The Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) and West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) are partnering to establish a new four-year medical school campus on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

Facts about the new regional campus and West Penn Allegheny Health System’s current educational initiatives:

• West Penn Allegheny Health System has been a regional campus of Temple University School of Medicine for 11 years, serving 24 third-year and 24 fourth-year students.
• West Penn Allegheny Health System is expanding its relationship with the Temple University School of Medicine to establish a four-year undergraduate medical school campus.
• The goal of the expansion is to address the national and regional physician shortage and to attract and retain Pennsylvania talent. Consider:
  • More than 50 percent of physicians in Pennsylvania are older than 50*.
  • Fewer than 8 percent of Pennsylvania physicians are younger than 35*.
  • Only 35 percent of physicians who graduated from Pennsylvania medical schools practice in Pennsylvania*.
  • Only 31 percent of medical students currently studying in Pittsburgh are Pennsylvania residents; fewer than 10 percent are from Western Pennsylvania*.
  • TUSM receives approximately 1,000 applications from prospective students residing in Western Pennsylvania annually.
• The new campus will provide classroom education to first- and second-year undergraduate medical school students, in addition to clinical training during the third and fourth years.
• Classroom training will be provided in Four Allegheny Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
• Allegheny General Hospital, also on Pittsburgh’s North Side, will serve as the major clinical academic site.
• The anticipated date for the new school to begin is August 2013.
• Thirty students are expected to comprise the new school’s first class.
• Temple University School of Medicine will manage the application process; the admissions process will be handled primarily by the Senior Associate Dean of Medicine for TUSM-WPAHS.
• In addition to current faculty that includes scientists, clinical educators and existing WPAHS medical staff, additional faculty are expected to be hired.
• AGH has been a campus of Drexel and its predecessor the Medical College of
• Pennsylvania/Hahnemann University since 1987, serving as a clinical site for 3rd and 4th year medical students. This program will be phased out over the next three years.
• West Penn Allegheny is a 1,200-bed healthcare system consisting of five western Pennsylvania-based acute care hospitals, including Allegheny General Hospital, a nationally recognized, quaternary, academic medical center, Allegheny Valley Hospital, Canonsburg General Hospital Forbes Regional Hospital and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital. The system also houses the Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, Forbes Hospice and two schools of nursing.
• West Penn Allegheny has just been recognized for the second consecutive year as one of the nation’s top 57 healthcare providers by Thompson Reuters based on patient care quality, efficiency and satisfaction. It is the only healthcare system in western PA and one of just four in the state lauded in both the 2010 and 2011 Thompson Reuters reports.

Facts about Temple University School of Medicine:

• Two TUSM faculty (Steven Houser, PhD, and Yuri Persidsky, PhD) are National Institutes of Health MERIT awardees (Method to Extend Research in Time). There are only 30 in the U.S.
• 68 full-time School of Medicine faculty members -- and hundreds of Temple-trained physicians nationwide -- are named on the 2011-2012 Best Doctors in America list.
• U.S. News & World Report ranks Temple’s School of Medicine #45 in the nation among medical schools for research. Recent grants include: $3.7 million from the USDA for CORE (Center for Obesity Research and Education); a $6.5 million NIH Center of Excellence grant for substance abuse research; and $11.8 million from the National Institutes of Health for neuroscience research.
• 49.5 percent of students at TUSM are Pennsylvania residents.
• TUSM’s academic and research affiliates are state-wide: Abington, Bethlehem, Danville, Upland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Reading.
• TUSM admissions: 9,600 applicants last year for 180 spots; new regional campuses (Pittsburgh and Bethlehem) will increase class size to 240 by the year 2014.
• More than 75 percent of Temple’s medical students are engaged in community service. Temple received commendation on this commitment from the national medical school accrediting council (LCME).
• TUSM has 19 international affiliates (countries include China, Ethiopia, India and Spain).
• TUSM serves as the medical school for the S.E. Pennsylvania AHEC (Area Health Education Center), a national program established in 1970 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
• TUSM faculty are national and international leaders. Examples: Scott Faro, MD, (Radiology) is President of the American Society of Functional Neuroradiology. Marvin Ziskin, MD, (Radiology) is recipient of the 2011 D’Arsonval Award for outstanding contributions to bioelectromagnetics. Ellen Unterwald, PhD, (Pharmacology) is Chair of a National Institutes of Health study section on molecular neuropharmacology signaling. James McClurken, MD, (cardiac surgery) is Co-Chair of the American College of Cardiology Surgeons Council. Richard Coico, PhD, (Microbiology) is President of the International Society for Translational Medicine. Yuri Persidsky, MD, PhD, (Pathology), received the 2011 Wybran Award of the Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology. Kamel Khalili, PhD, (Neuroscience) received the 2010 Pioneer in Neurovirology Award of the International Society for Neurovirology.
• Known for their superior clinical skills, TUSM graduates are accepted by residency and fellowship training programs at leading institutions nationwide.

* Sources: American Association of Medical Colleges and Pennsylvania Medical Society