College of Medicine students can now choose to complete their third- and fourth-year clinical rotations at Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“Third- and fourth-year clerkships are a transformative period for an aspiring physician,” says Charles B. Cairns, senior vice president of medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine. “This collaboration will be another setting available to our students where they can treat diverse patient populations and chart out their future in medicine.”
The new regional campus expands the geographic scope of the college yet again. Last year, the college opened a four-year regional medical campus, the College of Medicine at Tower Health in West Reading, Pennsylvania.
The arrangement could help Drexel address a physician shortage that the Association of American Medical Colleges projects could reach 124,000 by 2034. More than 40 percent of U.S. physicians will be 65 or older within the next decade, while the population is expected to grow more than 10 percent, the association reports.
“The partnership with Drexel will support our efforts to expand the health care workforce,” says Cape Fear Valley Health System CEO Michael Nagowski. “The need for more entries…is great.”