National Fund for Medical Education

About Us

The National Fund for Medical Education is a congressionally chartered, 501(c)(3) organization housed at the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco. Its mission is to bring new ideas to health professional education and health care delivery. For more than 45 years, the organization has linked business, health professions education, and health care delivery in partnerships that have improved health care for Americans. Currently, the National Fund for Medical Education is taking on the challenge of articulating a vision and role for primary care in the U.S. and aggressively advancing the use of such approaches to improve the health of the public. In 1998, the NFME, in collaboration with the California Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, sponsored a forum on the future of primary care.

The National Fund for Medical Education is a not-for-profit corporation that raises funds and administers grants to educate health professionals. It has since worked with American business and private philanthropy to contribute approximately $60 million to the nation's medical and health professions school. These grants support research on trends in health professions education and help put into practice new ideas that improve health care access and quality, while seeking to reduce costs. The NFME's earliest grants supported the nation's medical schools during the 1950s and '60s, a time of dire financial need. Over the years, the NFME expanded its agenda to all health professions education, and in the process, inspired federal and state governments to support NFME-initiated projects.

The NFME attributed its achievements to outstanding leadership. Since Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, urged corporate executives to serve on the NFME's original Board of Directors, the NFME has continued to draw many distinguished professionals from industry and academia.