The Move

Keith Hansen, MD; and Tim Ridgway, MD, MACP, FASGE
December 1, 2025

“The Mission of the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine is to provide the opportunity for South Dakota residents to receive a quality, broad-based medical education with an emphasis on family medicine. The curriculum is to be established to encourage graduates to serve people living in the medically underserved areas of South Dakota and is to require excellence in the biomedical sciences and in all clinical disciplines. The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine is to provide to its students and to the people of South Dakota excellence in education, research and service.” 

 Since its inception in 1907, the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine (USD SSOM) has served the people of South Dakota as its only medical school allowing opportunity for South Dakota residents to get an exemplary medical education with an emphasis on family medicine and primary care. This focus increases the probability that after training physicians will practice in rural/frontier areas of the state of South Dakota. Recently it was announced that the 18-month preclinical curriculum and division of Biomedical and Translational Sciences will move to Sioux Falls. What will this change for medical students at the USD SSOM? The professors in the division of Biomedical and Translational Sciences are responsible for educating Pillar 1 (used to be the first and second year) medical students on the biomedical sciences, giving them a strong foundation to be successful and build upon in the clinical clerkships. They also instill in our students the importance for lifelong learning and research to expand our understanding of physiology and pathophysiology. The move to Sioux Falls will enhance students’ experience by allowing more convenient access to clinical faculty. Having clinical faculty work in tandem with biomedical sciences faculty will potentially enhance foundational knowledge and retention by utilizing clinical scenarios to emphasize biomedical concepts. Currently a clinical faculty member must cancel an entire half day of clinic or procedures to participate in these sessions in Vermillion.   The move will allow clinical faculty more opportunities to be involved in these clinical teaching sessions for the Pillar 1 students without having to cancel a half day of clinic. Another advantage will be easier access to the Parry Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation, which is in the lower level of the Health Science Center in Sioux Falls. Students currently must travel to the Parry Center at least one day per week for simulation exercises. Biomedical and translational research will be enhanced by allowing clinical and biomedical scientists to interact more closely, developing protocols and securing funding for translational research. This collaborative environment can also enhance the ability to recruit scientists to the USD SSOM. 

The move to Sioux Falls will not impact the Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 rotations and the focus will remain on training family medicine and primary care physicians for rural South Dakota. The Pillar 2 rotations will remain at the Rapid City, Yankton, Sioux Falls and the FARM sites. Currently the FARM sites include Chamberlain, Milbank, Mobridge, Parkston, Pierre, Spearfish and Vermillion. The FARM program is an innovative Pillar 2 experience where the clinical rotations are in rural sites where the student works as an integral, supervised member of the healthcare team. Alumni of this unique program have preferentially matched into primary care residencies with a desire to serve in rural communities.  All students will also be exposed to rural practice in the sophomore family medicine preceptorship at the beginning of Pillar 2, and the required family medicine rural rotation in Pillar 3. These experiences allow the student to better understand the challenges and rewards of practicing medicine in a rural healthcare setting.   Pillar 3 will remain the same and allows students more flexibility with time for electives to explore the various medical specialties in which they have an interest.  

The move of the preclinical curriculum and division of Biomedical and Translational Sciences to Sioux Falls will not change the mission of the USD SSOM. However, the move will enhance our ability to recruit biomedical scientists, improve collaboration between biomedical and clinical scientists, and allow more clinicians to be involved in Pillar 1 instructional activities with the students. This move will enhance the education of our medical students with a continued goal to ease the healthcare shortage for all of South Dakota.   

About the Authors

Keith Hansen, MD, President, South Dakota State Medical Association; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine.

Tim Ridgway, MD,MACP,FASGE, Dean, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine; Vice President for Health Affairs, University of South Dakota.