Mission & History

Mission

NEOMED harnesses diversity, innovation and collaboration to create transformative leaders and improve health through education, discovery and service.

Vision

To be the model of excellence in innovative education and impactful research to create transformational health care leaders of tomorrow.

Core Values

NEOMED incorporates the following values in all that we do:

Leadership | Excellence | Advocacy | Diversity | Equity | Respect

Related

• Strategic plan
• Facts and figures

History

In the 1960s, three public universities in Northeast Ohio – Kent State University, University of Akron and Youngstown State University – each began to explore the feasibility of developing a medical school on their campuses, and to lobby legislators and the Ohio Board of Regents for approval. In June 1972, Senate Bill 457 was passed, authorizing funds to “a consortium of state universities in northeast Ohio to prepare detailed plans for medical education programs by January 1, 1973.”

The three institutions formed the Northeastern Medical Education Development Center of Ohio (MEDCO) to develop those plans. Stanley W. Olson, M.D., was engaged as a consultant to help the universities conceptualize and create a consortium medical school.

Early in the 110th General Assembly session, Senator Robert Stockdale of Portage County introduced Senate Bill 72 establishing the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Funds for the proposed new consortium medical school were included in the Biennial Appropriations bill, which passed on June 14, 1973. One month later, on July 11, Senate Bill 72 came up for vote, passing unanimously 32-0 (the House vote was 89-5). SB72 was signed into law on August 24, 1973, with an effective date of November 23, 1973.

Dr. Olson remained with NEOUCOM as charter provost until 1979.

The campus site in Rootstown along Ohio State Route 44 near Interstate 76 was selected in 1974 with groundbreaking in December 1975.

The first class matriculated in September 1977 and included 48 students from UA, KSU and YSU in a combined B.S./M.D. program. They were graduated in 1981, the same year the school became fully accredited.

Expansion and name change

The College of Pharmacy, approved in 2005, was inaugurated with 75 students in August 2007 in the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program, and the school’s name was changed accordingly to the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy. In keeping with the school’s rural setting, the Doctor of Pharmacy program has a community pharmacy emphasis. In May 2011, the university graduated its inaugural class of 61 pharmacists.

In June 2008, House Bill 562 was approved, establishing NEOUCOM as an independent health sciences university serving Northeast Ohio.

In July 2009, the College of Graduate Studies was established. The University received degree granting authority for a Master of Public Health degree and established a bioethics certificate program as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in integrative pharmaceutical medicine (now basic and translational biomedicine).

On April 29, 2011, House Bill 139 was signed into law, officially changing the name of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED).

The university added the Bitonte College of Dentistry in 2022.