Norfolk, Virginia is home to the Eastern Virginia Medical School (often known as EVMS), a public medical school. EVMS is not linked with any undergraduate university and oversees training at a number of different medical institutions in the Hampton Roads area. It was established in the southeastern section of Virginia known as Hampton Roads as a result of grassroots initiatives in that region. On the EVMS campus are the 555-bed Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, which is the only tertiary level 1 trauma medical care facility in the region, and the 212-bed Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, which is a regional paediatric referral care facility and the only stand-alone children's hospital in the state. Together, these two hospitals make up the only tertiary level 1 trauma medical care facility in the state. In the United States, EVMS is the first medical facility to have successfully generated a live baby via the process of in vitro fertilisation. EVMS is particularly well-known for its research in paediatrics, geriatrics, diabetes, and cancer in addition to its reproductive medicine, simulation/standardized-patient education, and other areas of medicine. This is shown by the fact that teachers and graduates of the school were responsible for the formation of organisations such as CONRAD, Global Brigades, Physicians for Peace, and Operation Smile.
Every year, there are around 5,000 people who are interested in enrolling in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) programme at Eastern Virginia Medical School; however, there is only room for 150 students in the programme. There were 146 students in the graduating class of 2012 for the state of Maryland, with 51 percent of them coming from inside the state and 49 percent coming from outside. As a result of the company's commitment to train people from the Hampton Roads area, 21% of the students in the incoming class were from the Hampton Roads area.
In 2016, EVMS began implementing the Care Forward curriculum, which is a method that is centred on a system-based approach to teaching medical students. Students follow one of many different paths of service projects, all of which ultimately converge on one particular capstone project that must be completed before graduation. Community service is a significant component of the academic programme.
The Doctor of Medicine (MD) programme at EVMS received a ranking of 48th in the nation in the 2021 edition of U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools: Primary Care," while the Physician Assistant programme received a ranking of 33rd in the country.
The programme at EVMS that trains physicians to become MDs was ranked 42nd in the nation in 2015 by US News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools: Primary Care"; this programme had previously been ranked 44th (2014) and 55th (2015). The Physician Assistant programme at EVMS was ranked 25th in the nation in 2015.