Driving the Southern Nevada Health Economy Forward: Benefits of a Transformational UNLV Academic Health Center

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) plans to develop an integrated academic health center within the Las Vegas Medical District (LVMD). The academic health center includes UNLV’s five health science schools and mental and behavioral health, which is distributed among several colleges (medicine, liberal arts, urban affairs, and education) in the university. University Medical Center (UMC), a major teaching hospital, will also be an important driver of the academic health center. For the purposes of this report, UNLV’s medical and health science entities along with UMC are referred to collectively as the UNLV Academic Health Center. Additional academic health center partners include the Valley Hospital Medical Center, Desert Radiology, Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas, and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. These additional entities are referred to throughout the report as LVMD partners. The economic and social benefits of the UNLV Academic Health Center along with LVMD partners will expand the size and scope of health science education, research, and clinical services and will advance economic development, access to care, expanded workforce, and improvement in community health status, especially in underserved communities. The report also highlights multiple social impacts related to expanding the physician workforce, such as cost savings to Southern Nevada communities through greater coordination of community and public health resources and savings from increased health status