USD announces medical school programming will move to Sioux Falls

Aug. 14, 2025

The USD Sanford School of Medicine will begin offering its entire doctor of medicine program from Sioux Falls in two years, the university announced today.

The four-year program already includes 30 months outside of Vermillion — most students are located in Sioux Falls during that time — and beginning in the summer of 2027, the first 18 months of medical education also will be delivered in Sioux Falls.

“We’re tremendously excited about it,” USD President Sheila Gestring said. “I think leadership 50 years ago saw what could be providing a four-year medical school, and by all accounts it was a tremendous success for urban and rural South Dakota. And consolidating the medical school in Sioux Falls is going to set up the next 50 years of success.”

The USD Sanford School of Medicine uses a community-based model, which helps with affordability and utilizes local health care practitioners to teach students, Gestring said.

“Asking them to give up a half-day of their practice commuting one hour, teaching an hour and a half and commuting back another hour is asking a lot,” she said. “We’re finding it increasingly difficult for faculty to give up that time from their practice.”

The medical school utilizes more than 2,000 clinical faculty in positions across South Dakota.

The four-year medical school program was established in 1974 as South Dakota ranked last in the country in physicians per capita. Student were leaving the state to pursue an M.D. and not returning to practice medicine. South Dakota now ranks 35th in the country, with 2,200 practicing physicians.

“I think we can do better,” Gestring said.

The demand seemingly is there from prospective students. USD Sanford School of Medicine receives on average 1,100 to 1,200 applications annually, interviews 180 to 200 students and admits 71 per year.

“It’s competitive,” said Dr. Tim Ridgway, dean of the USD Sanford School of Medicine and vice president of health affairs at USD.

The school’s founding mission “was to give every South Dakota resident an opportunity to get a medical education and to encourage all students in a curriculum that will return back to South Dakota,” he added.

“To be granted an interview, you have to have a South Dakota residence or have significant ties to South Dakota. Right now, we cannot expand further.”

If the school can increase faculty, more students can be admitted.

“The perennial question we get is can we expand the med school class size, and our limiting factor has been access to clinical faculty,” Gestring said.

In moving to Sioux Falls, the commute for many clinical faculty could be reduced to a matter of minutes.

More than 30 percent of the faculty for the medical school, for example, are affiliated with Avera Health, reflecting what it takes to build a “strong, sustainable health care workforce for the future of our regions,” Lindsey Meyers, Avera’s vice president of communications, PR and community engagement, said in a statement.

Sanford Health has agreed to support the medical school by offering temporary space in the Sanford Business Center and at Sanford Research in northeast Sioux Falls for the initial years of transition starting in the summer of 2027.

Sanford will provide locations for the anatomy lab, research labs, classroom space and medical student support services, in addition to the resources available on the existing USD Sanford School of Medicine campus in Sioux Falls at 1400 W. 22nd St.

“I applaud the leadership at the University of South Dakota for their bold vision to bring the Sanford School of Medicine to Sioux Falls,” Bill Gassen, president and CEO of Sanford Health, said in a statement.

“This move strengthens the pipeline between undergraduate and graduate medical education. Students can now learn, train and build roots in one place — supporting long-term workforce retention.”

USD hopes to construct a permanent building in seven to 10 years at a location to be determined. The vision is for a 200,000-square-foot building  that will blend classrooms with hands-on practical space. It would be funded with a mix of public and private support, grants and the reallocation of internal resources currently supporting the medical school in Vermillion.

“The sooner the better, but putting together a package can take some time,” Gestring said.

Being based in Sioux Falls for students’ entire medical education also provides more opportunities to work directly with clinical faculty. Additionally, clinicians can collaborate with biomedical sciences faculty to integrate concepts, which can lead to better retention and licensing exam performance, USD leaders said, adding that the changes will better position USD’s medical students to compete for residency programs.

Some students offered admission to USD also choose other medical schools — and a Sioux Falls location could be a difference-maker, Ridgway said.

“One of the key determinants is they may have a spouse who can’t find employment in Vermillion, where in Sioux Falls they could, and a lot have said if they could do that, they’d like to stay,” he said.

“Many times they like the school and want to stay, but it’s because of the split campus and all these moves, so we think we’ll be able to retain more of our best and brightest with this move.”

The net gain of students being based in Sioux Falls at any given time will be an estimated 142 students. In addition, USD is moving its division of biomedical and translational sciences to Sioux Falls, allowing for more translational and applied research by expanding the collaborative research opportunities available to faculty and allowing more interaction with patients.

The move means 24 faculty, 15 researchers and 29 administrative staff will relocate to Sioux Falls as part of the transition. Currently, all researchers are based in Vermillion.

Some students also still will go to rural areas for the latter part of their medical education as they do now, Ridgway said.

“We’re not at all wavering from our commitment to rural health education,” he said. “We will send them to Rapid City and Vermillion and Yankton and rural cities.”

The USD Frontier and Rural Medicine program, or FARM, is overseen by Dr. Jason Wickersham, associate dean of rural medicine at USD and an Avera family medicine/OB physician.

“The relationships our faculty build with students enriches their understanding of rural health care, which is demonstrated by the strong retention of physicians participating in the FARM program,” Meyers said.

Almost 25 percent fewer rural physicians will be practicing by 2030, Gassen added.

“By improving access to hands-on training, research opportunities and academic resources, the relocation will help us recruit and retain physicians, deepen our connection to future doctors and provide for the long-term stability of health care in South Dakota,” he said.

“It will create stronger ties between undergraduate and graduate medical education, enabling learners to grow in place and build long-term relationships with their mentors and communities.”

The data bears out the benefits of medical education within the state: Forty-five percent of USD’s M.D. graduates return to South Dakota to practice medicine. Three in four who complete a residency in the state stay once they complete it.

“This is going to benefit the entire state of South Dakota and the citizens of South Dakota, which is incredibly important,” Ridgway said, adding that 50 years ago there were doubters who subsequently have been quieted.

“Now, we’re stepping out again. But we just feel very confident this is the way to go.”

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