Hey there future KCOMers,
I thought I would post this message that we just received from the school. Sorry it is so long (I didn't do any editing), but I hope it is helpful.
State of the College (KCOM)
By: James J. McGovern, Ph.D., President
1. Top Primary Care School in U.S.: KCOM was first in the nation among both D.O. and M.D. schools in terms of graduates going into primary care. This "ranking", done by the American Medical Student Association, is most accurate because it surveyed the residents themselves who were about to move into practices.
2. Well By Any Measure: KCOM students continue to have excellent first-time pass rates on the COMLEX Board Exams, surpassing all D.O. schools in many subject areas. This past year about 50 of our students also took the USMLE Boards. We were subsequently visited by a USMLE official who wanted to investigate why our students did so well, surpassing more than 85 percent of all test-takers. During his visit, he had extraordinarily great praise for KCOM's present faculty and procedures.
3. New Deans: G. Barry Robbins, D.O., '70, was named interim dean to serve until December, 2001 since the new dean is scheduled to arrive on January 1, 2002. (The name of the new dean is awaiting his signing of a contract as of this writing.) Phillip Slocum, D.O., FACOI, FCCM, FCCP, '76, has been named associate dean for academic affairs and Dr. Robbins will return to his position as associate dean for regional affairs after January 1st. Scott Howell, D.O. was named assistant dean for OPTIK.
4. Best External Funding Year in KCOM History: Over $20 million was raised during the past year in external funds, making it the best year in the history of KCOM. About $9.4 million was raised from grants and over $11 million from gifts and donations.
5. Research Advances: KCOM has tripled its research funding during the past four years from about $3 million to $9.4 million this year. Dr. Richard Cenedella leads the faculty with about $1.2 million in National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants and was named the Researcher of the Year. KCOM was named the State Center for Senior-Living Research by the State of Missouri, the first such center of excellence in the state.
6. Top U.S. Community Center of Excellence in Woman's Health: Last September, KCOM received one of only three HRSA grants in the United States for a Community Center of Excellence in Woman's Health. KCOM's application received the highest score in the country (92.8 out of 100 points) and so it was awarded the $750,000 grant. A joint KCOM/ASHS training merit application also received a high national score (82 out of 100 points) and received a grant of just under $500,000.
7. International Conference: Michael Kuchera, D.O., FAAO, '80, chaired the 13th International Federation of Musculoskeletal Medicine (FIMM) Congress in Chicago last July. Dr. Kuchera, Vice President for International Osteopathic Education and Associate Dean for Osteopathic Research, was also named this year's Gutensohn-Denslow Award winner by the American Osteopathic Association.
8. Graduation 2001: On June 2nd, KCOM graduated 139 new D.O.'s with U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan as graduation speaker. This year's Grand Marshall was John Bodell, D.O., FACOS, '71, who is the assistant regional dean for KCOM in Michigan. Besides Senator Carnahan, Anthony Dekker, D.O., received an honorary degree for his work with American Natives and other medically underserved in Arizona.
9. Merit Awards: This year's recipients of the Gutensohn Merit Award were Lex Towns, Ph.D., chairman and professor of anatomy and David Goldman, D.O., J.D., FCLM, associate professor of psychiatry.
10. First NIH Osteopathy Grant: Donald Noll, D.O., FACOI, '87, received what is believed to be the first NIH research grant for osteopathic medicine. The $125,000 grant was for investigating the benefits of OMT for persons with obstructive pulmonary disease. Since Dr. Noll's grant, another NIH grant has been received for osteopathic research and several others are pending.
11. Advance Palpatory Skills Course: Brian Degenhardt, D.O., associate professor of OMM has introduced a new hands-on course to students which incorporates OMT into family practice and pairs students with members of the faculty.
12. Endowment Management: Care of the KCOM endowment was placed in the hands of J.P. Morgan-Chase this year. The school's endowment has grown to over $45 million, up from $32 million just four years ago. This growth is remarkable given the recent stock market downturn, the annual use of five percent of interest returns, and some borrowing for the new building in Arizona.
13. Osteopathic Research Center: We have raised several million dollars during the past few months to bring our total for osteopathic research to over $11 million. We have also formed an advisory board with representatives from Harvard University's Center for Alternative Medicine Research, the University of California, San Diego's U.S. Spine and Sports Medicine Center, and the Texas Back Institute.
14. Applications and Enrollments: Once again, the applicant pool is down for both M.D. and D.O. schools, about twice as much for the latter. For KCOM, the applications were down over six percent, but thanks to the admissions staff's hard work in interviewing 486 applicants (35% more than last year), we obtained a class of 157. The average GPA score (3.4) and MCAT score (27) are about the same as last year.
15. Financial Report: There were several unexpected shortfalls in D.O. tuition, ASHS net income, and SHM net income as well as unexpected additional expenses in utilities, interest payments, and AOA, AACOM visits and related costs which were balanced by favorable additional revenue from the salary contributions from additional grants, the sale of the Laughlin Building, and additional internal savings.
Most significantly, KCOM has been able to keep its total healthcare costs level during the past two years, thanks to using Health Network America. During the prior two years to the last two years, KCOM's healthcare costs were increasing by over 25 percent per year.
16. Distinguished Service Award: Lori Haxton, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Admissions, was the 2000 Distinguished Service Award winner.
17. Faculty/Staff Campaign: The great increase in the results of fund-raising this year ($11 million) has been described in Item 2 above. However, there has also been a large increase in the results ($0.5 million) of giving by faculty and staff which represents over 62 percent of that group! Further, there have been larger than ever participation by faculty and staff in phone-a-thons. Faculty and staff have probably never worked more cooperatively and harder in raising money, pursuing grants, developing a new integrated curriculum, and working with students.
