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.
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.