The Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine (CCOM, Carver) is the medical school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, in the U.S. state of Iowa. The first medical college associated with the University of Iowa was founded in 1850, in the small town of Keokuk, but the current Iowa City program can trace its roots to 1870. The program became notable as the first co-educational medical school in the United States, and was one of 22 original members of the Association of American Medical Colleges in 1876.The College has a national reputation for excellence; in 2011, its primary care program was ranked 9th in the country, and its research program 26th by U.S. News & World Report. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where students train, also received positive marks from the report, ranking nationally in 13 specialties, including top ten rankings for orthopedics, ophthalmology and otolaryngology.HistoryThe Iowa State Legislature approved plans for medical training on the main campus of the University of Iowa in 1868, and ten women were among the first class in 1870. The first purpose-built university hospital did not open its doors until 1898, however, and the influential 1910 Flexner Report recommended the school either reform substantially or close its doors, calling it a "well-intentioned but feeble institution." However, the report was optimistic as to Iowa's potential, seeing it "in position to duplicate the honorable record which the University of Michigan has, under similar circumstances, made at Ann Arbor."
