Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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“No individual can win a game by himself,” professional soccer star Pelé said.
In 2014, due to a need for better health care in Las Vegas, the state Legislature approved the creation of a new school of medicine at UNLV, now called the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. The school was founded with an intended focal mission of caring for the Las Vegas community.
Care would come in the form of providing health care for the community in hospitals and clinics regardless of patients’ ability to pay, training the next generation of physicians for the valley, participating in research that would directly impact the community, and engaging in activities that address the important social determinants of health. Barbara Atkinson and Maureen Schafer were leaders of these early days. They launched something in an environment where there was no clear direction for how to create a medical school. They worked and dreamed of how to create a great one. It is their foundation from which we work today.
Since 2017, with the start of the school’s first class and official start to the clinical practice, the school has had over 1 million patient encounters, including providing vaccinations and COVID testing during the pandemic. It has graduated three classes totaling 180 students and has created new residency programs including geriatrics, endocrinology, pediatric emergency medicine and forensic psychiatry, among others. The school has garnered research dollars totaling over $41 million, and has created elementary school-based clinics to bring care to the neediest in our community.
But none of this is possible without strategic partnerships. Health care today is a team sport.
The school is part of the larger university. Beginning in 2021, it embarked on a planning process for a true academic health center that would greatly improve health care for the community. Partnering with the schools of nursing, dental medicine, integrative health and public health, with representation from behavioral and mental health, the school of medicine and affiliated schools, UNLV is creating the academic health center of the future. This model will allow for coordinated care so patients can receive multiple services in a single visit, and will allow for coordinated research across the university to better address needs of the community including cancer, brain health, diabetes and aging. The schools are working together as an academic health center to train doctors, nurses and dentists in one location to show the value of teamwork. UNLV’s Hospitality School, rated one of the best in the world, is providing help to ensure that care is patient centered and consumer friendly.
Another major partner for the school of medicine is our community of donors and supporters, including the Nevada Health and Bioscience Corporation, which generously provided financial support and guidance for the construction of a state-of-the-art medical education building that has become an architectural model for the rest of the country to emulate. Partnering with our community has provided scholarships for needy students and allowed us to recruit a class that mirrors our population, including first-generation college students, those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and veterans.
Lastly, we have partnered with hospitals to provide education and patient care. Our relationship with our primary teaching hospital, University Medical Center, is sacrosanct as we both care for the most vulnerable of our population regardless of ability to pay. We train most of our residents at UMC and are strategizing to provide the most modern, efficient and appropriate care for our community. We are planning to start hematology/medical oncology and rheumatology training programs to address our community’s needs. We are working with UMC to expand clinical research opportunities to provide medicines not yet available in other hospitals. We are always looking to the future to provide services not available in Las Vegas as they are in other communities of our size.
Thirty years ago, health care could more easily occur between a practitioner and a patient. In the modern complex world, health care is best practiced in teams. Teams make better decisions and are better able to address the total needs of a community. We have not yet finished identifying all of our potential partners, but feel that we are well on our way to creating a system that can best care for our total community, young and old, rich and poor, sick and well. We welcome you to join us on our journey.
Keith Whitfield is president of UNLV. Marc Kahn is dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine and vice president for health affairs at UNLV.
