IHF member since: 2026
Founded in 1850, the University of Utah is one of the oldest higher education institutions in the Western United States. Today, it consistently ranks among the top 100 universities globally and has been within the top 50 universities in the United States for the past decade. The University’s strong reputation in education has enabled it to attract and cultivate exceptional medical talent on an international scale.
A fully integrated academic health system, University of Utah Health serves nearly 10% of the geographic United States. With five hospitals and 12 community health centers, we deliver 2.5 million patient visits annually while training two-thirds of Utah's health care workforce across our nationally ranked schools of medicine and dentistry, and colleges of pharmacy, nursing, and health. Our research portfolio spans nearly $500 million in sponsored projects, driving medical innovation nationwide.
University of Utah Health’s credibility as an innovation leader is neither recent nor accidental; it is structural and cultural, grounded in a decades-long legacy of medical and scientific firsts that continues today through a $531 million research enterprise, 954 research faculty, nearly 5,000 annual publications, and 19 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Achievements include securing the nation’s first NIH research grant in 1945 (Max Wintrobe, MD, PhD), establishing the world’s largest population database with the Utah Population Database in 1977, performing the world’s first total artificial heart transplant in 1982, earning a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 (Mario Capecchi), and most recently launching the world’s first gene therapy clinical trial to treat age‑related macular degeneration in 2024.