School of Medicine

The goal of Nazarbayev University School of Medicine (NUSOM) is to train physicians to become skilled and compassionate science-based clinicians focused on bettering the human condition, advancing the fundamental understanding of medical science, and are prepared to make a major contribution to the development of medicine and medical science in Kazakhstan. NUSOM-educated physicians will be:

• Highly qualified physicians/scientists with unique knowledge of clinical disciplines who are able to apply their training in clinical settings to solve clinical problems and to advance the scientific understanding of their origins;
• Curious and creative individuals who are capable of using all available resources to address clinical and scientific issues and critically evaluate information;
• Life-long learners who are able to determine the need for knowledge, innovation, and new approaches for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and to translate these approaches into clinical practice;
• Physicians who understand the sociological, psychological, and economic issues related to the patient, his/her family, and society as a whole;
• Future leaders who are dedicated to medicine and the improvement of health care in Kazakhstan and who are capable of assuming leadership positions in various fields of biomedicine, education, and science.

The mission of Nazarbayev University School of Medicine is to create a new model of medical education that trains superb clinicians and to transfer this model to other regions of Kazakhstan in order to improve the quality of physician training in the Republic and the overall health care of the people of Kazakhstan.

The school’s vision is to become a center of excellence in medical education, biomedical research, and patient care, and to improve the health and well-being of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and beyond.

Our strategic academic partner is the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2012 and shares Nazarbayev University School of Medicine’s goal of educating physicians who are science-based, skilled, and compassionate clinicians prepared to meet the challenges of practicing medicine in the 21st century and conducting cutting-edge research that is focused on bettering the human condition and advancing the fundamental understanding of medical science. The school is among the top ten in the United States in biomedical research funding from the National Institutes of Health, and its graduating physicians consistently perform well on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and move on to top residency training programs in virtually all medical specialty areas. The school is well known historically for the development of the first safe, effective vaccine against polio by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team of scientists and, more recently, for pioneering the advancement of organ transplantation as a viable clinical entity and for brain-computer interface technology that may, one day, enable people with paralyzing conditions to control robotic limbs with their brain signals alone.