Carle Illinois College of Medicine, established in 2015 (with its inaugural class enrolling in 2018), is a public institution — a college within the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — and the first engineering-based medical school in the world, created through a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health. The curriculum embeds engineering principles, computational thinking, and design methodology into the standard MD program, producing physicians who can design medical devices, analyze health data, and lead healthcare technology innovation. All graduates receive the Health Innovation Professorship designation alongside their MD degree.
What makes it different
Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the world's first engineering-based medical school, founded in partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's top-ranked engineering college and Carle Health System. The curriculum integrates biomedical engineering, data science, and design thinking with clinical medicine from Year 1. Students may pursue joint MD-MS degrees in engineering disciplines. All MD students receive the "Health Innovation Professorship" designation upon graduation, reflecting the school's commitment to physician-innovators.
Course & teaching
Integrated curriculum. 4-year MD with engineering and innovation threads throughout. Year 1–2: integrated basic science and engineering modules; design thinking and prototyping projects. Clinical training at Carle Health System hospitals and UIUC-affiliated sites. Optional joint MD-MS engineering degrees add one year. All students complete a capstone innovation project.
Research strengths
Carle Illinois College of Medicine (MD) has notable research strength in Medical device design, Health informatics, Precision medicine, AI in diagnostics, Biomedical imaging.
Interview
Carle Illinois College of Medicine (MD) interviews via MMI (multiple mini-interview stations) with innovation/design challenge components. Carle Illinois conducts a distinctive MMI on the Urbana-Champaign campus that incorporates healthcare innovation and design-thinking components alongside standard ethical and communication stations. Applicants rotate through approximately 8–10 stations of 8 minutes each; some stations involve problem-solving or prototype-sketching tasks reflecting the school's engineering-medicine identity. The day includes tours of the Illinois research labs and simulation facilities, interactions with current students from engineering, medicine, and joint degree programs, and an information session on the Health Innovation Professorship and joint MD-engineering track. Interviewers assess innovative thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and communication alongside standard medical school competencies.
Intake
Approximately 59 students per year (expanded from the 2018 inaugural class of 32; highly selective cohort).
At a glance
Founded in 2015, based in Urbana-Champaign, IL. Programmes offered: Healthcare Innovation, Biomedical Engineering, Digital Health, Internal Medicine, Surgery.
