RTW Foundation donates $8M to reimagine physician training in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine
The gift sparks curriculum transformation, new lectureship, and names Entrepreneurship Pathway in honor of alumnus Rod Wong.
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(From left) Kevin Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS); Jennifer Kogan, vice dean for Undergraduate Medical Education; Penn President J. Larry Jameson; Rod Wong and Marti Speranza Wong; Lisa Bellini, executive vice dean of the Perelman School of Medicine and senior vice president of academic affairs for UPHS; Jonathan Epstein, dean of the Perelman School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for UPHS.
A landmark $8 million gift from the RTW Foundation, led by Penn Medicine Board of Trustees member Rod Wong (M ‘03) and Marti Speranza Wong (C ‘98) will launch a bold initiative to reimagine medical education at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (PSOM). It is the single largest donation to support curriculum innovation in PSOM history, ensuring that the nation’s first medical school will continue to lead in training physicians for generations to come.
The project, known as FRAME: Fueling Reimagination to Advance Medical Education, will bring together faculty, staff, and students to create and implement a new curriculum built for the future of medicine: an era when gene therapies have reshaped the promise of cures for an array of diseases, artificial intelligence is putting new treatments closer at hand than ever, and the rise of remote monitoring and telemedicine are changing the ways in which doctors interact with patients.
The reimagined curriculum will integrate technology, AI, and data in powerful ways, providing greater flexibility and customized learning plans to students through the concept of precision education, a methodology inspired by precision medicine, which personalizes treatments for patients based on factors including environment, genetics, and lifestyle.
Emerging tools like ambient listening technology, for instance, will help students develop clinical reasoning skills and work in teams with other types of health care professionals. Customized AR/VR simulations will help students to better understand anatomy, master crucial knowledge to diagnose illness and develop treatment plans, and enhance training for procedural skills such as IV placement and suturing. By building a vast ecosystem of data and interwoven AI tools—such as insights drawn from how students use Penn’s electronic medical record (EMR) system during clinical education—each of the school’s nearly 800 student doctors will have a more personalized pathway to guide their education.
Together, these elements will support training flexibility and innovation as the field races ahead. Those same qualities have also guided Rod Wong’s entrepreneurial success and vision through a professional journey spanning medicine, business, and biotech investment.
“Rod and Marti exemplify the best of Penn—visionary alumni leaders whose commitment to advancing medicine will shape generations to come,” says J. Larry Jameson,president of the University of Pennsylvania. “This gift from the RTW Foundation, powering a leading approach to medical education with an entrepreneurial model, will be another groundbreaking way that the Perelman School of Medicine is setting the standard for the future of medicine.”
“I believe medical innovation is the key to life being better in the future than it is today,” Wong says. “And as science accelerates, to train physicians for the future, so should education. Penn has the courage and the team to pursue this, which is why I am so excited to have the opportunity to support this effort.”
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