Delaware pitches new medical school in deal with Thomas Jefferson

• Gov. Matt Meyer announced in November Delaware’s Rural Health Transformation Plan, which targets the lack of care and access among the state’s rural communities.
• The $1 billion plan includes establishing a Delaware medical school. The First State is currently one of three states without a medical training institution.
• The state has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College to create a Delaware medical school.

Gov. Matt Meyer has announced a plan to overhaul rural health care in Delaware, which includes establishing a medical school in the First State.

This “generational plan” – or the Rural Health Transformation Plan – targets the lack of access across the state’s rural communities through various initiatives at the school, community and state level.  

On Nov. 12, stationed at the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, Meyer announced his administration had submitted an application for up to $1 billion in funding from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program.

Congress appropriated a total of $50 billion to that program this summer, half of which will be “equally distributed” across states with approved applications. The other half will be distributed based on technical factors within those applications.

Awards are expected by the end of 2025, according to Meyer’s office.

A proposed medical school could be allotted nearly $100.5 million, according to the budget, and it’s already in planning stages under a state partnership with a familiar hospital system based in Philadelphia.

Fifteen overall projects, programs and initiatives make up Delaware’s chunk, focusing on lowering health care costs, expanding care access and increasing the medical workforce in rural Kent and Sussex. Residents in these counties make up nearly 40% of the state’s population, according to the governor’s office, but are some of the areas feeling scarce resources the hardest.

In an endorsement letter for Delaware’s application, Meyer said where residents live should not determine how long they live.

As he put it: “No Delawarean should have shorter odds of living a healthy life just because they live south of the canal.”

Establishing a medical school in Delaware 

Delaware is one of just three states that lack a public or private medical training institution in the state.

Meyer’s vision for a medical school aims to establish a “student-to-residency-to-practice pipeline,” said to be critical for “building a more sustainable and robust workforce dedicated to the state’s rural population.” 

And he’s eyeing an opening within the next few years.

Money approved would also fund the selection of a partner to establish that first Delaware medical school.

Priorities outlined in planning documents include:  

• Creating a medical school rural workforce development program, which would offer financial awards to students who commit to practicing in rural areas after graduation 
• Providing financial awards and transportation support to medical school graduates who train and stay in rural Delaware  
• Establishing training programs for clinical support roles in rural areas  
• Creating a rural health workforce education program, which would provide financial awards to healthcare trainees who pledge to serve in rural Delaware 
• Creating a data center to track and report on healthcare workforce trends, shortages and disparities across the state 

Progress already underway on Delaware’s medical school 

Delaware and Thomas Jefferson University, on behalf of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College, signed a Memorandum of Understanding that began on Oct. 29.  

That establishes their goal to create a four-year medical school, alongside a general collaboration to expand medical education opportunities in the First State. The document is basically a statement of mutual intent, but it does not create binding legal obligation.

“Delaware needs a medical school sooner rather than later,” said Mila Myles, a spokesperson for Meyer.

“Thomas Jefferson University has a strong track record of providing quality medical education to physicians across the Philadelphia area, and while we’re glad they’ve raised their hand to collaborate with the State of Delaware, the MOU is not exclusive, and we will run an open and transparent procurement process.”  

How will that med school collaboration work? 

Both parties will likely be involved bringing a medical school online, though it has yet to be named or assigned a location.

The main pillars of the collaboration are: 

• Expanding access to and quality of care
• Offering expanded opportunities for students across the country to study and train in Delaware, alongside the already available Delaware Institute for Medical Education and Research program 
• Intentionally linking undergraduate medical education with residency training in Delaware  

In this agreement, Delaware will bear the financial burden of this expansion, not Jefferson. 

The two-phase approach to establishing a Delaware medical school includes first enhancing Sidney Kimmel Medical College’s branch campus in Delaware. This phase aims to incentivize 2026 students to select 2027 clinical placements in Delaware, come April 2028 through April 2029.  

The second phase of the plan is establishing a four-year branch campus in Delaware. An emphasis will be placed on primary care and rural medicine. Various planning begins this year, with a targeted first cohort in fall 2027.

The plan also targets expanding Graduate Medical Education capacity across the state, as well as developing a “robust” student loan repayment program. That would aim to encourage graduates to stay in Delaware for practice.

Jefferson agreed to provide academic leadership, compliance, curriculum development and faculty oversight for the branch and expanded medical school programs.

Next up, within 90 days of the MOU, both parties must identify the internal leadership teams at both Jefferson and the state, as well as engage external consultants to support planning, financial modeling and accreditation preparation.

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.