School of Medicine
About the school
![School of Medicine](/academics/img/fact-sheet-SOM-960x480.jpg)
As part of the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, the ¾¨Ó㴫ý School of Medicine advances medical knowledge and clinical practice through scholarly research (Discover), physician education (Teach) and high-quality care (Heal). The medical school nurtures the development of medical students, resident physicians and scholars in the clinical and basic sciences and supports the dissemination of research advances for the benefit of society. It educates more than 500 medical students and trains more than 700 residents and fellows at the UC Irvine Medical Center and affiliated institutions. Its 560 full-time and 1,300 volunteer faculty are involved in teaching, providing medical care and conducting research on the health challenges facing the 21st century. The school offers an M.D. degree, a combined M.D./Ph.D. medical scientist training program, a master's degree in genetic counseling, a combined M.D./M.B.A. program with The Paul Merage School of Business, and a unique combined M.D./master's program called the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC).
The School of Medicine features 25 departments ranging from basic science research to clinical medical and surgical specialties. It has research, clinical and teaching relationships with the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, among others. Areas of groundbreaking research and teaching take place in state-of-the-art laboratories in the Biomedical Research Center, the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Beckman Laser Institute, the Institute for Clinical & Translational Science, the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, the Brain Imaging Center, the Reeve-Irvine Research Center for spinal cord injury, The Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, the Center for Diabetes Research & Treatment, the Institute for Immunology, the Center for Virus Research, the Genetic Epidemiology Research Center, the Health Policy Research Institute, the John Tu & Thomas Yuen Center for Functional Onco Imaging, the Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, ¾¨Ó㴫ý MIND and the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
Dr. Michael J. Stamos, Dean
Dr. Michael J. Stamos is dean of the ¾¨Ó㴫ý School of Medicine. He joined UC Irvine Health in 2002 and established the Division of Colon & Rectal Surgery and its residency program. Since 2010, Stamos has served as The John E. Connolly, M.D., Chair in the Department of Surgery. Under his leadership, the department routinely achieved top outcomes in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and demonstrated impressive patient satisfaction scores. Prior to coming to ¾¨Ó㴫ý, he spent 11 years at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, while serving as chief of colon and rectal surgery at the West Los Angeles VA hospital. An active researcher, Stamos has led and participated in many multicenter, randomized, controlled trials with a focus on clinical trials outcomes research. He is currently president elect of the Research Foundation of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, and is an international expert in the treatment of colorectal cancer using minimally invasive techniques. He is a past president of American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. He earned his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Distinctions
- The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at ¾¨Ó㴫ý is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive centers in the nation and the only one in Orange County.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý is one of 15 institutions nationwide funded and recognized as a Cancer Genetics Network center. The program is sponsored by the NCI to support collaborative investigations into the genetic basis of cancer susceptibility, explore mechanisms to integrate this new knowledge into medical practice, and identify ways of addressing the associated psychosocial issues.
- The Chao Center as one of six in the nation to conduct studies on promising new cancer prevention drugs, and it is the only one in Orange County to meet stringent standards of the American Society of Clinical Oncology as an exemplary clinical trial site.
- The Institute for Translational & Clinical Sciences received a prestigious Clinical & Translational Science Award of $20 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to speed the transformation of scientific discoveries into medical advances for patients.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý opened the first building in Southern California funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine solely dedicated to stem cell research, education and treatments. It is home to the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.
- The Gavin Herbert Eye Institute is the only Orange County vision-care center to advance research, training and patient care in a state-of-the-art facility on campus.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý pediatric researchers are helping refine and field test the initial protocol for the National Children's Study, planned as the largest and most comprehensive long-term study of environmental effects on child development and health in U.S. history. Orange County was named as one of six initial national Vanguard Centers for the study.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý brain imaging researchers are directing the Biomedical Informatics Research Network, a multi-million dollar, nationwide effort to standardize imaging methods that will allow for large-scale studies on brain disease and illness.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý vector biologists are leading an international effort funded by the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative to develop new genetic methods to control the transmission of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease affecting tens of millions of people worldwide.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý is one of only seven institutions nationwide to be named a Level I Accredited Educational Institute by the American College of Surgeons.
- UC Irvine Medical Center has consistently been ranked among the top three percent of hospitals nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.
- ¾¨Ó㴫ý is rated as having among the top 50 U.S. medical schools for research, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings. School of Medicine researchers received more than $140 million in research funding in 2012-13, nearly half of the campus total.
- As part of its innovative iMed Initiative, ¾¨Ó㴫ý is the first medical school in the country to offer its entire first-year curriculum on the iPad tablet computer platform and train students with portable, hand-held ultrasound units.
- Distinguished Researcher-in-Residence Irwin A. Rose received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- Faculty members named to the National Academy of Sciences include Michael Cahalan, Anthony James, Dr. William H. Daughaday, Masayasu Nomura and Irwin A. Rose.
- Faculty members named to the Institute of Medicine include Dr. William E. Bunney, Zang-Hee Cho and Dr. Sheldon Greenfield.