About
   Us

Founded in 2019 by philanthropist Alice Walton, Heartland Whole Health Institute puts a whole health approach at the center of the broader health care system to address the current health care crisis. Its purpose is to lower costs, improve quality, and broaden access to health care in the Heartland by catalyzing new delivery models, using whole health principles, that can be replicated to disrupt the national health care system. The Institute was driven by its founder’s health care experience, and furthered by research revealing that the United States has one of the highest levels of health care spending worldwide yet relatively low rankings in overall health. In conjunction with Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, the Institute will transform health care by improving outcomes, reducing costs, and expanding access, beginning in the Heartland and scaling nationally.

Sharing a founder and mission with Heartland Whole Health Institute, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine was founded in 2021 to offer a four-year medical degree-granting program that builds on foundational sciences and clinical practices with a compassionate, inclusive, and whole-person approach to care.

The School will welcome its first class of 48 students in July 2025.  Walton’s deep commitment to building a health transformation includes health system partnerships with national and regional health systems with the goal of increasing access and expanding specialty services in the region.

As part of this effort, the Institute will assess, develop, and integrate whole health practices and services across the continuum of care while the School of Medicine will help establish a regional academic health system in Northwest Arkansas.

By redesigning how education is taught and the delivery models, the Institute, School of Medicine, and health system partners can create and be a model for health care transformation – bridging the gaps to better health, together.
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Learn more about Alice L. Walton School of Medicine >