Ohio University

Region: Ohio Country: USA

Dean's Message
There has never been a more exciting time to be a part of the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition to the development of our regional extension campus in central Ohio, we have the many medical education, research and community service initiatives that we will launch as part of our historic $105 million Osteopathic Heritage Foundations gift. We also have expanding partnerships and collaborations on the horizon, as well as many other changes that make this an extremely exciting and important time in the history of this college.

The transformational changes we're working on today build on a decade of dramatic transition and expansion for our college. Twice as many applicants now apply to OU-HCOM, and students' GPAs and test scores have risen dramatically. Our entering class has grown by 40 percent while the number of partners in our consortium of teaching hospitals and clinical faculty has more than doubled. That consortium, called the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE), is widely recognized as one of the premier clinical training systems in the nation. Meanwhile, our faculty members have gained national recognition for their research efforts, and their discoveries have saved countless lives.

Over the past decade, the face of our college has changed, as well. We opened the Life Sciences Research Facility and built the remarkable Osteopathic Heritage Foundations and Charles R. and Marilyn Y. Stuckey Academic & Research Center, state-of-the-art microanatomy and (two) anatomy labs, a new and expanded osteopathic manipulative medicine lab, and the beautiful Heritage Clinical Training and Assessment Center & Community Clinic.

The achievements of our trainees and graduates provide some of the most telling proof of our success. Our sought-after students arrive at clinical sites confident with patient interactions because of their many hours of clinical experience as well as the intensive osteopathic training we provide. Our alumni are respected leaders in their professions. In addition to their practices spanning the entire spectrum of medical specialties and in practices around the country, our alumni have created new surgery techniques, developed clinical research programs, founded companies, and been granted dozens of patents. Our programs are stronger because many of our alumni find time to give back to the college by mentoring students at our clinical training sties, sharing expertise here at the Athens campus, and giving financially. This makes me very proud!

It is with the momentum of this past decade of growth and development that we embark on our most ambitious endeavors yet. The Osteopathic Heritage Foundations gift?the largest in the history of public higher education in Ohio?has set us on a course of excellence, growth and service to Ohio, one that will propel us to the forefront of primary care medical education and medical research.

I look forward to working with our faculty, staff, students, alumni, friends, and partners old and new as we bring our college to heights we cannot yet imagine.

About us
The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is a leader in providing a patient-centered, clinically integrated medical education continuum, from pre-medical education to undergraduate medical education, and on through residency training, with an emphasis on primary care. Our focused research and community health programs speak to our commitment to improving health and well-being in our communities and quality of life for our patients.

The state's only osteopathic medical school, our college was founded in 1975 and is located at Ohio University's Athens, Ohio campus.

Education
Though based in southeast Ohio, OU-HCOM's education programs reach statewide through our collaboration with 26 teaching hospitals throughout Ohio. This hospital consortium, called the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE), is recognized as one of the largest, most advanced and best-supported osteopathic medical education consortiums in the country.

Close to 500 undergraduate medical students train with us each year, the first and second years at our Ohio University campus in Athens, and the two clinical training years spent at one of 12 CORE hospitals. Our first- and second-year curricula integrate anatomical studies and biomedical sciences in a clinically relevant way, with great emphasis on early clinical contact. Unlike at many other medical schools, our students begin practicing patient interviews, physical examinations, diagnosis and counseling in both clinical and laboratory settings almost immediately after starting their careers with us.

To address different learning styles, our college offers two distinct curricular experiences, both of which underscore our patient care focus through case studies and collaborative small-group learning.

The Clinical Presentation Continuum, into which all admitted students are initially placed, offers more structured, faculty-directed learning environment.
The Patient-Centered Continuum is limited to 24 students per class and lets students set their own learning objectives based on case studies designed by faculty.

In addition to the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree, we offer six dual degree programs. A medical degree combined with studies in biomedical research (Ph.D.), public health policy (M.P.H., M.H.A.), or business (M.B.A.), for example, can prepare students for specialized careers in research, epidemiology and hospital administration, among many others.

During third- and fourth-year rotations, students work in rural, suburban and urban settings to explore more than 30 medical specialties including primary care, surgery, neurology, neonatal care, orthopedics, and anesthesiology and cardiology, to name just a few. OU-HCOM assistant deans and administrators at each site are dedicated to meeting trainees' on-site needs.

Many of our graduates also take advantage of the full continuum of medical education we offer by choosing graduate medical education programs in the CORE, which became the nation's first accredited Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institution (OPTI) in 1997. CORE graduate medical education opportunities include:

600 internship, residency and fellowship positions,
nearly 100 programs offered through the 26 partner hospitals around the state, and
access to the many resources that make the CORE a nationally recognized OPTI, including our highly acclaimed research education resources, faculty development resources and distance learning technology.

Research
Our medical research initiatives are advancing diagnostics, treatments and cures for some of the most pervasive health care issues both here and abroad, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Our faculty members, who often conduct their research with the assistance of medical students and biomedical science graduate students, have earned national recognition for their contributions, including:

In 2010, Ohio University was named the top public school in the state for licensing revenue generated from its research discoveries. It also was ranked fourth in the nation for research return on investment based on royalty income. Those rankings are thanks in large part to the growth hormone antagonist developed here at OU-HCOM and marketed worldwide by Pfizer Inc.
Our research efforts earned a recent commendation from the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, which praised several of our programs and facilities as well as our financial and administrative support for research.
In fiscal year 2009-2010, OU-HCOM faculty and staff secured more than $3.1 million in revenue from 56 research grants and clinical trials.

Community Care
OU-HCOM is the community leader in providing services that make life better for our southeast Ohio neighbors. Services are developed in response to community needs, and have included health screenings, navigator programs for families, childhood immunizations, bus driver physicals, and health education for community members and regional health care providers. Our longtime commitment to aiding our neighbors also includes providing much-needed medical care for under- and uninsured members of our community.

This effort expanded in 1996 when we launched our specially equipped mobile health clinics that provide a health care setting in rural communities that have none, and expanded in 2006 with the opening of our Free Clinic. Recently renamed the Heritage Community Clinic when relocated to a new, expanded space-thanks to a gift from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations-the clinic provides free and low-cost medical care to underserved populations in southeastern Ohio.

In 2010-2011 our Community Health Programs provided:

more than $1 million in free or reduced-cost services for southeast Ohio residents through programs such as our Community Clinic,
more than 5,200 childhood immunizations,
11,500 screenings for lice, vision, hearing, gross motor skills and immunization compliance,
nearly 500 patient visits for breast cancer screening, and
14,033 continuing education credits to area physicians, nurses, social workers and counselors.

Our Future
Today our college is undergoing transformational changes made possible by a $105 million gift from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations, the largest gift in the history of public higher education in Ohio. With this gift we are addressing some of the most pressing health care issues across the state and the nation-including the impending shortage of primary care physicians and the diabetes epidemic. Our goal is for these changes to propel us to the forefront of primary care and medical education and research among all medical schools nationally.

One such change will be the opening of our new regional extension campus in central Ohio in 2014. The campus, which will allow us to train an additional 50 medical students annually, will access our wide range of central Ohio resources and partnerships to enrich the student experience and ultimately benefit Ohio citizens. Through a curricular focus on primary care and the urban underserved, the campus will strengthen our ability to meet our founding mission of serving Ohio's neediest communities.

Additional initiatives under way as a result of the gift include:

revamping our curricula to focus even more on the patient-centered medical care model of health care,
adding 93 new scholarships,
collaborating with partner hospital systems to offer debt relief as incentives for graduates to train-and eventually practice-in Ohio,
bolstering our community service initiatives by putting more resources behind our free community health clinics,
growing our D.O./Ph.D. program,
adding a D.O./M.S. program,
creating new endowed chair positions, and
building new Athens facilities for the Diabetes/Endocrine Clinical Treatment and Research Center, and the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute.