Healthcare Is Changing Faster Than Ever. RFU Names Education Innovator James Carlson as Provost

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science has named James Carlson, PhD, PA-C, CHSE-A, as provost to lead its academic missions. In collaboration with the extraordinary leadership team at RFU, Dr. Carlson will serve as the chief academic officer for the university’s educational programs encompassing more than 30 health and medical science degrees. RFU is a national leader in interprofessional education and just opened one of the most integrated simulation centers in the country under Dr. Carlson’s direction. RFU’s colleges prepare future healthcare professionals not simply for what is known today, but for careers in which what they know — and how they practice — will continually change.

An educator and physician assistant whose work has focused on interprofessional healthcare education and innovation, Dr. Carlson has served as RFU’s interim provost since July 2025. As provost, he will lead the university’s academic enterprise at a time when artificial intelligence, immersive technology, new models of team-based care and the accelerating pace of biomedical discovery are changing both healthcare practice and how health professionals must be educated.

“Our job at Rosalind Franklin University is to prepare students for a career in the ever-changing landscapes of patient care and science,” Dr. Sousa said. “Our clinicians and scientists graduate as excellent professionals ready to care for patients and advance knowledge in their fields. Dr. Carlson is a dynamic, experienced leader who understands that challenge and has spent his career building educational environments to address the future needs of students and their patients.”

Healthcare remains fundamentally human and increasingly team-based, requiring clinicians to communicate, exercise judgment and work effectively across professions. Science, including that developed at RFU, continues to develop rapidly. Students develop the skills to use emergent technologies to expand what they can do for patients, including those who are underserved by the larger medical establishment.

Dr. Carlson’s work at RFU has anticipated this changing landscape. He has led the university’s simulation-based education and the DeWitt C. Baldwin Institute for Interprofessional Education and most recently helped lead development of RFU’s new Virtual Health System, an immersive learning environment where students can encounter complex clinical situations, practice as teams and learn to use emerging technologies before those decisions involve actual patients.

The Virtual Health System brings together immersive technologies and clinical training environments to create opportunities for students to develop clinical judgment, communication, adaptability and team-based problem solving. The Virtual Health System represents a shift in how we prepare learners and experienced healthcare professionals for where healthcare delivery is headed.

“Health professions education must prepare graduates not just for the healthcare system of today, but for the one that is still emerging,” Dr. Carlson said. “That means developing professionals who can learn continuously, adapt quickly, collaborate broadly and use new technologies thoughtfully — without ever losing sight of the patient and family at the center of care.”

Dr. Carlson’s approach also reflects a central premise of RFU’s educational model: Healthcare is delivered by teams and should be learned that way. His work has created environments in which students from different health professions learn with and from one another while confronting the kinds of clinical decisions, uncertainty and competing information they will encounter in practice.

Before serving as interim provost, Dr. Carlson was RFU’s associate provost for innovation and vice president for interprofessional education and simulation. He is a faculty member in the university’s Physician Assistant and Medicine programs, led RFU’s simulation-based education in the Gross Anatomy Lab, and previously served as dean of the university’s College of Health Professions.

Dr. Carlson earned his PhD in interprofessional healthcare studies from RFU in 2012 and a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Practice from RFU in 2001. He completed the American Medical Association’s Health Systems Science Fellowship in 2022 and holds the advanced Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator credential from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.