Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown now trains students in every major Ohio city, President Dr. John Langell told the Akron Press Club on Oct. 21. Langell spoke about growth beyond Northeast Ohio, describing partnerships that have extended the university’s reach across the state for medical, pharmacy, graduate and dentistry students. The expansion reflects a school that began as a medical program more than 50 years ago and has steadily added colleges and clinical sites.
NEOMED’s partnerships now include third-year medical student rotations at hospitals in Dayton and Cincinnati. Langell also described plans to expand a relationship with Miami University in Oxford that could let students do all four years in southeast Ohio, and exploration of smaller areas such as Athens. Those arrangements mean training is no longer centered only on the Rootstown campus and its home region, but spread through communities of different sizes around Ohio.
The university’s scale has grown along with its geography. NEOMED started more than 50 years ago as a medical school, and Colleges of Pharmacy and Graduate Studies were later added. This year 210 students are in their first year of the medical program, and 230 will start next year. More than 5,000 physicians and 1,000 pharmacists have graduated from the university over its history.
Dentistry is the newest part of that growth. In fall 2025, the Bitonte College of Dentistry welcomed its first class of 52 students. All of those students advanced to their second year, and another class of 52 recently started. NEOMED also supports health education through its Northeast Ohio Area Health Education Center, which supports programs in 19 counties, and the university reports 150 clinical partnerships statewide that help place students for hands-on training.
Langell also outlined a major campus project among the university’s next steps. The Live Learn Innovate building is backed by an $80 million capital campaign and would cover 147,000 square feet with graduate housing, academic space and an innovation hub. An architect has been hired for the project, with an expected groundbreaking in 2027 and an opening in fall 2029, giving the Rootstown campus a new center for living and learning.
Technology and how students are taught were also part of Langell’s remarks. He discussed artificial intelligence in medical training, saying the focus is human-centered, with empathy at the heart of that work. That emphasis connects the university’s statewide expansion and its new facilities to the kind of care its graduates are being prepared to provide in the hospitals and communities where they train.
For Northeast Ohio, NEOMED’s wider footprint raises the university’s profile while keeping its base in Rootstown. Rotations in Dayton and Cincinnati, a possible four-year pathway through Miami University, and exploration around Athens could give more students a chance to train, and potentially stay, in different parts of the state. What happens next will be measured in those partnership expansions and in progress toward the 2027 groundbreaking for the Live Learn Innovate building.
Photo: JonRidinger, CC BY-SA