UNDSMHS Mission Statement:

"The mission of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences is to educate and prepare North Dakota residents as physicians, medical scientists and other health professionals for service to the people of North Dakota and the nation, and to advance medical and biomedical knowledge through research."

UNDSMHS Overview:

The UNDSMHS, one of 126 medical schools in the U.S. and Canada, was established in 1905 and is fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. It is one of 22 “community-based” medical schools in the United States. “Community-based” means that the school is integrated into the medical system of communities where practicing physicians serve as members of the school’s faculty. Physicians teach medical students in hospitals, clinics and other settings in about 30 communities throughout North Dakota, although the majority of training occurs in the state’s four largest cities.

The school is administered through four regional “campuses,” based in Fargo (91,240 pop.), Bismarck (56,234), Minot (36,256), and Grand Forks (48,546), which represent the four quadrants (NW, NE, SE, SW) of the state. Through this structure, education and training of undergraduate medical students and residents is coordinated and supervised. Practicing physicians on each campus serve as teachers, providing a broad spectrum of experience while caring for patients in hospitals, clinics, physicians’ offices, nursing homes and other community health care facilities.  Community resources for medical care services - such as mental health centers, alcoholic treatment units, public health clinics - also are utilized in the education programs. In addition to community hospitals, UND medical school-affiliated teaching hospitals include the Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center in Fargo and U.S. Air Force Base hospitals in Minot and Grand Forks.

The school is routinely recognized by national organizations for leadership in rural medicine and the high proportion of graduates who choose to enter a primary care specialty. It has been cited many times by the American Academy of Family Physicians for the high percentage of its M.D. graduates who choose to enter training in family medicine, practitioners which are needed in rural North Dakota. Today, about 45 percent of practicing physicians in the state have received some or all of their training through the UND medical school. In the past 30 years, the number of North Dakota physicians has increased nearly threefold, to about 1500, and the sophistication of medical services, procedures and surgeries has increased dramatically, allowing patients to remain in-state.

UNDMSHS research is conducted in areas such as alcoholism in women, anorexia and other eating disorders, cancer, diabetes, diseases of metabolism, myopia (nearsightedness), multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, among many investigations concerning human health. A Center of Excellence in Neuroscience has recently been established.

In addition to medical education, UNDSMHS also offers graduate education leading to the master’s and/or doctoral degree in anatomy and cell biology; biochemistry and molecular biology; microbiology and immunology; pharmacology, physiology and therapeutics; clinical laboratory science, and physical therapy. It offers undergraduate degrees in athletic training, clinical laboratory science and occupational therapy. The school admits experienced, professional nurses to a master’s degree program which prepares them to become physician assistants. Many of the graduates from these programs have remained in North Dakota.