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Philadelphia’s Drexel University is joining a growing number of institutions across the country that offer accelerated three-year medical school programs. Cutting one year out of the traditional structure is aimed at making the degree more attainable and speeding up the physician pipeline to primary care and other specialties with workforce shortages.
Drexel will maintain its flagship four-year program and plans to launch the shorter version with its first students in the 2028-2029 academic year.
A three-year program can present a more efficient pathway to becoming a doctor for eligible students without sacrificing the rigors of study and training, said Dr. Leon McCrea, vice dean of educational affairs at Drexel College of Medicine.
“I want to be clear that no one’s trying to microwave medical school. Slow and steady still wins the race,” he said. “I think, though, that there are ultimately multiple modalities and ways to get that done.”
Filling the physician pipeline faster
The U.S. is expected to see a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians over the next 10 years, according to projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges, which will disproportionately affect primary health care.
Supporters of accelerated medical schools argue that these programs can help train highly skilled doctors faster in order to fill these gaps. Schools like Penn State University and New York University have been offering three-year options for over a decade.
It can be a successful alternative, McCrea said, to the traditional journey of becoming a fully trained doctor, which can take anywhere from 10 to 18 years after high school.
When students start a traditional four-year medical school program after getting their bachelor’s degree, they begin with a lot of classroom-based study of anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and other courses.
After the first two years of med school, students enter clinical rotations at hospitals and health practices so that they can shadow doctors, learn about different specialties and get supervised experience in caring for patients. The last year of school often involves time for additional shadowing, research projects, internships and applying to graduate training positions.
After they graduate with a doctor of medicine (M.D.) or a doctor of osteopathic medicine (D.O.) degree, most doctors spend another three to seven years in residency programs, depending on their specialty.
Cutting down on repetition
This timeline can be shortened for students who already complete significant science-related coursework and pre-medical classes during undergrad, said Dr. Ezekiel Emanual, an oncologist and health policy expert at the University of Pennsylvania. He has long championed efforts to shorten the time of medical school.
Many schools have already reduced the pre-clinical training phase to about 12 to 15 months, he said, “meaning that three-year training program will get you the same quality doctor.”
Some students are also coming into medical school with hands-on experience in science and health-related roles after taking gap years following undergraduate college, McCrea said.
They may already have a strong conviction on what area of medicine they want to practice and don’t necessarily need time for exploration or additional shadowing during medical school, he said.
They should be evaluated based on their overall competency and readiness to practice medicine and not necessarily a “predetermined clock,” McCrea said.
“They’ve hit all of the competencies that we anticipate. They’ve done all the entrustable professional activities one would need to do to be a successful physician. Why can’t we promote them to the next phase?” he asked.