Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., gaining more than 1 million residents since 2000. As the region’s popularity continues to expand, so too does the need to educate and train the medical professionals to staff the growing number of specialized medical facilities within the region, and to provide a talent pipeline for the region’s growing healthcare and biotech industries.

Several regional medical schools fill this need. Roseman University of Health Sciences opened in Henderson in 1999 as the state’s only pharmacy school and has since expanded to offer dental medicine and nursing degrees and is in the process of accrediting its new doctor of medical program. Touro University Nevada is the state’s largest medical school, educating more than 1,500 students annually in a wide variety of degree programs. And the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV graduated its first class of medical students in 2021.

Learn more below about each of these institutions and the specialized training they offer to the region’s medical professionals.

Regional Medical Schools

Located in the Las Vegas Medical District, the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine graduated its first class of students in May 2021. The result of years of collaboration between public and private partners to bring a public medical school to Southern Nevada, UNLV’s School of Medicine was officially established in 2014 when the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents approved nearly $27 million in funding for the school’s startup costs. The charter class of 60 medical students arrived on campus in the fall of 2017.

Fully accredited, the school currently has 246 medical students, 150 faculty physicians, and more than 300 medical residents and fellows. The school’s first permanent building, the Medical Education Building, broke ground in fall 2020 and officially opened in 2022 in the Las Vegas Medical District. The new facility includes state-of-the-art medical classrooms and a simulation center, with space to grow. The school also operates UNLV Health, providing care to more than 19,000 patients per month.

Touro University Nevada is a private non-profit university that opened in Henderson in 2004 as a branch campus of Touro University in Vallejo, California, to address the region’s critical needs in healthcare education. As the state’s largest medical school, Touro educates more than 1,500 students annually in a wide range of degree programs, including osteopathic medicine, physician assistant studies, nursing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. The school is comprised of two colleges – College of Osteopathic Medicine and College of Health and Human Services.

The university also operates the multi-disciplinary Center for Autism and Development Disabilities at its Henderson campus. The center was established in 2008 to provide applied-behavioral analysis therapy to local children with autism. The university also operates the Stallman Touro Clinic at the Shade Tree, providing shelter residents with basic healthcare services, and operates three mobile healthcare clinics to provide free medical care to the region’s homeless community, aging community, and developmentally challenged adults.

Founded in Henderson in 1999, Roseman University of Health Sciences is a private non-profit institution utilizing a unique learning style to train the next generation of healthcare professionals. Originally founded as the state’s first pharmacy school, the university has grown to include two campuses in Southern Nevada and one in Utah, and provides training in its Colleges of Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. The university is also in the process of accrediting its College of Medicine. Considering the varying learning styles young adults have, Roseman created the Six-Point Mastery Learning Model®, in which courses are offered on a block style, allowing students to focus on one subject at a time, rather than multiple concurrent courses.  

In 2013, the university completed a merger with the Nevada Cancer Institute Foundation, acquiring two buildings that now make up its Summerlin Campus. In early 2024, Roseman unveiled a $500 million, three-phase development plan to turn the Summerlin campus from a few office buildings into a full-fledged medical school campus. The expansion will add classrooms, a student union building, and a health clinic and add the region’s second doctor of medicine program.

The Las Vegas valley’s higher education system is constantly evolving and growing to meet the region’s talent pipeline needs. If you’d like to learn more about the students graduating from Las Vegas’ colleges and universities, check out our Talent Pipeline Dashboard or connect with a member of LVGEA’s Businss Development team.