Medical School Charlotte Nc

To be called the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte, the school is expected to seat its first class of medical students in 2024. It’s the Winston-Salem-based school’s second campus, and will support more than 3,500 students, officials said.

Charlotte doctor says new medical school could improve health care across the region

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Wake Forest University and its partners broke ground on a new medical school campus in Charlotte, a local doctor says the school could add major benefits to health care across the Charlotte region.

Wake Forest, Atrium Health and other commercial and community partners broke ground on the new facility, named “The Pearl,” this month. The innovation hub and medical school campus is set to bring more than 5,000 jobs to the region, according to information provided by Atrium Health.

What You Need To Know

• New medical school campus set to drastically change level of care in Charlotte region, local doctor says
• New campus should provide local access to top specialists and research
• Campus, set to open in 2025, will welcome first class of students in 2024

Located at the corner of Baxter and South McDowell, the roughly 20-acre site will take its first class of future doctors in 2024 and open in 2025, according to Atrium Health.

At a nearby family practice office, Dr. Rhett Brown says the school should provide a major benefit to local health care providers and patients.

“With the school, it’s going to bring in a lot of research, a lot of research dollars. We will have basic science research. We will have clinical research. It will just bring so much added value that we can’t even imagine right now. In 10 or 15 years, the benefits that school’s going to bring,” Brown said.

In addition to research dollars, Brown said a major medical campus in Charlotte would create access to continuing education for local doctors, research studies, nearby specialists and other benefits.

“Physicians are more likely to stay close to where they train. So, having them trained here in Charlotte with great residency programs here, is going to make it easier for Charlotte to grow the best and the brightest,” Brown added.

Brown, who has practiced medicine in the area for roughly 30 years, says Charlotte’s major growth will be aided by the new school.

“I think it’s great. Charlotte is the largest metropolitan area in the United States that does not have a four-year medical school,” Brown said.

The city, which he was born and raised in, has struggled to keep up with the services needed for its booming population, including medicine, according to Brown.

“So, to have seen this kind of growth was like, ‘wow, and how much fun it has been to see Charlotte grow this way.’ But, the population is growing so fast, it’s very hard for any service to keep up with demand,” Brown said in his Avance Care Midtown office.

Not to mention, the nearby school and planned 331,000 square-foot research space could help keep patients local, instead of sending them to far-away specialists and centers.

“There’s certain conditions that Ron might develop that currently I might have to send to Chapel Hill, or send to Durham. By having the med school here, and the research, and the labs that that brings. It’s just going to bring the specialists here,” Brown said, referencing a patient he was examining at the time of the interview.

Construction kicks off on Charlotte’s first medical school

With a flip of dirt from their shovels, officials from local government, Atrium Health and Wake Forest University on Tuesday officially started construction on the city of Charlotte’s first medical school.

As the largest U.S. city without a four-year medical school, such a facility has long been at the top of Charlotte’s wishlist. Located in the Midtown area near Atrium’s main hospital campus, the medical school will be surrounded by a mixed-use development to be called “The Pearl.”

To be called the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte, the school is expected to seat its first class of medical students in 2024. It’s the Winston-Salem-based school’s second campus, and will support more than 3,500 students, officials said.

The Pearl Innovation District – Home to Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte

“Not only will The Pearl serve as a major engine of economic opportunity, but it will also house game-changing academic programs for learners of all degree levels and set the stage for innovative health science businesses to grow into the core companies of Charlotte’s future,” said Eugene Woods, CEO of Charlotte-based Advocate Health, Atrium Health’s parent company, in a statement. “We are creating a ‘city within a city.’”

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Atrium Health is partnering on The Pearl with Wexford Science and Technology, a development company that focuses on academic and research institutions. The first phase, on 20 acres located at Baxter and South McDowell streets, will include the medical school building and a research tower totaling more than 600,000 square feet. Future phases are expected to include more office space, shops and restaurants, a hotel and housing.

Private investment is expected to total $1.5 billion. Mecklenburg County and the city of Charlotte are contributing $75 million total for infrastructure improvements around the campus. Philanthropist Howard Levine, the founder of Family Dollar, donated $25 million to the development as well.

For Atrium, the medical school and mixed-use development represent the latest expansion. In 2020, Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health merged, expanding Atrium’s reach. And in December, Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health combined, doubling the company’s size and creating the fifth-largest nonprofit health system. In Charlotte, Atrium Health opened a new rehabilitation center this month, joining other expansions such as a new hospital facility in Midtown that opened in 2021 with specialties such as the expanded Atrium Health Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute.