Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Type	Public
Established	1970
Provost	Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH
Dean	Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH
Academic staff	325
Administrative staff	262
Students	285
Location	Springfield, Illinois, USA Coordinates: 39°48′36″N 89°39′28″W / 39.810096°N 89.657652°W / 39.810096; -89.657652
Residents	325
Website	www.siumed.edu
SIU programs are located in 23 buildings in Springfield; 5 buildings in Carbondale; and Family Medicine Centers in Carbondale, Decatur, Quincy, Springfield and West Frankfort.

Southern Illinois University School of Medicine is a medical school located in Springfield, the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois. It is part of the Southern Illinois University system, which includes a campus in Edwardsville as well as the flagship in Carbondale. The medical school was founded in 1970 and achieved full accreditation in 1972. It was originally founded to relieve a chronic shortage of physicians in downstate Illinois.

SIU is the only medical school in Illinois with its main campus outside of Chicago or its suburbs (although the University of Illinois maintains satellites in Champaign-Urbana, Peoria and Rockford). SIU was early to incorporate problem-based learning (PBL) into their curricula (see below) and "standardized patients" for medical student testing purposes. Being able to interact with standardized patients now comprises the majority of one of the four major exams that all US allopathic medical students must pass (the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills). SIU students begin care of patients in a clinical setting within the first two weeks of classes. By the end of their first trimester, they are tested on their ability to obtain medical histories from, examine, and diagnose the diseases simulated by standardized patients. Such education measures and SIU's large primary care faculty led US News and World Report to rank SIU in the top 10 medical schools in the country for primary care in the early 1990s. SIU students also receive in depth training in medicolegal issues thanks to the medical school's close relationship with the Southern Illinois University School of Law and the retention of attorneys on its Springfield faculty in the Department of Medical Humanities. In 2013, SIU School of Medicine was the only medical school in the world to receive three international ASPIRE awards for medical education from the International Association for Medical Education (AMEE). In 2015, the School of Medicine received its second consecutive LCME accreditation with no findings of concern – a rare achievement among medical schools. In 2016, Dr. Jerry Kruse began serving as the dean and provost, only the fourth dean in the medical school's 45-year history.