Delaware officials announced Tuesday that the state\u2019s first medical school, funded by hundreds of millions of federal dollars meant to bolster rural healthcare, will be run by Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University.<\/p>\n
Jefferson beat out three other bidders \u2013 the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), Puerto Rico-based Ponce Health Sciences University and consulting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers \u2013 to win the medical school contract.<\/p>\n
Jefferson\u2019s plans include collaborating with almost all of Delaware\u2019s higher education and healthcare institutions to bring a medical school to fruition \u2014 with one glaring exclusion: ChristianaCare.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s largest healthcare system had initially attached itself to PCOM\u2019s failed bid to run the Delaware medical school. It remains unclear, however, if the hospital system \u2013 which has an existing partnership with Jefferson \u2013 will join in on the new venture at a later date.<\/p>\n
Gov. Matt Meyer said during a press conference the medical school will \u201cinitially\u201d be located at the University of Delaware\u2019s main campus in Newark, and students in the first cohort who commit to practicing in rural Delaware will receive a free medical education.<\/p>\n
Dr. Said Ibrahim, dean of Jefferson\u2019s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said the college will now seek out accreditation for the Delaware campus through the Liaison Committee on Medical Education program, which vets programs leading to medical degrees. He added the new medical school would place rural health at the core of its curriculum.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore importantly, it will create a stronger, more durable pipeline of physicians who are trained in Delaware, who are connected to Delaware, and committed to serving Delaware\u2019s communities,\u201d Ibrahim said.<\/p>\n
Officials aims to open applications for the first cohort of students in early 2027. Accepted students would then begin classes in the summer of 2028.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s announcement marks a historic moment for Delaware, as the state\u2019s first medical school is a project that has eluded leaders for decades.<\/p>\n
ChristianaCare sidelined<\/p>\n
As part of Jefferson\u2019s announcement, officials said the new medical school would work with a dozen Delaware education and healthcare institutions like the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Bayhealth and Beebe Healthcare, among others.<\/p>\n
Susan Aldridge, the president of Thomas Jefferson University, said this \u201cconsortium\u201d of higher education groups and healthcare providers would work with Jefferson to provide its medical education and place students in clinical rotations.<\/p>\n
Notably sidelined in that list is ChristianaCare, which already has an agreement with Jefferson where third- and fourth-year students work for the healthcare giant.<\/p>\n
When asked about ChristianaCare\u2019s absence from the new consortium, she said the hospital is more than welcome to join. She did not answer whether an invitation was extended or if the hospital declined to be a part of the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an inclusive approach to the medical school and to the consortium that we have established here, so if Christiana chooses to join the consortium, they\u2019ll be more than welcome,\u201d Aldridge said.<\/p>\n
Christen Linke Young, secretary for the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, said ChristianaCare was attached to PCOM\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n
Since the state selected Jefferson, there was \u201cno universe\u201d where it would have been involved in Tuesday\u2019s announcement, she added. Still, Young said the door is wide open for the hospital to be a part of the consortium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have no reason to think that they won\u2019t be a part of the process,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
While Jefferson and state officials signaled their willingness to have ChristianaCare as part of the program, the hospital struck a more defiant tone in a statement to Spotlight Delaware on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
In a joint response from PCOM and ChristianaCare, the two said while they respect the state\u2019s decision, they are disappointed not to be \u201cpart of the solution to create Delaware\u2019s medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two also said the success of the medical school is not just tied to the higher education institution, but also a \u201ctrue and committed partnership with its clinical partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school\u2019s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare\u2019s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Federal fund powers school<\/p>\n
The state announced in November it would fund 15 programs with money from the Rural Health Transformation Program. The federal program was created to court Republican senators hesitant to support more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which could disproportionately impact rural communities and their healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n
In February, Meyer\u2019s office released an initial batch of requests for potential vendors to carry out programs that will be funded by the federal grant aimed at improving rural health across the country. Some of those bid requests included funding the new medical school, creating a \u201cFood is Medicine\u201d program, as well as operating rural health hubs in Sussex and Kent counties.<\/p>\n
It came weeks after the state received its first award from the federal government totaling more than $157 million. The full RHTP award amount for the state remains unclear, but Delaware will receive at least $500 million from the multi-year program.<\/p>\n
In plans submitted to the federal government, Delaware budgeted more than $100 million to run its medical school for five years. But Neil Hockstein, chair of the Delaware Health Care Commission, said the signed contract allows Jefferson to run the school for $78 million.<\/p>\n
Asked how the state is required to spend the remaining funds, he said Delaware is allowed to reallocate those funds to any of the other 14 programs.<\/p>\n
Hockstein added the state intends to spread those leftover funds across multiple different programs instead of reallocating them to just one initiative.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Hockstein said when the federal money runs out for the medical school, it would be \u201cself-sustaining without an influx of state dollars.\u201d Still, he said he hopes the state\u2019s philanthropic ventures would help to support the medical school\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything we can do to partner with our philanthropic organizations to make this one of the most cost-effective medical educations, so it doesn\u2019t burden students and families, would be an amazing opportunity to ensure that we attract the best talent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jefferson began talks early<\/p>\n
When Gov. Matt Meyer outlined a $1 billion proposal last November to expand rural healthcare access, building a medical school in the First State was a pillar of his plan.<\/p>\n
He said the state would seek out competitive bids from universities to ultimately operate Delaware\u2019s first medical school. But a signed agreement from October indicated Delaware was already in talks with Thomas Jefferson University, home to one of Philadelphia\u2019s premier medical schools.<\/p>\n
University and Delaware leaders, including Meyer, signed the non-binding agreement two weeks prior to the governor\u2019s announcement that the state hoped to build a medical school.<\/p>\n
The agreement, called a memorandum of understanding, was not publicly available prior to the state\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
In the October agreement, Jefferson said it hopes the partnership will improve access and quality of healthcare in Kent and Sussex counties. The agreement also says the university hopes to build a branch campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College somewhere in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal of this collaboration is to establish a phased approach leading to the creation of a four-year medical school in Delaware,\u201d the agreement said.<\/p>\n
The agreement, dated Oct. 29, 2025, said Delaware will \u201cprovide all necessary and appropriate financial resources for the development, implementation, and sustainability of the branch campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the agreement says Delaware will lead development and planning of the school in tandem with other universities and hospital systems.<\/p>\n
Jefferson already has a sizable footprint in Delaware\u2019s medical education landscape with clinical and educational relationships with ChristianaCare, Beebe Healthcare and Nemours Children\u2019s Hospital in Wilmington through the Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research, a program that has connected Delaware medical students with Jefferson and PCOM to receive educations largely in Philadelphia for decades.<\/p>\n
At the press conference on Tuesday, Meyer said as the state put together its application for the rural health funds, it had to show the federal government the medical school was more than just an idea. So, it sought out a university to sign onto a non-binding agreement, something he said had \u201chad absolutely no bearing\u201d on the competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n
David Lenihan, CEO of Tiber Health, the parent company for Puerto Rican-based Ponce Health Sciences University, said he was disappointed to have not been selected but that he hopes there\u2019s a part for the university to play in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we would have liked to win, we\u2019re happy that someone\u2019s going to carry the ball forward, and Thomas Jefferson is obviously a great university,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delaware officials announced Tuesday that the state\u2019s first medical school, funded by hundreds of millions of federal dollars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[92663,10052,916,69,92664,71,70,38378,42274],"class_list":["post-211368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-christiana-hospital","tag-christianacare","tag-delaware","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-college-of-osteopathic-medicine","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-rural-health","tag-thomas-jefferson-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}