History - School of Medicine

The School of Medicine in Shreveport was authorized by an act of the Louisiana Legislature in 1965 as a part of the former LSU Medical Center. In 1966 the Legislature authorized The LSU System to issue $10 million in bonds to initiate establishment and construction of the School. The first class of 32 students was enrolled in September, 1969, and the first doctor of medicine degrees were awarded in May, 1973. Beginning in 1975, first year enrollment was increased to approximately 100 students. The permanent buildings of the School were completed in 1975 and are immediately adjacent and connected to the Louisiana State University Hospital in Shreveport, licensed for 436 beds. School facilities include a Comprehensive Care teaching facility, designed to provide an environment where students may learn by active participation in the care of ambulatory patients and basic and clinical science buildings, which also house the Medical Library. The University Hospital is the School’s principal  teaching hospital, but teaching and research are also conducted at the affiliated 450 bed Veterans Administration Medical Center and other regional affiliated hospitals. In 1995, researchers from the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport occupied  research laboratories of the new Biomedical Research Institute, constructed adjacent to the School of Medicine in Shreveport and leased by the health sciences center from the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana.