The University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA SOM or more commonly known as Virginia Medicine) is the graduate medical school of the University of Virginia. The school's facilities are on the University of Virginia grounds adjacent to Academical Village in Charlottesville, Virginia as well as a second campus located in Falls Church, Virginia.
Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, UVA SOM is the tenth oldest medical school in the United States. The School of Medicine confers Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, and is closely associated with both the University of Virginia Health System and Inova Health System. Notable distinguished alumni include Walter Reed, Vivian Pinn, and many other leaders in medicine. The School is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious medical schools in the United States with many medical discoveries made on Grounds.
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History
The UVA Health System's history can be traced to the original conception of the University of Virginia on August 1, 1818, whereupon Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and twenty-one other men first compiled a report for the Virginia State Legislature to determine a site, building plans, and courses for study for the University of Virginia. Acknowledging that clinical lectures and medical training were not available in Charlottesville at that time, Jefferson and his colleagues determined that the university should offer education in "the elements of medical science...with a history and explanation of all its successive theories from Hippocrates to the present day," as a way to train both prospective physicians, as well as those students with a more dilettante interest in medicine.
At the first meeting of the university's Board of Visitors in 1819, a School of Medicine was authorized. The School of Medicine – the 10th medical school in the U.S. – officially opened in March 1825 with a single professor, Dr. Robley Dunglison. Dunglison had been actively recruited by Thomas Jefferson, and had traveled from London to take up his new position.
Just weeks before Dunglison and his wife arrived in the United States, Jefferson had written to Joseph C. Cabell that an anatomical theater would be "indispensable to the school of anatomy," and that "there cannot be a single dissection until a proper theater is prepared giving an advantageous view of the operation to those within, and effectually excluding observation from without." This structure, which was eventually demolished in 1938, was one of the first of its kind in the entire United States, conceived and blueprinted by Jefferson himself, who pushed fervently for its construction up until the time of his death in 1825.
The University of Virginia School of Medicine graduated its first four students in 1828, and in 1832, became the first medical school in the United States to standardize the criteria for admission.
More than 75 years later, UVA opened its first hospital in March 1901 with 25 beds and three operating rooms. Just as medical education has been a part of UVA since its founding, so too has medical literature – the 8,000 books purchased by Jefferson to create the University Library included 710 books on the medical sciences. UVA's medical literature moved to the UVA Medical School building in 1929. Its current home was dedicated in April 1976.
Historical Timeline
1826 – Anatomical Hall designed and built by Jefferson.
1828 – First University degrees awarded to four medical graduates.
1892 – Medical course lengthened to two years.
1895 – Medical course extended to three years.
1898 – Medical course lengthened to four years.
1901 – Opening of the University of Virginia Hospital (25 beds). Dr. Paul Barringer named superintendent.
1905 – Richard Henry Whitehead, M.D., LL.D., dean of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine named first dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Whitehead reorganized the hospital to a primarily teaching facility. He emphasized scholarship and basic science well in advance of the Flexner Report.
1924 – First Woman Graduate (and only in that year), Lila Morse Bonner (later married name Lila Bonner Miller, MD).
1929 – New medical school building opened (cost $1.4 million).
1960 – West Complex expanded into new hospital, completed at a cost of $6.5 million.
1989 – University of Virginia Replacement Hospital (556 beds) was dedicated, at a cost of $230 million.
2014 – Medical school curriculum updated to system-based instruction, and classroom program shortened to 1.5 years. Claude Moore Medical Education building opened.
Facilities
The School of Medicine is affiliated with the University of Virginia Health System.
The UVA Hospital is a large tertiary care hospital with more than 500 beds, not including a 45-bed neonatal intensive care unit and 20-bed nursery. The Children's Hospital is served by the Newborn Emergency Transport System (NETS), which transports critically ill newborns and pediatrics from all over the surrounding area and states back to UVA. The hospital is a Level I trauma center and is accessible by ambulance as well as Pegasus, UVA Health System's air and ground transport service for critically ill and injured patients. As an academic medical center, patients at UVA are treated by physicians who are also faculty members at the UVA School of Medicine.
The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library opened in 2014 and serves the School of Medicine and the Health System. The library is located within the Medical Center.
From years 2016–2019, UVA Hospital was named the number 1 hospital in Virginia.
Clinical education and learning societies
UVA utilizes a unique "Next Generation" integrated curriculum that allows medical students to spend more time in the clinic by condensing the first 2 years of classes into 1.5 years. Uniquely, students enter Clerkship and take Step 1 and Step 2 together in their fourth year. UVA features accredited programs (via the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) of resident and fellowship education in general, specialty, and subspecialty fields.
Upon matriculation, students are divided into one of four learning communities. Reed College, Hunter College, Dunglinson College, and Pinn College are each named after influential UVA SOM alumni.
Research
UVA has many highly regarded departments with over 300 labs; laboratories are mainly housed in Medical Center in Pinn Hall, MR-4, MR-5, MR-6, and the West Complex (Hospital West).
In 1889, philanthropist Oliver Hazard Payne bequeathed a $100,000 grant to the medical school, to help establish laboratories of experimental medicine.
Founded in 1967, the Department of Perceptual Studies is unusual in that it is one of the few academic research groups in the field of "supernatural phenomena" with board-certified physicians and scientists at a respected university.
Notable discoveries
1928 – 1952 – Sidney William Britton, Ph.D., professor of physiology and Herbert Silvette, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, demonstrated that the adrenal cortex contained a hormone, not epinephrine, which influenced carbohydrate storage and metabolism.
1935 – 1967 – Alfred Chanutin, Ph.D., professor and chair of biochemistry, discovered the role of red blood cell 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) in oxygen transfer from hemoglobin. This finding had enormous impact on the preservation of blood for transfusion therapy.
1939 – Dupont Guerry III, M.D. intern, and William Wirt Waddell Jr., a pediatrician, discovered the role of vitamin K in the etiology, treatment, and prevention of hypoprothrombinemia and hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.
1966 – 1988 – Robert M. Berne, M.D., professor and chair of physiology, pioneered adenosine in cardiovascular function and introduced adenosine as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of supraventricular tachycardia.
1971 – 1981 – Alfred G. Gilman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmacology discovered G-proteins, cellular mediators of hormone action, for which he received the 1989 Albert Lasker Award and the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1970 – 1983 – Ferid Murad, M.D., PhD, professor of medicine, discovered that endothelium-derived relaxing factor is nitric oxide, which acts as a vasodilator by stimulating guanylyl cyclase. Murad received the Albert Lasker Award in 1996 and the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1998 for this discovery.
1976 – Michael O. Thorner, M.B.B.S., D.Sc., professor of medicine, discovered a new hypothalamic hormone, growth hormone releasing hormone. Thorner received the 1995 NIH General Clinical Research Centers Award for his work in clinical neuroendocrinology.
1995 – Barry Marshall, M.B.B.S., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, received the Albert Lasker Award Medicine for his discovery that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is the cause of peptic ulcer disease and also is associated with gastric carcinoma.
Research Centers and Core facilities
Research Centers
The UVA Cancer Center is headed by Thomas P. Loughran Jr. and was ranked in 2016 by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 2–3% of cancer specialty centers nationwide.
The Carter Immunology Center is one of the largest research centers in the School of Medicine with over 50 faculty members.
Cardiovascular Research Center
The Center for Brain Immunology & Glia is a group of labs in the Department of Neuroscience. In recent years, BIG has been one of UVA's most productive collaborative research centers, with research being nominated for Science's Breakthrough of the Year. Notable discoveries as of late include discovering a link between the brain and the immune system, identifying major genetic causes of schizophrenia, and a link between the immune system and social behavior.
The Center for Diabetes Technology has been the subject of publicity for its role in the development of the artificial pancreas, a major breakthrough in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Thaler Center for AIDS and HIV Research
Notable faculty
The faculty of the School of Medicine are recognized nationally and internationally. The faculty includes 15 elected members of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences; three members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; 12 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; five recipients of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award; four recipients of the Virginia Outstanding Scientist Award; and two recipients of the Virginia Life Achievement Award in Science.
Deans of the School of Medicine
* = indicates interim Dean.
Leadership allegations
In September of 2024, a letter of no confidence, signed by 128 faculty members and physicians, was raised against dean Melina Kibbe and CEO of UVA Health Craig Kent, demanding their ousting and replacement. The letter accused Kibbe and Kent of allowing "egregious acts" such as harassment of resident physicians, overcharging patients in favor of profit, and lavish spending on C-suite executives. The letter also asserts that Kibbe and Kent have been pressuring healthcare workers to not report concerns of patient safety, and more generally, that they have ushered in "a culture of fear and retaliation" within the school and health network.
In response to the letter, university president Jim Ryan wrote that "through some of their [the authors'] allegations, they have unfairly — and I trust unwittingly — cast a shadow over the great work of the entire health system and medical school.” The university brought in the law firm, Williams & Connolly, to conduct an investigation into the allegations.
The results of the investigation were not released, however, Kent resigned shortly after the conclusion of the investigation in March 2025. Kibbe resigned in July 2025 after being named as the new president at The University of Texas Health Science Center.
Medical Scientist Training Program
The University of Virginia School of Medicine is one of only 43 NIH funded MD/PhD programs in the country. The program director is Dr. Dean H. Kedes.
History
According to the handbook provided to all entering students: The University of Virginia undertook significant expansion of research and training programs in the basic biomedical sciences during the late 1960s and early 1970s. All chairmen of the basic science departments of the School of Medicine were newly appointed during this time, a major new research building was constructed, and individual departments grew several-fold in size and quality. Similar but less dramatic growth followed in the clinical departments. Interest in the training of medical scientists flourished rapidly in this environment, in part because many of the new faculty either had experience with MSTPs or were recent graduates of such programs. Accordingly, an MSTP committee was appointed in 1971 under the leadership of Dr. Robert C. Haynes Jr., and funds were provided by the University to initiate such training. An application for training funds was submitted to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in 1972, just prior to the time when the appropriation for such training programs was withdrawn. The application was resubmitted in 1975, and NIH support was first received in 1977 under the future Nobel Laureate, Dr. Alfred G. Gilman. As such the program claims two founding dates: 1971 when the MSTP committee was first formed and 1977 when the first students matriculated.