Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 13
P H O T O : J O S H H A W K I N S / U N LV
SUMMER 2023 MAGAZINE
Though working out of tight, temporary quarters at UNLV’s Shadow Lane campus – the new building
at 625 Shadow Lane is two blocks away – faculty and students made signi昀cant contributions to
the Southern Nevada community.
The fully-accredited school – it graduated its 昀rst class in 2021 – was the 昀rst to provide largescale curbside testing when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Las Vegas in 2020, becoming Nevada’s
longest-running test site. More than 19,000 Nevadans were tested. The school was also the 昀rst
to coordinate convalescent plasma as a treatment strategy and was a leader in vaccination efforts
– more than 120,000 people received shots from school personnel. Care by specialists from UNLV
Health, the school’s group practice, during the worst of the pandemic, included 290,912 clinic
visits,194,100 hospital encounters, and delivery of 4,275 babies.
The medical school has managed and/or received more than 72 grants totaling nearly $24 million,
with faculty research helping provide state-of-the-art care to the community. Physician-researchers
used stem cells to regenerate cardiac tissue damaged by a heart attack, discovered how marijuana
use affects fetal growth, tracked the cause and costs of motor vehicle accidents, implemented
pediatric disaster preparedness programs, related ambient temperature to severe pavement burns,
and learned how birth spacing affects a mother’s recovery.
Helping to grow the number of physicians in physician-short Nevada is obviously a critical part of
the medical school’s mission. In an effort to bolster the number of students who stay in the state
to practice, the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine primarily only admits students from Nevada or
who have family ties to the state.
What many people don’t realize, however, is that after four years of medical school, graduates must
complete at least three more years of graduate medical education (GME) called residency in their
chosen specialties before they can practice. To further specialize, they must complete a fellowship
that lasts an additional one to three years. Studies show a majority of young doctors stay where they
complete residencies or fellowships. According to researcher John Packham of the University of
Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, more than 70 percent who have completed both medical school
and graduate medical education in Nevada remain in the Silver State.
Unfortunately, Nevada is woefully under-resourced from a residency/fellowship perspective. Funded
in large part by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the number of residencies
and fellowships in a state was capped in 1997 by the federal Balanced Budget Act. “Nevada, and
particularly Southern Nevada, was a very different place back then,” Dr. Kahn said. “Our population
has increased 15 percent over the past decade. As a result, Nevada ranks at the bottom of funded
residency and fellowship positions as compared to New York, which has 25 times the number of
funded slots per 100,000 population.”
LEARNING COMMONS, MEB
Too often, Dr. Kahn said, students from Nevada have no choice but to leave the state for GME. In
the class of 2021, the medical school’s charter class, 36 percent were able to stay in Nevada for
training. In 2023, 38 percent matched in Nevada residencies.
Kahn says CMS has provided funding for 1,000 additional positions across the country, and the
medical school has applied for new positions. “Our state has announced pilot funding for new
residency positions funded outside of CMS, and we are in the process of applying for those.”
There is no question, the dean says, that political and community leaders must continue to advocate
for increased federal and state support to serve the medical needs of Nevada. He noted that, despite
being in the Sunbelt, Nevada has no residencies in dermatology, and despite the state’s aging
population, there are no fellowships in medical areas that include hematology/medical oncology,
ophthalmology, or urology.
“In a physician shortage state like Nevada,“ Dr. Kahn said, “keeping doctors in-state is imperative.”
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