Outstanding Education
We will improve the vitality of the community by delivering the future healthcare workforce and advancing the best standards of care. Through the new Wake Forest School of Medicine Charlotte, Atrium Health will develop facilities and programs for the next generation, creating a diverse learning healthcare system.
- Develop the next generation medical education programming and facilities to launch Atriumhealth.edu.
- Build upon the robust, nationally renowned graduate medical education program Atrium offers today to include more innovative and strategic residencies and fellowships to attract highly trained and compassionate professionals.
- Leverage technology to allow remote learning opportunities for our learners.
- Provide a physical space where our learners of all clinical disciplines can collaborate in person, engage in interprofessional learning in a state-of-the-art simulation laboratory, and interact with the latest medical innovations through hands-on experiences.
- Create endowed faculty chair positions, supporting academic endeavors, pilot research, and funds for residencies and medical fellowships.
The Pearl: Innovation FOR ALL
The Pearl innovation district will transform the skyline of uptown Charlotte while boosting the neighborhoods around it. But it’s the neighborhood in which it will sit that is proving the most impactful on its development. The 20-acre site will house the soon-to-be-constructed Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte. The Howard R. Levine Center for Education on the campus will also become home to Wake Forest University School of Business, the new Wake Forest School for Professional Studies and Carolinas College of Health Sciences.
“Our goal from the very beginning has been to create a nationally recognized center – with a hometown feel,” said Eugene A. Woods, Atrium Health’s president and CEO, “where learners, researchers and small business owners from all backgrounds can grow together right here in Charlotte.”
It’s that vision that has served as the driving factor behind The Pearl, which will bring cutting-edge research and innovation to Midtown Charlotte, attracting new businesses, while also addressing health disparities.
Fast Facts about the Pearl:
- The Pearl will create an innovation ecosystem, grounded in research and academics, to attract businesses, incubate new ideas, attract venture funding and scale small businesses into the companies of Charlotte’s future
- The businesses within the district will work to address health disparities and lack of upward mobility, making it a centerpiece of Charlotte’s economic mobility strategy
- The education building will house Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Wake Forest School of Business, the new Wake Forest School for Professional Studies and Carolinas College of Health Sciences
- Phase One of The Pearl, including the medical school will break ground this year
- The Pearl will be a mixed-use area, featuring amenities available to the entire community, plus living space set aside for affordable housing within the district
- A framework to enable diverse business participation and tenancy, including support, mentorship and access to funding is being established
- The Pearl will be facilitating investments totaling over $1.5 billion
- The innovation district will be a public-private partnership – City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County commitment to invest $75M in infrastructure to enable Phase I vertical development
- Innovation jobs typically provide a 15% higher entry-level wage. 30-40% of the jobs created onsite won’t require a bachelor’s degree
Next-Generation Academic Health System Becomes a Reality
A new era of healthcare has been ushered in as Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health, including Wake Forest School of Medicine, officially joined together as a single enterprise, Atrium Health.
Brilliant minds are coming together to advance life-changing care, an unrivaled approach for life-changing results. Medical education transforms, research expands – care is enhanced for your life. Your community will benefit. So will your children...and their grandchildren.
Because we believe when it comes to health, no one should settle for anything short of life-changing.
Charting the Future of Academic Medicine
The Atrium Health-Wake Forest Baptist Health combination will extend the excellence of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem with a new, additional campus in Charlotte. The two campuses of the Wake Forest School of Medicine will build on the clinical and academic excellence of Atrium Health and the educational and research distinction of Wake Forest Baptist to create a next-generation, academic learning health system.
- As the largest educator of physicians and other medical professionals in the state, we are already educating nearly 3,200 total learners across more than 100 specialized programs each year.
- We aspire to be one of the most diverse learning bodies in the country - producing a generation of medical professionals representative of the communities we serve. Through this, we will reduce the shortage of doctors working in inner-city, suburban, and rural areas of North Carolina.
- The two medical campuses in Winston-Salem and Charlotte will create a new preeminent regional corridor for health technology and innovation. Convening the surrounding academic, healthcare, government, and business communities, the corridor will focus on improving health by bringing new medicines and treatments to patients in half the time and advancing economic equity.
- Research capabilities will be expanded across a large, diverse market to drive discovery that improves the health of our patients and communities with an emphasis on health equity.
- We will increase national recognition and prominence of Atrium Health and the Wake Forest School of Medicine, in key areas, including Aging and Mobility, Alzheimer's Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes & Obesity, Pain & Addiction, and Regenerative Medicine.