Granted provisional accreditation by COCA in September 2006, the Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM) in Harrogate, Tenn, will open its doors this fall.
The school has received more than 2,100 applications for its inaugural class of 150 students, says AOA Trustee Ray E. Stowers, DO, the colleges dean. We are very satisfied with the quality of the applicants, he emphasizes.
To fulfill its mission of training students to become primary care physicians who will practice in underserved rural areas in Tennessee and other parts of Appalachia, LMU-DCOMs first priority is to recruit students from Tennessee, according to Dr Stowers. The schools second priority is to recruit from other Appalachian states, especially Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. And its third priority is to recruit students from anywhere in the country who would make good primary care physicians.
We hope that at least 70% of our students will go into primary care, Dr Stowers notes. But we also hope our graduates will train in other specialties, from general surgery to gastroenterology, and practice in rural areas.
In reviewing applications and in interviewing candidates for admission, LMUDCOM looks for indications that prospective DOs will thrive in rural practice settings. We look for people who have confidence because physicians who practice in rural environments dont have a wide range of specialists to back them up, Dr Stowers explains.
We look for people who have strong records of community service because physicians who practice in small towns are expected to get involved in their communities.
And to identify students who would enjoy practicing in the Appalachian region, we look for people who are outdoors-oriented, such as candidates who love hiking and fishing, as opposed to those who are more interested in urban cultural activities, such as going to the opera.
LMU-DCOMs curriculum will stress the interdependence of the biological, clinical, behavioral and social sciences. Instruction in the first and second years will be organized according to the bodys major organ systems, such as the endocrine system, the cardiovascular system and the reproductive system. The organ-system courses, which will vary in length, will integrate instruction in anatomy, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and virology, as well as clinical science considerations.
Third- and fourth-year students will serve rotations in the 10 Appalachian hospitals and many community health centers with which LMU-DCOM has established relationships, Dr Stowers says. With the final year emphasizing rural practice, fourth-year students spend two months in rural primary care settings.
Scheduled to be completed in June, the four-story, 105,000-square-foot facility that will house the college will include lecture halls and classrooms, faculty and administrative offices and laboratories. Of particular note, according to Dr Stowers, is the colleges patient-simulation laboratory that will feature interactive, lifelike SimMan®, SimWoman® and Sim-Baby® computerzied mannequins. These mannequins simulate a full rage of physiologic processes.