Earlier this year at a gathering in Florida, I spoke to Jefferson alumni, trustees, donors, and friends about some of the challenges facing medical education, and medical schools specifically. They are myriad: the cost of a medical education, national physician workforce shortages, funding for research, and more.
Yet, if there is one thing I’ve learned in my first year as dean, Jefferson is a place that finds solutions and always rises to the occasion.
As I reflect on the past year here, it has been one of remarkable progress, measured not just in numbers but also in impact. The growth we’ve experienced isn’t simply a matter of expansion; it’s a reflection of deeper commitments fulfilled: to our students, to research, and to the patients and communities we serve.
Consider what we accomplished in 2024:
- We received a record-breaking 12,000 applications for our medical school. Behind each number is a student eager to join our mission, a future physician who sees Jefferson as the place to learn, to grow, and to make a difference. Our challenge now is to ensure that we are selecting, training, and mentoring these students to be the kind of doctors our world needs.
- Our faculty’s influence continues to expand. Over the past year, we quadrupled our representation in the National Academy of Medicine. The Academy is more than an honor roll—it’s a forum where the most pressing issues in healthcare are shaped. Having more of our voices in that conversation means we are helping set the agenda for medicine’s future.
- Our Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center achieved the highest distinction from the National Cancer Institute, earning comprehensive status. This recognition isn’t just an accolade—it means broader access to cutting-edge treatments, deeper collaboration, and a firm commitment to pushing the boundaries of cancer care.
- Our research enterprise saw an 8% increase in NIH funding, a testament to the strength of our investigators and the importance of the questions they’re asking. Funding alone isn’t the goal; it’s a means to discovery and to answering the challenges that patients face every day.
- In recognition of this growing research footprint, we improved our standing in the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings, moving from 66th to 65th. These rankings are imperfect markers, but they signal something real: We are becoming a stronger engine for scientific advancement.
- And the Jefferson Health system itself doubled in size, from 17 to 32 hospital campuses. Growth alone is not an achievement. What matters is what we do with it: how we integrate care, how we ensure that a larger system means better outcomes for patients and more expansive educational opportunities for trainees, not just bigger numbers.
These successes are not endpoints. They are foundations. The coming year is an opportunity to build on them: to translate research into cures, to train the next generation not just in science but also in service, to turn scale into strength.
Progress in medicine isn’t about a single breakthrough or expansion—it’s about steady, relentless improvement. And at Jefferson, that is exactly what we intend to keep doing.
