Healthcare company Atrium Health announced the opening of The Pearl, an innovation district for medical education and research in Charlotte. The location encompasses the Charlotte campus of Wake Forest University School of Medicine as well as the headquarters of surgical training facilitator IRCAD.
The district is projected to create over 5,500 on-site jobs as well as more than 11,500 jobs across the region over the next 15 years. Atrium Health created The Pearl in partnership with Wexford Science & Technology to help fuel collaboration, economic growth and innovation in Charlotte and beyond.
Atrium Health is part of Advocate Health, a major nonprofit health system with Wake Forest University School of Medicine as its academic core. The first batch of students starts classes in July 2025 with enrollment expected to reach 100 students per class over the next five years.
“We built The Pearl to unlock the next era of clinical breakthroughs by uniting the brightest minds with the most advanced technologies in modern medicine,” Eugene Woods, Advocate Health CEO, said in a statement. “It’s where the world’s top medical technology companies will work alongside surgeons, scientists, startups and students from Charlotte’s first four-year medical school with the singular goal of finding new treatments and cures.”
