While medical students typically must wait until their third year to get hands-on clinical experience, Dell Med students will get that experience in their first year, Dr. Moriates said. During the second year, students will be in core clinical rotations, which usually doesn’t occur until the third year. Then, in the third year, medical students will focus on “innovation, leadership, and discovery,” which means inventing new ways to solve health challenges through technology and delivery system redesign.
The Dell Foundation and taxpayer support aren’t the only funding sources. The University of Texas System Board of Regents has allocated $25 million annually and another $40 million over 8 years to recruit faculty.
The investment is already generating returns. The new medical school appears to be in demand, as Dell Med received over 4,500 applications for those 50 first-year spots, Dr. Moriates said.
Dell Medical School was one of four medical schools in the United States to receive accreditation in 2015, bringing the national number of medical schools to 145, according to the accrediting body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Another seven schools are listed as having applied or are candidates for accreditation.