Photos: Wake Forest med school welcomes 2029 class to new Charlotte campus
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake Forest opens Charlotte campus, filling U.S.'s largest gap in med schools.
- New facility features digital anatomy lab and extended reality training tools.
- Charlotte site anchors $1.5B Pearl district, blending education and med tech.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine is welcoming nearly 50 students to its new Charlotte campus. The city was previously the largest in the U.S. without a four-year medical school. The school showcased its new facilities during a tour on Wednesday.
The medical school is based in Winston-Salem, but the Charlotte location is is its second campus and stands out as one of the nation’s first medical schools to be built since the pandemic. Across both campuses, the Class of 2029 comprises nearly 200 students.
The Charlotte campus features classroom configurations and a curriculum that incorporates virtual immersive teaching, extended reality training, and other technologies designed to revolutionize medical education, according to school officials.
One of the highlights is a digital and virtual anatomy laboratory with Sectra tables, which utilize technology to allow students to see a 3D model of the human body and assist with their clinical understanding and future practice. Students will also use a plastinated donor laboratory, which uses human tissues for research and education. This plastination technique preserves biological specimens by replacing the body’s natural fluids and using polymer.
The media tour also included a view of a patient simulator with a manikin that moves, blinks, coughs, and makes other noises. To teach students, the manikins come in all shape and sizes ranging from a premature 27-week baby to adult types.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine serves as the academic core of Advocate Health.
Anchoring the Howard R. Levine Center for Education, the new medical school in Charlotte is a cornerstone of The Pearl, a $1.5 billion mixed-use district envisioned to include shops, apartments, medical offices, and med tech companies.
