The article aims to identify the key areas of application of the lean approach in Russian higher education institutions of medical profile and identify their readiness to graduate specialists with the necessary competencies in the field of organizational and managerial type of professional activity and solving relevant professional tasks in the context of the formation of lean medicine. Based on the synthesis of data from two international and three national rankings, the TOP 10 leading Russian medical universities have been determined. The functional areas (educational, research, administrative, methodological, and medical) and their corresponding areas of implementation of the lean approach in medical universities are justified. For each direction, a characteristic of its application in the practice of leading universities is presented and a corresponding matrix is compiled. It is revealed that all medical schools have an interest in the lean approach, but it is manifested to different degrees. Most often, universities are limited to its research within the framework of scientific activities. The most advanced universities also use it as part of the training programs of the system of additional professional education, as well as improve their own administrative and methodological processes. However, none of the universities reviewed extended lean practices to their own educational activities. It is proved that the study of the basics of lean medicine will contribute to the development of a number of General cultural, General professional and professional competencies of a specialist in accordance with the educational standard for the specialty 31.05.01 «Medical business». It is proposed to include topics in the field of lean medicine in the structure of disciplines that are closest in semantic content within the framework of the adopted curriculum, in order to increase the competence level of graduates.