Reception celebrates OU-HCOM’s planned extension campus at Cleveland Clinic

(CLEVELAND - Nov. 26, 2012), A gala reception Monday night at Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Pavilion Rooftop welcomed recently appointed dean of the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM), Kenneth Johnson, D.O., and celebrated the college’s planned extension campus in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic, scheduled to open summer, 2015.

More than 150 medical professionals, health system leaders, business leaders, civic leaders and higher education professionals attended the event, highlighting the significant impact that the expanded partnership will have for health care in northeastern Ohio as well as the future of medical education.

OU-HCOM and the Cleveland Clinic have been longtime partners in osteopathic medical education. Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital, then called Brentwood Hospital, was one of the original hospitals where OU-HCOM students received clinical training when the college convened classes in 1976, and it was the first osteopathic hospital in Ohio approved for training residents in family medicine. 

“Northeastern Ohio, with its excellent health care systems and physicians, has played a very significant and important role in training our students since that first class began their rotations 34 years ago,” said Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis, Ph.D. “We thank the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital, and the Brentwood Foundation for their longtime friendship, enthusiasm and support, and for making this new extension campus possible.”  

Pending accreditation, the campus will open with an initial class of 32 medical students in July 2015. The students will spend all four years of medical school at the northeastern Ohio campus. “This partnership reflects a national trend toward greater integration among healthcare organizations and together we have found an innovative way to work together to improve medical education and patient care for all,” said Toby Cosgrove, M.D., president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic. 

“The opportunity we have is to create a medical education experience that puts us five, ten, 15 years in the future,” said Dr. Johnson. “We’re looking for people who have significant leadership skills who are dedicated to primary care. As we transform medical education we can also transform the way that we take care of people. I want us to lead in a way that other people want to come along.”

“We, at the AOA, applaud both the Cleveland Clinic and OU-HCOM for the contributions they’ve made to medicine. And we applaud this partnership,” said Ray Stowers, D.O., president of the American Osteopathic Association.  “It’s a partnership that will fulfill a great need for primary care physicians in Ohio, particularly in the northeast region. It’s a partnership that will help to better position our profession as a leader and proponent for the best patient care available.”