University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences


The University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences is located in Grand Forks, North Dakota at the University of North Dakota and is the only school of medicine in the state of North Dakota.
The school has trained roughly half of the physicians currently practicing in the state. Roughly 20 percent of the American Indian doctors in the United States were trained at the school. Also, the medical school has been ranked third nationally in the area of rural medicine and first for the percentage of graduates choosing family medicine. The school has four campuses located throughout the state. The Northeast Campus, which is the main campus, is located in Grand Forks. The Northwest campus is located in Downtown Minot, the Southeast Campus is located in the Washington neighborhood in Fargo and the Southwest Campus is located in Downtown Bismarck.

Research

Research is an important part of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. In fiscal year 2006, research awards totaled $19.8 million. The medical school is also home to the Center for Rural Health, which focuses on the health of rural communities and has been awarded numerous grants. Their programs include the nationally recognized Rural Health Information Hub, the National Resource Center on Native American Aging and other programs. President Barack Obama appointed the director of the Center for Rural Health, Dr. Mary Wakefield, the Administrator of the Human Resources and Services Administration in 2009.

History

The school was founded in 1905 to provide the first two years of medical education. In 1973, the school began granting the MD degree to students, though the third year of medical school was spent at either Mayo Medical School or the University of Minnesota Medical School. It was expanded to the full four-year curriculum in 1981, and the school slowly phased out the exchange third year by 1984.
In May 2013, the 63rd Assembly of the North Dakota Legislature approved funding for a new $124 million, 325,000-square-foot, four-story building on the northeast corner of the UND campus. This building was completed in the summer of 2016 and opened on August 1st, 2016.