Charles Cairns, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean, Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs, Drexel University College of Medicine

Charles Cairns, dean of Drexel University College of Medicine and senior vice president of medical affairs at Drexel University, spoke with Invest: about the importance of collaboration and technology to deliver healthcare to underserved regions. “We can utilize the innovative environment in Philadelphia using biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and large healthcare institutions to create solutions for any community across Pennsylvania.”

What key changes over the past year have most significantly impacted the College of Medicine, and in what ways?

We continue to grow and are excited about our new campus in West Reading, Pennsylvania. We graduated our first full four-year class there this year. It was successful not only in terms of students progressing in their medical education but also taking the next step into residency and fellowship programs. We had a record year in matching for residencies within Tower Health. We can take a world-class medical school, partner it with a large and impactful healthcare system, and then educate doctors who stay in those communities for their advanced training. We can then develop in other geographies, taking on challenges in more places, like Reading and Berks County, that have high demand for healthcare and specialty providers. This demonstrates the opportunity we have to engage communities around Pennsylvania and all over the United States.

Over the past year, the merger between Drexel and Salus University was approved and fully finalized. How has this merger reshaped the structure and strategy of the College of Medicine?

The merger has been a wonderful development. Salus is a large healthcare education institution, with one of the oldest and largest colleges of optometry in the United States. The combination of Salus and Drexel gives us an unprecedented span of education across health professions. The merger combines two storied institutions that are large, community-integrated, and doing things that other institutions can’t do. It’s an incredible opportunity for us not only in Philadelphia, but across the world.

What recent successes or milestones for the College have been most notable, and what has been their impact?

We have reached record applications, at nearly 17,000, and have record enrollment. We had 305 new MD program students start their studies here just last week. But it’s not just the numbers, we’re attracting outstanding students from all over the U.S. who want to be involved in community-based health education systems. We have great partners in Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, and Delaware, allowing our students to be engaged in a broad range of communities. We embrace innovation and pursue new discoveries, technologies, and care models as part of our medical education experience. 

We couldn’t do it without our faculty. We are at record levels of faculty, at 2,500 across our campuses, reflecting the broad diversity of specialties, geographies, and health systems. Our faculty and staff benefit our students, patients, and communities. 

How is the College attracting and developing talent to meet the evolving needs of medical education?

There is a physician shortage, which creates challenges in access and distribution of primary care physicians and specialists. In addition, physicians tend to be concentrated in urban areas and not so much in rural areas. 

To meet the needs of rural communities, we have developed community relationships, reflected in our success in Reading. Medical students can be educated effectively and will stay there to train, and they have already made an enormous difference in the community through 40 different community outreach programs. 

It is estimated that there will be a shortage of 86,000 physicians in the U.S. in the next five years. We need to continue increasing the number of physicians, making sure they are going to communities in need, and that they are empathetic and engaged in those communities.

What emerging trends are shaping Drexel’s strategy?

Interprofessional education, training, research, and care require everyone to be engaged to make a difference for patients, communities, and broader populations. We don’t just want to treat disease — we want to maintain and promote health so people can live their best lives. One big development is that we are creating an umbrella organization called Drexel Health to integrate our clinical operations, improve research and education, and learn how to live and breathe interprofessional training, research, and care. With Salus coming on board, we have opportunities to integrate with optometry, audiology, and other critical health areas as our population ages. The impact we can create together with these developments puts Drexel in a position to become a leader in healthcare education and training. Collaboration with Drexel’s engineering departments can help us integrate digital transformation and take new developments in engineering and put them into medicine and healthcare. We are at the forefront of the digital transformation of medicine. Medicine is the single biggest opportunity in AI and machine learning. It’s estimated that 30% of all digital data in the world is medical. All our students are trained in large data sets and how to use AI to get the most out of the data. They learn how to assimilate medical literature to make a difference in their own education and apply it to patients.

What are the major challenges the College faces, locally and institutionally, and how is your team turning those into opportunities?

We are at the intersection of challenges in higher education and healthcare. The number of lives touched and saved is a fundamental concept that everybody should agree on. One of the advantages Drexel has is its presence in multiple counties and communities. We need to create new solutions from the lessons we learn from these varied communities. The opportunities in digital transformation can be impactful. Imagine being able to take all the literature in the world on medicine and health and make it available to somebody in a rural county hundreds of miles from the nearest medical center. We can learn from that region, their diseases, population makeup, and culture, and be able to improve their care through machine learning. We can utilize the innovative environment in Philadelphia using biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and large healthcare institutions to create solutions for any community across Pennsylvania and beyond. These challenges help us think of things differently and create impactful innovations. 

How is the College engaging with the Philadelphia community, especially underserved neighborhoods, to enhance health outcomes, education, and equity?

In 2019, we partnered with Tower Health to bring St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children out of bankruptcy, transition it to a nonprofit, and guide it through the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Since then, we have achieved remarkable progress. Our colleagues at Temple Health, Jefferson Health, Einstein Hospital, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Independence Blue Cross came together to support both St. Christopher’s and our education programs. It’s been a remarkable Philadelphia story, one that has strengthened all the city’s academic health institutions.

We continue to meet with a wide range of organizations and partner with federally qualified health centers across Philadelphia. With so many residents facing barriers to healthcare access, we must remain vigilant about the future of our hospitals and clinics and the impact they have on their communities.

What are your key goals and priorities?

Our goals are to continue building these partnerships. We are collaborating with new hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and have launched a new partnership with Bayhealth in Dover, Delaware. We also aim to integrate with our Salus colleagues, enabling faculty to exchange programs and educate and train students in a truly interprofessional manner. This work will be carried out in conjunction with our colleagues in nursing, public health, autism, and psychology through the Drexel Health initiative. Ultimately, our goal is to sustain our expansion and continue to strengthen our impact and excellence in medical education, training, research, and care.