Whole Health medical school joins world academic consortium

The planned Whole Health School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Bentonville is joining the institutional membership of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, working to advance patient-centered, evidence-based care, while transforming healthcare through integrative medicine and health for all.

The independent, nonprofit medical school will be a standalone sister organization of Whole Health Institute, a Bentonville nonprofit created by Walmart Inc. heiress and philanthropist Alice Walton to make a transformative approach to health and well-being available to everyone.

Walton announced the new medical school in March.

According to a Monday (April 12) news release, by joining the Academic Consortium, the Whole Health medical school will collaborate with 75 academic medical centers and health systems throughout the world, dedicated to research, education and patient-centered health and healing through all appropriate therapeutic and lifestyle approaches.

“We are delighted to welcome this institution to our global community,” Academic Consortium Chair Dr. Francoise Adan said in a statement. “Uniquely, this new school has the opportunity to build a thoroughly integrative whole health curriculum before accepting its first student. We look forward to working together toward the vision we share — a transformed healthcare system promoting integrative medicine and health for all.”

The medical school’s construction in Bentonville is expected to begin in 2022. The first students will begin classes in 2024 and will graduate in 2028. The school’s location is still being determined.

“We are joining the Academic Consortium because we believe in bringing everyone together if we want to see a positive, transformative change in the health and well-being of our society,” said Dr. Elly Xenakis, founding dean of the Whole Health medical school. “Grounded in a focus on the whole person, physicians of the future will be better equipped to redesign professional care with a focus on the empowerment and support of patients.”

Whole Health officials also said Monday that Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, Whole Health medical school’s vice dean for education, was recently confirmed as a member-at-large on the Academic Consortium’s board of directors.