03/27/2024
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FAYETTEVILLE – April 7, 2022 – Cape Fear Valley Health System will serve as a regional medical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine starting May 2022. Through an affiliation agreement, Drexel medical students will have the opportunity to select the health system for their required clinical rotations in the third and fourth years of their medical education.

“We are thrilled to welcome Drexel medical students and know that our community’s Southern hospitality will make them quickly feel at home here,” said CEO Michael Nagowski. “We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Drexel.”

Nagowski said this agreement aligns with Cape Fear Valley Health’s goal to support innovative advances in medical care, training and access to providers in the region.

“Combined with Drexel’s expertise and interest in establishing an additional teaching site to expand their own footprint in the southeastern United States, this is good news for our region,” Nagowski said.

The two organizations recently signed the affiliation agreement for the regional medical campus designation. This new agreement will not affect existing relationships. The health system will continue to work with other programs and their medical students, including those who stay in the region for graduate medical training as residents.

“The need for more entries into the health care workforce in southeastern North Carolina is great. The partnership with Drexel will support our efforts to expand the health care workforce,” Nagowski said.

“Third- and fourth-year clerkships are a transformative period for an aspiring physician,” said Charles B. Cairns, MD, senior vice president of Medical Affairs and dean of Drexel University College of Medicine. “This collaboration provides an especially valuable setting for our students to treat diverse patient populations and consider Cape Fear Valley Health System and North Carolina as a place to pursue their future careers in medicine.”

As North Carolina’s population has boomed, Nagowski pointed out, the area’s physician shortage has made it harder to meet the population’s growing needs. Statistically, the state has disproportionate levels of negative health outcomes and conditions, such as infant and maternal mortality, heart disease, cancer and more.

“The addition of these students on our campus, with our existing graduate medical education residencies and expanded medical research in our region will help us make measurable progress toward training the next generation of health care providers who will live and set down roots in southeastern North Carolina,” Nagowski said.

Nagowski cited Drexel’s storied history as a medical college that maintains successful regional partnerships as one of the reasons the health system chose to welcome the university’s students. Drexel’s legacy reaches back to two of the oldest medical colleges in the country. Drexel’s College of Medicine grew out of the first degree-granting medical school for women in the world. Drexel also has a history of successful collaboration with our nation’s military and has ongoing initiatives to foster diversity in the medical profession, he said. Both are important assets in this region.

Media contact for Cape Fear Valley: Chaka Jordan, 910-615-6098 or cgjordan@capefearvalley.com.

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