Medical School

Drexel University leaders thought they had found the right person to lead their ailing medical school when they hired James A. Archibald in 2003. A former top SEPTA executive, Archibald portrayed himself as a financial whiz who had helped double research funding at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Drexel officials thought so highly of him that they put Archibald in charge of the medical school - a rare position for a non-physician. Three years later, Archibald has been getting attention for other reasons: The federal government is conducting a major probe into billing fraud and no-bid contracts at his old employer, where he said he did nothing wrong.

Donielle Wesley wants to be a doctor. So does Helen Staton, and she's even narrowed it down to a specialty: cardiology. If the Camden high school seniors succeed, they'll be in exclusive company - the little more than 8 percent of minority medical school graduates. If they succeed. Last year, there were 1,300 minority students who graduated from medical schools. Three or four years ago, when most of them would have started, there were about 1,700 first-year students, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

After a year on probation, Temple University School of Medicine has regained full accreditation from the group that oversees the quality of the nation's medical education. In taking the action, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education cited Temple's proposed upgrade to its teaching facilities through the construction of a new medical school building as well as the school's effort to boost student aid. While on probation, the medical school was under greater scrutiny by the liaison committee and was required to fix problems within four years or risk losing accreditation altogether.

Following the financial collapse of the Allegheny health system 3 1/2 years ago, Drexel University agreed to manage MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine with the right, eventually, to absorb it. That time is now. Drexel's board of trustees is expected to vote within the next week to take permanent ownership of MCP Hahnemann University and its affiliated schools of nursing and public health. If the trustees approve the deal as expected, MCP Hahnemann, the nation's largest privately funded medical school, would officially become part of Drexel on July 1. The medical school would carry the Drexel name - Drexel University's MCP Hahnemann College of Medicine.

Drexel University and Tenet Healthcare Corp. are negotiating an agreement that would enable Drexel to take permanent control of one of Philadelphia's four medical schools by July 1. Drexel has been running MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine and its affiliated schools of nursing and public health for three years, following the financial collapse of the former Allegheny health system in the largest nonprofit health-care bankruptcy ever. Drexel must indicate by April 1 that it wants to absorb MCP Hahnemann, or its management of the medical university will end July 1. But those involved in the Tenet-Drexel negotiations say the West Philadelphia university has no intention of walking away.

The University of Pennsylvania expects to decide by the end of February whether to keep, sell, or chart some other course for its debt-burdened hospitals. That time frame was disclosed last night by Alan G. Wasserstein, chair of the medical faculty senate, in an interview after a symposium on the various scenarios that Penn is considering for its hospitals. Wasserstein serves on the committee of trustees and medical school faculty that is exploring options for assuring the financial viability of the hospitals and health system.

The dean of Allegheny University's medical school, a key figure in the university's effort to reorganize through U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings and survive as a freestanding institution, has been interviewed for two positions elsewhere. Barbara F. Atkinson confirmed yesterday that she is among three finalists for the chancellor's job at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She is due to visit its campuses in Omaha and Lincoln on Oct. 1 and 2 for meetings, interviews, and an all-campus forum at which she will field questions.

A final touch was bestowed on the union of two Philadelphia medical schools yesterday when the combined institution was given a new name: Allegheny University of the Health Sciences. Until now, the academic health center had been known as the Medical College of Pennsylvania & Hahnemann University. The two old institutions merged in early 1994 as part of the Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, of Pittsburgh. "It has been our goal to form a single, strong, cohesive institution that built on the strengths of both organizations," said Sherif S. Abdelhak, chief executive of the foundation and president of Allegheny University of the Health Sciences.

This much is certain: Emanuel Johnson was shot dead in early January of last year outside a West Philadelphia bar. It's what happened to his brain - and 24 others - that is now in dispute. In a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia, Johnson's mother, Emeline Buell, has charged that her 23-year-old son's body was taken to the city Medical Examiner's Office. There, the suit charges, his brain was cut from his skull, treated in a chemical preservative and shipped to the University of Pennsylvania for use by medical students in an anatomy course.

Here's a career description designed to scare people off: lengthy education followed by massive debt, long hours, life-and-death responsibility, the specter of managed care, bureaucrats second-guessing every medical move, and an increasingly litigious society. In the late '80s, when many doctors in practice advised young people against becoming physicians, medical-school applications fell sharply. Today, the picture remains the same for doctors. If anything, the Clinton administration, touting health-care reform, may make managed care an even greater presence in American medicine.