November 20, 2013

Abington Memorial Hospital will serve as a regional medical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine under a new agreement signed by both institutions. This designation expands on an already existing academic affiliation.

Regional medical campus is a term used by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to refer to hospitals and health systems that serve as alternative venues for third- and fourth-year medical students to gain clinical education. Under the new agreement, Drexel medical students will be able to complete all of their required clinical rotations at Abington Memorial Hospital. Abington will provide two years of training in core clinical areas such as surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, neurology, and psychiatry.

“We are very excited to build on our relationship with Abington Memorial Hospital,” said Daniel V. Schidlow, MD, Annenberg Dean and senior vice president of medical affairs at Drexel University College of Medicine. “We believe this expanded affiliation will provide our students with a greater variety of experiences, as well as the ability to learn from some of our region’s finest physicians in a suburban hospital dedicated to serving its community.” 

Drexel and Abington have had an affiliation agreement since 2004. Under the new regional medical campus designation, Drexel medical students will be able to select Abington as their primary clinical campus at the time of matriculation and complete their third and fourth years there if they choose.

Laurence M. Merlis, president and chief executive officer, Abington Health, says this enhanced academic affiliation is in keeping with the hospital’s core value of being a learning organization. “Since the hospital first opened its doors in 1914, it has built and maintained an outstanding reputation as a teaching hospital,” said Merlis. “Becoming a regional medical campus for Drexel further enhances our commitment to medical education."

On behalf of the medical staff, John J. Kelly, MD, chief of staff, Abington Memorial Hospital, said, “We are so very pleased to expand our relationship with Drexel University College of Medicine by becoming a regional medical campus. While health care is shifting to more care being provided in the outpatient setting, the Drexel medical students will benefit from rotating through ambulatory settings such as our large employed primary care network, Abington Health Physicians.  We are all so very pleased for the opportunity to work even more closely with this next generation of bright, young physicians.”

The new regional medical campus designation takes effect July 2014. Margot Boigon, MD, has been appointed associate dean and director of undergraduate medical education and David Gary Smith, MD, will continue serving as director of graduate medical education.

 
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