Drexel University to launch a 3-year medical school program to address workforce shortages, student debt

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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.

Drexel’s three-year program is being launched with an initial $400,000 grant and ongoing partnership with the Independence Blue Cross Foundation. It will target students who want to practice in needed areas like primary care, pediatrics and internal medicine, and build up to a cohort of 50 students within the next decade.

The program could eventually also consider candidates who want to pursue obstetrics, gynecology and psychiatry, McCrea said.

“We need to be adaptable to what the needs are of the communities as this grows,” he said.

Reduced time, reduced cost and debt?

Three-year models can help address the cost and financial stress that comes with pursuing a career in medicine, supporters say.

The average amount of loan debt that a student faced after graduating medical school was nearly $217,000 in 2025, according to national estimates and not counting existing debt from an undergraduate bachelor’s degree.

Medical student debt has been associated with negative mental health outcomes and academic performance, national data show. It may also influence physicians to pick careers in high-paying specialties rather than primary care.

University of Pennsylvania medical student Vitor Souza, an executive board member of the medical student government, said other factors like prestige and the specific kinds of responsibilities that someone wants to hold are also stronger drivers of career choice, “but for sure, students are thinking about their future salaries.”

Graduating from medical school earlier and starting a residency position with a salary sooner can help doctors reach other personal goals and milestones faster, Souza said.

“The earlier you can make those steps, the earlier you can start settling in life — finding a place to live, starting a family,” he said. “Those things make a difference, and students definitely defer it to some extent because of the rigor of medical training.”

There is no clear evidence that three-year programs focused on training students for careers in primary care lead to long-term placements in primary care deserts, Souza said. But he added that plans to improve the medical education experience, create flexible options and meet the needs of students are worthy efforts.

At Drexel, the new accelerated program and curriculum will take a few years to finalize, McCrea said. That process involves looking at similar models elsewhere to establish a pre-clinical curriculum, working with health systems to provide students with sufficient hands-on experiences, and figuring out when to provide breaks so that students don’t experience burnout.

But there’s already a lot of early excitement for the three-year option, he said.

“I always think the time is now for innovation,” McCrea said. “I always say if you’re stagnant, then you’re falling behind. And so for us, it’s always trying to continue to innovate.”