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Copied from VA Tech Newsletter http://www.vtnetletter.vt.edu/nov03/feature2.html
When Dr. Dixie Tooke-Rawlins arrived in Blacksburg in 2001, the osteopathic physician faced a daunting task: create a new medical college from a "blank sheet of paper" with no faculty, no students, not even a physical home.
But a short two years later, the first crop of Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine students are nearly halfway through their fall semester and faculty are already attracting millions of dollars in federal research grants. And just two months after opening its doors to students, the Blacksburg medical school is on track to receive 2,000 applications for the roughly 150 spots in next year's class.
Tooke-Rawlins, who gave up a job as interim dean of the nation's oldest osteopathic medical school to become dean of the newest, said they encountered few of the snags and unforeseen obstacles that one would expect when starting a new college.
"I can't say enough about the students and how much they've been involved in making this work," she said. "And we have faculty that are just so enthusiastic about developing the school."
As one of the founding administrators of the new private college, Tooke-Rawlins has played a key role in the successful launch of Southwest Virginia's first medical school.
"When you stop and think about it, to put everything together like she did with just her staff is quite remarkable," said James Bohland, director and senior fellow for special initiatives at Virginia Tech. Bohland said the smooth launch of the college was a tribute to Tooke-Rawlins' work ethic and attention to detail.
Tooke-Rawlins received her doctorate of osteopathic medicine from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri in 1980 and has devoted much of her career to rural medicine.
Osteopathic doctors, or D.O.s, are licensed to provide the same care as the more common doctor of allopathy, or M.D., and can go into any area of medicine. But because of their whole-body approach to medicine, a higher percentage of D.O.s go into general practice than do M.D.s.
The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine was created to help alleviate the shortage of general practice physicians in rural communities throughout the Central Appalachians. Although private, the medical school was strategically located in Blacksburg and shares some faculty and research facilities with Virginia Tech.
Tooke-Rawlins was working as the interim dean of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine when John Rocovich, an adviser to Edward Via and member of Tech's governing board, approached her about helping to open a school for osteopathic doctors in Southwest Virginia.
Tooke-Rawlins said she initially did not believe Virginia needed a fourth medical college. But that was before she visited rural communities in the mountainous part of the state.
"When I came and looked, I realized that there was such a need in Southwest Virginia and such an increasing need ... because so many physicians will be approaching retirement age in the next several years," she said. "It's a mission you can really feel good about."
Tooke-Rawlins and her husband, also an osteopathic doctor, moved from Missouri to Salem with their two teenage sons in 2001. Over the next two years, Tooke-Rawlins helped develop the joint agreements with Virginia Tech, recruit more than 50 faculty members and negotiate affiliations with a dozen hospitals from Salem to Norton.
As a former inspector of osteopathic colleges for the American Osteopathic Association, Tooke-Rawlins was able to pick and choose the best equipment and teaching approaches for use in the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The new college features a state-of-the-art anatomy laboratory, the latest classroom technology and numerous best practices Tooke-Rawlins observed at other schools.
Among the biggest challenges Tooke-Rawlins said she and her staff have faced are establishing a unified faculty from scratch and creating a month-to-month budget for the next nine years. The college may also have to build an additional wing on the new building at least a year earlier than expected because of limited research space in the college's facilities and at Tech.
When Dr. Dixie Tooke-Rawlins arrived in Blacksburg in 2001, the osteopathic physician faced a daunting task: create a new medical college from a "blank sheet of paper" with no faculty, no students, not even a physical home.
But a short two years later, the first crop of Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine students are nearly halfway through their fall semester and faculty are already attracting millions of dollars in federal research grants. And just two months after opening its doors to students, the Blacksburg medical school is on track to receive 2,000 applications for the roughly 150 spots in next year's class.
Tooke-Rawlins, who gave up a job as interim dean of the nation's oldest osteopathic medical school to become dean of the newest, said they encountered few of the snags and unforeseen obstacles that one would expect when starting a new college.
"I can't say enough about the students and how much they've been involved in making this work," she said. "And we have faculty that are just so enthusiastic about developing the school."
As one of the founding administrators of the new private college, Tooke-Rawlins has played a key role in the successful launch of Southwest Virginia's first medical school.
"When you stop and think about it, to put everything together like she did with just her staff is quite remarkable," said James Bohland, director and senior fellow for special initiatives at Virginia Tech. Bohland said the smooth launch of the college was a tribute to Tooke-Rawlins' work ethic and attention to detail.
Tooke-Rawlins received her doctorate of osteopathic medicine from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri in 1980 and has devoted much of her career to rural medicine.
Osteopathic doctors, or D.O.s, are licensed to provide the same care as the more common doctor of allopathy, or M.D., and can go into any area of medicine. But because of their whole-body approach to medicine, a higher percentage of D.O.s go into general practice than do M.D.s.
The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine was created to help alleviate the shortage of general practice physicians in rural communities throughout the Central Appalachians. Although private, the medical school was strategically located in Blacksburg and shares some faculty and research facilities with Virginia Tech.
Tooke-Rawlins was working as the interim dean of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine when John Rocovich, an adviser to Edward Via and member of Tech's governing board, approached her about helping to open a school for osteopathic doctors in Southwest Virginia.
Tooke-Rawlins said she initially did not believe Virginia needed a fourth medical college. But that was before she visited rural communities in the mountainous part of the state.
"When I came and looked, I realized that there was such a need in Southwest Virginia and such an increasing need ... because so many physicians will be approaching retirement age in the next several years," she said. "It's a mission you can really feel good about."
Tooke-Rawlins and her husband, also an osteopathic doctor, moved from Missouri to Salem with their two teenage sons in 2001. Over the next two years, Tooke-Rawlins helped develop the joint agreements with Virginia Tech, recruit more than 50 faculty members and negotiate affiliations with a dozen hospitals from Salem to Norton.
As a former inspector of osteopathic colleges for the American Osteopathic Association, Tooke-Rawlins was able to pick and choose the best equipment and teaching approaches for use in the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The new college features a state-of-the-art anatomy laboratory, the latest classroom technology and numerous best practices Tooke-Rawlins observed at other schools.
Among the biggest challenges Tooke-Rawlins said she and her staff have faced are establishing a unified faculty from scratch and creating a month-to-month budget for the next nine years. The college may also have to build an additional wing on the new building at least a year earlier than expected because of limited research space in the college's facilities and at Tech.
