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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. |
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| Education - Research
- Community Care - Our
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Education |
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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.
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Research |
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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.
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Community Care |
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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.
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Our
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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.
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