In 2002 Mr. David Geffen announced a $200 million unrestricted endowment for the school and the school thus was named. The endowment enables the school to compete in perpetuity with the finest medical institutions in the world for outstanding faculty regardless of the economic climate, to provide critical financial support to enroll the finest students regardless of need, and to develop forward-looking research and clinical programs.

The medical school today has more than 2,000 full-time faculty members, almost 1,300 residents, more than 750 medical students and almost 400 Ph.D. candidates. The UCLA Medical Center has been ranked "Best in the West" by U.S. News and World Report's annual survey of the best hospitals in America for fourteen consecutive years. The medical school is ranked ninth in the country in research funding from the National Institutes of Health and third in the United States in research dollars from all sources.

The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, designed by I.M. Pei, opened its doors in 2008 and is a model for state-of-the-art medical science and patient care in a patient- and staff-friendly environment. The new Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center replacement hospital, designed by prominent New York architect Robert A.M. Stern in conjunction with CO Architects, opened its doors in 2008.

In 2010, Dr. A. Eugene Washington, an internationally renowned clinical investigator and health policy scholar whose wide-ranging research has been instrumental in shaping national health policy and practice guidelines, joined UCLA Feb. 1 as Vice Chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences and Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine.

The dream of the school's founders has been realized. The David Geffen School of Medicine is an internationally recognized leader in research, medical education, and patient care.