but the UNLV School of Medicine officially became the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. Along with these firsts, the school celebrated its first-ever match day and commencement with its charter class. In 2023, the school of medicine was granted provisional accreditation for continuing medical education.
“It’s a lot accomplished within 10 years,” says Dr. Atkinson. “ Most places, it takes many years to get the first accreditation to actually accept students, and we were able to accept students in July of 2017, so that was an exciting time, and so is now, 10 years later.”
Dr. John Fildes, who served as the school’s interim dean from September 2019 to April 2020 and is an emeritus professor of surgery, credits the understanding of Atkinson’s vision and “the overall mission the school was going to have for the community” with helping everyone get through simultaneously transitioning the role of dean to Dr. Marc J. Kahn, dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine and UNLV vice president for health affairs, and responding to a global pandemic. It’s through this vision and mission that the school of medicine has continued to thrive and persevere over the years.
“Each and every one of us did our very very best to keep soldiering on and moving forward regardless of the challenges in front of us – and here we are. We’ve somehow made it 10 years,” says Fildes.
As to how he expects the school to evolve in the next 10 years, Fildes says, “As medicine changes, as technology delivers more, as artificial intelligence finds a role, the way that medicine is taught and practiced is going to change a great deal. But I believe that over the next 10 years, the school of medicine will be able to meet more, if not all, the needs of the community with regard to specialists and primary care docs and inviting the community into our practice. I also think that it’ll become a hub for technology and research.”
Regarding UNLV Health, Strobbe also sees big things ahead for the practice plan and its contributions to our state’s healthcare. “I would like to see the clinical faculty double in size, along with the advanced practice providers, to have over 400 practitioners within UNLV Health,” says Strobbe. “There are physician shortages throughout the state of Nevada, and the medical school and UNLV Health are here to educate and train the next generation of physicians and compel them to stay within our state.”
Since assuming his role in 2020, during the early and uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kahn has been proud of the spirit of the school’s team, which includes the school’s faculty, staff, students, and residents. In addition, he is proud that the community is “starting to notice that we’re here and that we’re here to care for them” by providing “what this community needs and deserves.”
In less than five years, Kahn has already established a lasting legacy within the school. Since his hire, the school has achieved full LCME accreditation, and he has presided over all four commencement ceremonies. He has also overseen the expansion of both our undergraduate medical education programs and graduate medical education programs, as well as the creation of a continuing medical education program. He has been instrumental in the establishment of two endowed chair positions, a significant accomplishment for such a young school. Finally, Kahn, in his role as the UNLV vice president for health affairs, has been leading the efforts with the leadership of the other health and behavioral sciences programs to establish a much-needed academic health center for Southern Nevada.
Looking toward the future, Kahn hopes to increase the school’s class size to train more physicians that will stay in Nevada. At the same time, he aims for the school to find more ways to engage with the community, whether it’s through expanding the school’s research to “care for issues in the community” or through creating more community-based clinics like the school’s two school-based clinics and its free clinic.
Overall, Kahn believes that the school is succeeding in what it was tasked to do from the very beginning.
“We’re 10 years later, we’ve graduated four classes, we’ve recruited eight classes, we’ve increased the number of residencies and fellowships that we have, and really, we’re doing what we were set up to do and that is to care for the community,” states Kahn. “The Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine is 10 years old. It’s here to stay, and it’s going to make a difference.”
