Charlotte’s First Medical School To Open in 2025 With $1.5B Innovation District
Wake Forest University will welcome its first students as Charlotte’s first-ever medical school on July 7. The school will be the heart of The Pearl, an exciting new $1.5 billion innovation district.
The inaugural class will include 48 medical students. The program plans to grow over five years, with each new class reaching 100 students.
Landing IRCAD, a renowned French surgical training center, was a huge victory for the project. The institute will use four floors to teach cutting-edge surgical techniques to practicing doctors.
A leading healthcare technology company from the Fortune 500 has already secured two floors. More major companies are expected to join, with details coming soon.
The place will come alive when 800 students and faculty begin their nursing and health technology programs in August 2025. Their presence will add momentum to this forward-thinking space.
Multiple schools will share the main building. Wake Forest’s business programs will blend with their School for Professional Studies, while Carolinas College of Health Science makes its new home there.
This is a milestone for Charlotte. Despite being a booming city, it has long needed its medical school.
The Pearl creates a special ecosystem where students, doctors, and innovative companies work side by side, making healthcare advances more likely to emerge.
“How quickly they have transformed this space, and how much more really is to come … It’s the most transformative thing we’ve seen here in decades,” Assistant City Manager Tracy Dodson said to the Charlotte Ledger.
Now that IRCAD has chosen Charlotte, surgeons from all over North America will come here to learn advanced techniques.
The Pearl looks to transform how we teach medicine. By putting students, researchers, and industry experts in the same building, medical innovations could develop much more quickly.
