image: Dr. John Shufeldt. ASU leaders announced that its new medical school, the flagship of the university’s ASU Health system, received preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), enabling the school to begin recruiting its first class of students in 2026. In addition, the university received a nine-figure gift, the second largest in university history, to establish and operate the new school, which now will be known as the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering.
Credit: ASU
The opening of Arizona State University’s new medical school took a giant leap forward today with two important pieces of news that will accelerate activity as the school begins to prepare for its first class in August 2026.
ASU leaders announced that the school, the flagship of the university’s ASU Health system, received preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), enabling the school to begin recruiting its first class of students. In addition, the university received a nine-figure gift, the second largest in university history, to establish and operate the new school, which now will be known as the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering.
“While it is something we expected, accreditation is not to be taken lightly. We are grateful to the LCME and to our team that has been working tirelessly to help make that happen,” said ASU President Michael Crow.
The generous investment in naming the school made the news even more impactful, Crow said.
“John Shufeldt is the embodiment of the kind of student we want to produce. He is a doctor, an entrepreneur developing new things that impact people’s health and well-being, and is always looking ahead,” Crow said. “He sees the scale of ASU Health impacting all of Arizona and beyond, and he sees the unique design of a school focused on both medicine and engineering. He is not only contributing financially and lending his name — he is giving his time and talent to what we are building here.”
Shufeldt is a man of many accomplishments, holding an MD, JD and MBA, and he is board certified in emergency medicine. He founded NextCare in 1993, MeMD in 2010 and Tribal Health in 2015. His gift to ASU will also support the creation of an endowed professorship for a professor of entrepreneurship in medicine, as well as a health-tech venture philanthropy fund that will be operated by the ASU Foundation for a New American University. The university will identify entrepreneurs funded through the endowment, who will be called Xcellerant Ventures Founders.
“When I heard President Crow talk about the medical school, how he intended to design it and what his hope for it is for the future, all I could think of was, ‘Well, I know what I want to do for the next 30 years,’” Shufeldt said.
“For decades I've worked at the intersection of business, law and innovation. I've seen where the systems work from the inside, and where they don't work. From the inside, I've treated patients in overcrowded emergency departments, I built companies to address health care inequities, care in underserved areas and improve the efficiency and improve the patient experience. But one truth with a capital T stands out to me: We don't simply need more physicians. What we do need is more physicians who can innovate, who are leaders, who can do it with a high degree of compassion. That's why I'm so excited about the new school at ASU because I know that's what we'll be teaching.”
The John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, together with its primary clinical affiliate HonorHealth, will train students to blend multiple disciplines — medicine, engineering, technology and humanities — to create a new kind of health care leader with a strong sense of innovation and problem-solving, along with a comfort in using new devices and new protocols in treatment. Students will receive two degrees in four years, concurrently earning an MD and a Master of Science in medical engineering, leaving them prepared for careers in medicine, research, entrepreneurship and health leadership. Graduates will leverage new tools such as AI and data science to connect with patients and develop innovative practices.
The founding dean of the new school, Dr. Holly Lisanby, called Shufeldt’s gift “transformative” and said, “Dr. Shufeldt really personifies excellence and innovation at this intersection of clinical care and entrepreneurship.”
She said the preliminary accreditation from LCME means the wait is over and the school can begin to recruit students whose interests and qualifications match the school’s unique offerings.
“Our students are going to be fully immersed in both cultures from the very beginning: the medical culture as well as engineering,” Lisanby said. “They'll be dually trained. They'll learn how to read both literatures and how to work with faculty and mentors who are not just coming from clinical fields or engineering, but also entrepreneurship and the VC (venture capital) sector so that they will be physician-engineer-entrepreneurs who will really transform the future of health care.”
The John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering is one part of ASU Health, a diverse interdisciplinary learning system that is creating new schools, connecting existing ones and leveraging the entire university to focus the nation’s most innovative university on the health needs of the state and the nation.
ASU Health includes the new John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, the new School of Technology for Public Health, the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, the College of Health Solutions and the new ASU Health Observatory. All will be headquartered in downtown Phoenix as part of the Phoenix Bioscience Core.
“Today’s news is another giant step forward in building the learning ecosystem that is ASU Health,” said Dr. Sherine Gabriel, the executive vice president of ASU Health. “We have and continue to assemble an incredibly talented faculty. The medical and engineering school is aligned with a high-quality and like-minded primary clinical affiliate in HonorHealth. We have a fantastic location for our future headquarters. And now, with accreditation, we can begin the process of recruiting and welcoming the medical and engineering students who will make up our first class. It is a very exciting time for everyone who is involved and contributing to this new beginning.”
The new medical and engineering school will be located at the Mercado in downtown Phoenix until the ASU Health headquarters is complete. Groundbreaking on the headquarters is expected in spring 2026, with a planned completion date in 2028.
NOTE:
Preliminary accreditation is granted by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which is the official accrediting body for medical doctor (MD) degree programs in the United States. The preliminary accreditation means the school has successfully completed the early phases of the rigorous accreditation process and is authorized to begin recruiting and enrolling students. LCME accreditation is required for students to be eligible for federal financial aid, residency programs and licensure exams.
The John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering will be subject to ongoing evaluation by the LCME before receiving provisional accreditation, which is granted once the school has enrolled students and demonstrated progress toward meeting standards. Full accreditation would be granted after the first class graduates and the school continues to show that it meets all LCME standards in practice.