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Rootstown: The rural medical university that could become a town
Rootstown has a medical university. It does not yet have a medical town.
That is the opportunity.
Northeast Ohio Medical University sits on more than 120 acres along State Route 44. Its campus contains four colleges, medical research facilities, a public STEM school, student apartments, outpatient healthcare, a pharmacy, wellness facilities and a medical-device innovation center. NEOMED reports more than 150 clinical partnerships across Ohio. NEOMED campus, NEOMED academic and clinical network
This is not a weak institutional anchor in search of a purpose. It is a substantial health-and-science platform whose physical surroundings have not caught up with its institutional evolution.
The opportunity is to develop Rootstown as a Rural Health Innovation Town: a compact, connected place where people learn, design, test, deliver and scale new approaches to healthcare.
A remarkably complete platform
NEOMED is already much more than a medical school. Its colleges cover medicine, pharmacy, graduate studies and dentistry. The Bitonte College of Dentistry opened in August 2025 with an inaugural class of 52 students, becoming Northeast Ohio’s first public dental school. A public dental clinic is expected to open on the Rootstown campus in 2027. Bitonte College opening, NEOMED campus facilities
Bio-Med Science Academy adds another unusual element. The public STEM school opened at NEOMED in 2012 with 69 ninth-grade students drawn from 27 school districts. It creates the beginnings of a continuous pathway from school to university, research, clinical training and employment. Bio-Med Science Academy
The Summa Health Rootstown Medical Center operates directly on the university campus, offering primary care, behavioral health, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics and other services. Nearby, University Hospitals Portage Medical Center is Portage County’s only hospital. It has 302 licensed beds, almost 400 physicians and is the county’s second-largest employer. Summa Health Rootstown, UH Portage Medical Center
NEOMED’s Medical Design Innovation Center, or MEDIC, supplies equipment, space and expertise for medical-device innovators. It works with students, entrepreneurs, health systems, companies and economic-development organizations. This is precisely the kind of shared production platform that can turn a university from an educator into an enterprise generator. Medical Design Innovation Center
The platform is becoming more sophisticated. In August 2026, University Hospitals and NEOMED opened the UH-NEOMED Health Innovation Center in Cleveland. Its agenda includes healthcare AI, maternal and child health, workforce development and broader collaboration among clinicians, researchers, students and outside partners. The partners are also developing the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Experience, or AIDE, alongside a new graduate program in health data science and AI. UH-NEOMED Health Innovation Center, Center for AIDE, Health Data Science and AI
Rootstown therefore has the components of a health-innovation economy. What it lacks is the connective tissue of a place.
The unresolved tension
NEOMED remains largely a campus along a state highway.
The Village at NEOMED provides 185 apartments accommodating more than 340 residents, but the wider setting remains predominantly automobile-oriented. The Village at NEOMED
In 2023, NEOMED noted that neither the university nor Rootstown was served by a PARTA fixed bus route. PARTA’s current route information continues to emphasize Kent, Ravenna, Windham, Garrettsville and Hiram rather than Rootstown. NEOMED transportation survey, PARTA routes
This produces the familiar campus problem. Students arrive, study and leave. Researchers work inside specialized buildings. Patients drive to appointments. Residents pass the university on State Route 44. The individual elements are strong, but relatively little happens between them.
A Knowledge Town strategy would change the unit of design from the campus to the corridor.
The timing is unusually good
Rootstown and Ravenna have already created a Joint Economic Development District covering the State Route 44 corridor. Its economic-development plan provides mechanisms to support roads, water, sewer, electricity and fiber. Ravenna-Rootstown JEDD
More importantly, the JEDD Board adopted the new State Route 44 Corridor Plan on July 9, 2026. Rootstown Township
A federal funding request for the plan’s first phase identifies a roundabout serving NEOMED and the Rootstown schools, a protected pedestrian crossing with a refuge island, driveway consolidation and sidewalks on both sides of the corridor. The requested amount is $3.42 million. FY2027 State Route 44 project request
These are valuable safety improvements. But Rootstown should see them as more than transportation engineering. They are the first physical moves in creating a Knowledge Town.
The five-move Rootstown compact
1. Designate the Rootstown-Ravenna Health Knowledge District
NEOMED, Rootstown Township, Ravenna, the JEDD, Bio-Med Science Academy, Summa Health, University Hospitals, PARTA and Portage County should establish a common district strategy.
The district should have a shared development map, housing target, mobility plan, investment pipeline and set of measurable health and enterprise outcomes.
2. Build the State Route 44 Knowledge Spine
Implement the planned safety improvements, but design them as the beginning of a complete knowledge corridor.
That means continuous sidewalks, a genuinely protected multi-use path, safe school and campus crossings, frequent shuttle service and a direct mobility connection north toward Ravenna and west toward Kent.
The goal is not simply to move traffic more safely. It is to let students, researchers, patients, children and residents move between institutions without needing a car for every trip.
3. Add a real neighborhood around the campus
Rootstown needs more than student housing.
A phased program could add apartments for medical residents, faculty and staff; smaller homes for retirees; visiting-fellow residences; workforce housing; childcare; cafes; everyday retail and short-stay accommodations for patients’ families.
The first priority should be a compact center around existing campus and corridor infrastructure, not scattered subdivisions consuming more rural land.
4. Build the Rootstown Health Venture Studio
MEDIC, the new AIDE initiative, the Bitonte College of Dentistry and the university’s clinical partners should become one visible innovation pipeline:
Learn → Design → Test → Care → Scale
Students and clinicians would identify problems. MEDIC would support prototypes. The health systems would provide controlled testing environments. A dedicated venture studio would form companies and secure capital. Rootstown would provide the place where founders and teams could remain together.
This could specialize in rural health delivery, dental technology, medical devices, behavioral health, pharmacy services and responsible clinical AI.
5. Create the Knowledge Commons
The first catalytic building should be a shared Knowledge Commons positioned where the campus meets the community.
It could combine a public-facing library, coworking, health-innovation showroom, small-business support, community meeting space, food, childcare and continuing education.
This would give Rootstown something it does not yet possess: a recognizable civic heart organized around its most important institution.
The larger idea
Rootstown should not try to become a small Cleveland or a suburban office park.
Its advantage is more distinctive. It can demonstrate how a rural township, medical university, STEM school and regional health network can operate as one learning and healthcare ecosystem.
The new Cleveland Health Innovation Center extends NEOMED into the metropolitan core. Rootstown should make the opposite move. It should bring the university outward into the township, its schools, its housing and its daily life.
That is how an institution beside a highway becomes a Knowledge Town.
resources
Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) - Principal university and institutional anchor.
John Langell, MD, PhD, MPH, MBA, FACS - President of NEOMED.
Stephanie Lammlein - Founding chief administrative officer of Bio-Med Science Academy.
Sorin Teich, DMD, MBA - Dean of the Bitonte College of Dentistry.
James Keszenheimer - Director of NEOMED’s Medical Design Innovation Center.
University Hospitals - NEOMED clinical, research and innovation partner.
University Hospitals Ventures - Commercialization and healthcare-innovation partner.
Summa Health - Operator of the Rootstown Medical Center on the NEOMED campus.
PARTA - Portage County mobility partner.
OHM Advisors - Planning and engineering team behind the State Route 44 corridor work.
