In the 1960s, three public universities in Northeast Ohio – Kent State University, University of Akron, and Youngstown State University – each began to explore the feasibility of developing a medical school on their campuses, and to lobby legislators and the Ohio Board of Regents for approval. Senate Bill 457 was passed in June 1972, authorizing funds to “a consortium of state universities in northeast Ohio to prepare detailed plans for medical education programs by January 1, 1973.” The three institutions formed the Northeastern Medical Education Development Center of Ohio (MEDCO) to develop those plans. Stanley W. Olson, M.D., was engaged as a consultant to help the universities conceptualize and create a consortium medical school. Early in the 110th General Assembly session, Senator Robert Stockdale of Portage County introduced Senate Bill 72 establishing the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Funds for the proposed new consortium medical school were included in the Biennial Appropriations bill, which passed on June 14, 1973. One month later, on July 11, Senate Bill 72 came up for vote, passing unanimously 32-0 (the House vote was 89-5). SB72 was signed into law on August 24, 1973, with an effective date of November 23, 1973. The campus site in
Rootstown along
Ohio State Route 44 near
Interstate 76 was selected in 1974 with groundbreaking in December 1975. The first class was selected in September 1977 and included 42 students from UA, KSU, and YSU in a combined B.S./M.D. program. They graduated in 1981, the same year the school became fully accredited. The College of Pharmacy, approved in 2005, was inaugurated with 75 students in August 2007 in the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program, and the school's name was changed accordingly to the
Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy. In keeping with the school's rural setting, the Doctor of Pharmacy program has a community pharmacy emphasis. The university graduated its inaugural class of 61 pharmacists in May 2011. House Bill 562 was approved in June 2008, establishing NEOUCOM as an independent health sciences university serving Northeast Ohio. The following year, in July 2009, the College of Graduate Studies was established. The university received degree granting authority for a Master of Public Health degree and established a bioethics certificate program as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in integrative pharmaceutical medicine (now basic and translational biomedicine).
Jay Gershen began his term as the sixth president of the university on January 15, 2010. In his February 2010 address, he announced a name change for the university to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). This was signed into law on April 29, 2011. Following Gershen's retirement in 2019,
John Langell was appointed the seventh president of the university. NEOMED announced the creation of a new dental school in 2022, the
Bitonte College of Dentistry. At the time, a shortage of dentists in the state was cited, as Ohio only had two dental schools, the public
College of Dentistry at
The Ohio State University in
Columbus and the private
School of Dental Medicine at
Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland. The first class of the Bitonte College of Dentistry began in August 2025. == Accreditation ==