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July 12, 2007
Tom Mino, DO
President, Colorado Society of Osteopathic Medicine
Dear Dr. Mino:
I am writing to you as a representative of a large group of osteopathic physicians and medical educators under the name Doctors Not Dollars. We are very concerned about the development of a for-profit osteopathic medical school in Parker and wish to voice our opposition to the participation by the Colorado Society of Osteopathic Medicine in the accreditation process of the Rocky Vista University, College of Osteopathic Medicine. While we understand the requirements of COCA, we believe that the people of the State of Colorado are being sold a bill of goods and there are a few issues of which you may not be aware.
Rocky Vista University (RVU) is a University in name only, listed by the Colorado Secretary of State as a for-profit corporation. Investors in RVU are also the owners of the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles and are opening the Colorado school as another investment. Given that all for-profit medical schools in the US were intentionally closed because of poor quality following the Flexner report of 1910, it is disturbing that we now see the first for-profit school of medicine since 1935 about to be established in Colorado. We are particularly distressed that the first US for-profit medical school in nearly 80 years has to be an Osteopathic school. Although the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, the osteopathic accreditation body permits for-profit medical schools, they are prohibited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the allopathic or MD equivalent and are even illegal in some states, such as Kansas. Osteopathic schools are widely criticized for high rates of tuition, excess of part-time faculty and lack of standardized clinical training. It is hard to see how a for-profit institution will improve on this. It is disingenuous to believe that this business venture will somehow alleviate physician shortages in underserved areas of Colorado, considering the costs of tuition, at greater than $30,000 per year, combined with the cost of living in the Denver metro area. Is it plausible that someone will incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to attend medical school and then go on to practice family medicine in Lamar, Colorado, or some similarly impoverished location? Isnt this just boilerplate fluff for the media? The Rocky Vista School, to be operated as an investment by the owners of the American University of the Caribbean, will bring into the public eye the image a Colorado medical school as a mercenary entity, treating desperate students as just another profit-making commodity. In an era where there are 47 million Americans without health insurance, where the US ranks 43rd in infant mortality and where medical costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, how can the CSOM justify the existence of for-profit medical schools? If we are serious about health care access, cost and quality, then we cannot stand idly by and allow medical education to stand for money, profits and investments.
In 1999, the Wyoming Medical Society and other concerned parties successfully prevented Ross University, another Caribbean medical school, from opening a branch campus in their state. As a Colorado licensed physician who grew up in the Springs, I have an emotional soft spot for the state I consider home and I urge you and the Colorado Osteopathic Medical Society to reconsider your involvement with this embarrassing enterprise.
Fraternally,
George Mychaskiw II, DO, FAAP
Tom Mino, DO
President, Colorado Society of Osteopathic Medicine
Dear Dr. Mino:
I am writing to you as a representative of a large group of osteopathic physicians and medical educators under the name Doctors Not Dollars. We are very concerned about the development of a for-profit osteopathic medical school in Parker and wish to voice our opposition to the participation by the Colorado Society of Osteopathic Medicine in the accreditation process of the Rocky Vista University, College of Osteopathic Medicine. While we understand the requirements of COCA, we believe that the people of the State of Colorado are being sold a bill of goods and there are a few issues of which you may not be aware.
Rocky Vista University (RVU) is a University in name only, listed by the Colorado Secretary of State as a for-profit corporation. Investors in RVU are also the owners of the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles and are opening the Colorado school as another investment. Given that all for-profit medical schools in the US were intentionally closed because of poor quality following the Flexner report of 1910, it is disturbing that we now see the first for-profit school of medicine since 1935 about to be established in Colorado. We are particularly distressed that the first US for-profit medical school in nearly 80 years has to be an Osteopathic school. Although the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, the osteopathic accreditation body permits for-profit medical schools, they are prohibited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the allopathic or MD equivalent and are even illegal in some states, such as Kansas. Osteopathic schools are widely criticized for high rates of tuition, excess of part-time faculty and lack of standardized clinical training. It is hard to see how a for-profit institution will improve on this. It is disingenuous to believe that this business venture will somehow alleviate physician shortages in underserved areas of Colorado, considering the costs of tuition, at greater than $30,000 per year, combined with the cost of living in the Denver metro area. Is it plausible that someone will incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to attend medical school and then go on to practice family medicine in Lamar, Colorado, or some similarly impoverished location? Isnt this just boilerplate fluff for the media? The Rocky Vista School, to be operated as an investment by the owners of the American University of the Caribbean, will bring into the public eye the image a Colorado medical school as a mercenary entity, treating desperate students as just another profit-making commodity. In an era where there are 47 million Americans without health insurance, where the US ranks 43rd in infant mortality and where medical costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, how can the CSOM justify the existence of for-profit medical schools? If we are serious about health care access, cost and quality, then we cannot stand idly by and allow medical education to stand for money, profits and investments.
In 1999, the Wyoming Medical Society and other concerned parties successfully prevented Ross University, another Caribbean medical school, from opening a branch campus in their state. As a Colorado licensed physician who grew up in the Springs, I have an emotional soft spot for the state I consider home and I urge you and the Colorado Osteopathic Medical Society to reconsider your involvement with this embarrassing enterprise.
Fraternally,
George Mychaskiw II, DO, FAAP
