March 18, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Drexel University is developing a three-year medical degree program aimed at reducing the physician shortage, but the program is not replacing the school's four-year degree program.
Drexel University College of Medicine is starting a three-year medical degree program slated to enroll its first students in 2028.
The school is joining a group of more than 30 institutions in the United States that are offering accelerated medical degrees to address the physician shortage, alleviate student debt and speed up the residency process.
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That group — the Consortium of Accelerated Medical Pathway Programs — was founded in 2015 by eight medical schools with three-year programs, including Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in South Jersey. Drexel will be the first school in Southeastern Pennsylvania to offer an accelerated track.
Traditionally, medical schools have offered four-year degree programs followed by residencies that last an average of four to five years. Residencies for pediatrics and internal medicine generally are three years, while residencies for some specialties may last as long as seven to nine years.
"We are very intentional about trying to address what we think is really, not just a Philadelphia area, but a national need to address physician workforce, and we recognize that this is an opportunity to do it effectively, to potentially do it efficiently," Dr. Leon McCrea II, vice dean for educational affairs at Drexel University College of Medicine, said Tuesday.
By 2036, the United States may face a shortage of as many 86,000 doctors, the Association of American Medical Colleges projected in a 2024 report. Primary care and surgical specialties are particularly impacted, with projected shortfalls of up to 40,000 and 20,000 doctors, respectively, expected over the next decade.
Drexel's program – started with $425,000 in seed money from the Independence Blue Cross Foundation – is still in its incipient stages. McCrea emphasized that the school's four-year medical degree program, which has 1,200 students, will remain intact, with the three-year track a new option for students to consider.
Enrollment in the accelerated program will start small, with just two to three students in the 2028-2029 school year, McCrea said.
The three-year program will have a special focus on students interested in going into primary care, as well as people dedicated to community health who have experience as nurses, paramedics and veterans. With its emphasis on primary care and community health, Drexel hopes its accelerated track will attract people interested in practicing locally, McCrea said.
"Many of them are going to stay in the Philadelphia area, which is phenomenal, but some are going to take those things back to the community, the rural, urban, suburban communities that they've come from, to be able to deliver that care," McCrea said.
Drexel's program also will eliminate the residency application process by following its three-year medical school curriculum with a three-year residency with "one of our partners who has embraced that degree of importance and partnership," McCrea said.
"We imagine that when a student enrolls into our program that they will know where they're going to be for the next six years."
