Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY
The Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine is committed to excellence in osteopathic education, research and service through the Statewide Campus System. The college fully prepares osteopathic physicians to respond to public need in a dynamic health care environment.

Fact Sheet
The MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine teaches its first- and second-year students at three sites to facilitate access and provide a variety of experience. Two-thirds of these students are on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, and one-third is split evenly between the Macomb University Center in Clinton Township and the Detroit Medical Center downtown.

Two-thirds of MSUCOM's 4,322 living alumni practice in Michigan, and more than half of them are providing primary care medicine - family practice, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics. They are active in almost all of Michigan's counties and all 50 states, serving people in metropolitan, suburban and rural areas. Of 2,845 Michigan alumni, half are in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

More than 85 percent of the students in the 2011 entering class are Michigan residents. The class has 138 females and 178 males; the youngest is 20 and the oldest 42 years. Average MCAT is 8.83 and GPA is 3.6. Recognition of D.O. licensure allows the college to recruit internationally. Amoung the entering class are 14 Canadian students committed to expand the profession there.

To provide high-quality pre- and postdoctoral osteopathic medical education, MSUCOM collaborates with 43 major healthcare institutions and more than 2,800 volunteer clinical faculty throughout our Statewide Campus System. This year 1,610 physicians-in-training are enrolled in 213 SCS programs. Eighty percent of MSUCOM graduates are accepted into SCS programs.

This year MSUCOM's D.O.-Ph.D. program admitted four new students, bringing the enrollment in the program to 21. These are elite students who spend seven or more years in both programs simultaneously, and conduct basic science research as part of their curriculum. After graduation, these physician-scientists bridge the gap between basic science and clinical practice in medical schools, universities, or major medical research centers.

Among our alumni are medical school deans, nationally recognized researchers, top-ranking military leaders, persons recognized for their work with the poor and medically underserved, sports physicians for collegiate and professional teams, and consultants involved in high-profile medical care.

MSUCOM faculty are the largest single provider of pediatric care to poor children in Lansing, and provide services at the Ingham County Health Department and at clinics serving the homeless, persons with substance abuse problems and the indigent.

The college provides medical services for the Michigan Special Olympics, has one of eight designated muscular dystrophy/ ALS clinics in the nation, facilitates an immigration clinic, and conducts numerous health screenings and immunization clinics each year.

MSUCOM has a highly distinguished cadre of researchers among its faculty - including three professors who hold endowed chairs, and five MSU University Distinguished Professors. MSUCOM receives more funding from the National Institutes of Health than any other osteopathic college - a testament to the quality of our research.

MSUCOM is involved in a wide variety of international health programs, such as malaria research and clinical care in Malawi, including placing that country's first MRI; neurology and epilepsy care in Zambia; research in Uganda, and the work of the Institute of International Health, which develops collaborations, exchanges, medical missions and research in numerous countries.The college now maintains research, education and clinical care programs on five continents.

Osteopathic medicine embraces the following philosophic principles:

• There exists an intimate relationship between structure and function in the human body
• Within this unity of organization, health is a reflection of an integrity of self-regulatory and self-healing mechanisms
• Certain distortions within these components reflect a level of disturbed health as a part of the process of disease
• Some manifestations of these distortions can be perceived within the neuromusculoskeletal system through the clinical use of osteopathic diagnostic procedures
• Osteopathic medicine is dedicated to the amelioration of these disturbed structure-function relationships by the clinical application of osteopathic diagnostic and therapeutic skills developed within this distinctive orientation.

The college is dedicated to assist in meeting the ever-growing public demand for physicians who can provide comprehensive and continuing health care to all members of the family. While the educational program of the College of Osteopathic Medicine is geared to the training of primary care physicians, the curricula are also designed to meet the continuing need for medical specialists and teacher-investigators.

Traditionally, osteopathic education seeks to prepare physicians who are especially concerned with maintaining continuing personal relationships with patients, their families and their optimum interaction with the community environmental patterns. This emphasis is reflected in the nature of the curriculum and particularly reinforced during clinical clerkship rotations through a variety of clinical disciplines in both hospital and non-hospital settings.

Early clinical involvement in patient care enables students to study the biological and behavioral sciences that are relevant to what they are seeing and doing in the clinical area. With the help of the faculties in the biological and behavioral sciences, students learn to apply current concepts and principles to clinical problems related to patient care.

The entire teaching program emphasizes an important cooperative relationship between basic sciences and clinical practice. During their medical undergraduate and graduate education, students must develop the foundation and motivation for a lifetime of learning, and the ability to apply new knowledge and skills as they evolve.

Medical education within the college is consistent with osteopathic philosophy and is based on the following tenets:

• The focal point of the curriculum is patient care
• The holistic nature of osteopathic medical care of patients in their environments requires the integration and application of the biological, clinical, social and behavioral sciences
• The basic sciences are not necessarily preclinical topics, but subjects that become meaningful and relevant when applied to the art and science of clinical osteopathic medicine
• The students should have early and significant patient contact, and patient responsibility should increase progressively throughout the program
• A level of performance to criterion is expected of all students in basic and clinical sciences, including palpatory diagnosis and manipulative therapy
• Students must be prepared for more than utilization of present knowledge.

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Degree Programs :

Medicine

Video Presentation

Transitioning to Medical School - Student Advice: MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM)

Three student leaders from the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine describe their experiences in making the transition into medical school for the 2012 matriculants.