A healthy Kansas starts here

The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita began in 1971 — more than 50 years ago — and today it continues its mission to educate health care leaders, build healthy communities and make discoveries that change the world.

Four priorities have been established for KU School of Medicine-Wichita in which donations through the One Day One KU campaign will continue our innovation in education, research and health care.

• Student Success — Student scholarships are available for current and incoming medical students at KU School of Medicine-Wichita based on financial need. The average amount of scholarships awarded to our students is $4,000 and by donating to the general scholarship fund, you can directly support the education of a Wichita medical student today!


• Greater KU Fund for Wichita — Gifts to this fund are unrestricted and support our areas of greatest need. Exciting initiatives happening on the Wichita campus include faculty conducting research to develop new treatments, training community members in addition to our medical and pharmacy students in the safe environment of our Simulation Center and enhancing the space within the Wichita Biomedical Campus — a collaboration with Wichita State University and WSU Tech. Pooling the collective resources will result in opportunities for energized collaboration, innovation and research — ultimately improving patient care across Kansas.


• Healthy & Vibrant Communities — In our endeavor to improve the health of our local and rural communities, KU School of Medicine-Wichita Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, in partnership with private and public support, inaugurated a two-year child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program in July 2023 that can train at least two fellows a year. This will help address the desperate need of psychiatrists in Kansas, especially for children and adolescents. Kansas needs 400 child and adolescent psychiatrists and now has about 60 (of that less than 12 are in Wichita and western Kansas). While in training, each fellow will provide care for as many as 500 children and adolescents per year in Wichita and rural Kansas. If all our fellows stay after graduation, we could double the number of child psychiatrists in the region in less than 10 years. Donations have an even greater impact on One Day One KU, thanks to a challenge gift for the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship from Sue and Kurt Watson.


• Student Research — Many medical students are engaged in exciting basic and applied research and we want to offer more opportunities to develop the next generation of medical researchers. Research can help them distinguish themselves and the skills developed can also help in clinical practice.