Dean's Update 2023-07
July 25, 2023
Welcome Class of 2027 and New Curriculum
Spring and early summer are busy times at the Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine. It’s the time of year when our fourth-year medical students are matched into residency programs, followed by commencement when we watch them leave to pursue the next step of their physician journey. And then, shortly thereafter, we prepare to welcome our new class of student physicians.
On July 10, we held the door open for our class of about 300 medical students – our MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine Class of 2027.
We not only welcomed a new class, but we also welcomed our student physicians to study in our now thoroughly revised curriculum. As a leader in osteopathic medicine education, our college is mindful of how we can improve the educational journey for our future physicians, and guided by our mission of “providing world-class, osteopathic, student-centered graduate and medical education and research to foster community access to patient-centered medical care,” coupled with our Strategic Plan, we reviewed the curriculum and gathered feedback from our students, faculty and staff to help build the updated curriculum. This was all put in place with our incoming class who joined us on July 10 – one of the updates to the curriculum – a later start date!
Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education Kirsten Waarala, D.O., helped lead this effort, and while this work is both impressive and appreciated, we also believe it will be beneficial to our medical students and the patients and communities they will serve, including better opportunities to provide earlier opportunities for medical students to gain hands-on, clinical experience.
Dr. Waarala will talk more about the curriculum and its details.
Kirsten Waarala, D.O.
As the college welcomed the Class of 2027, these students started something new and became the first class to experience a significant update to the p
The modified preclerkship curriculum was developed to align with the college’s strategic initiatives. Building on the program’s academic strength, the updates are designed to meet several key objectives:
- Streamline the density and volume of content to enhance both outcomes and student experience.
- Adjust the timelines for program start dates and create space in the program for other scholarly and enrichment pursuits.
- Adopt strategic uniformity parameters and create a more unified instructional design.
- Align with accreditation requirements and emerging trends in medical education.
“These efforts reflect the input and creativity of numerous faculty, staff and students who have participated in the Curriculum Review Task Force (CRTF) or shared feedback through surveys and listening sessions,” Dr. Waarala said. “Course proposals were carefully vetted by the College Curriculum Committee (CCC) and endorsed by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA).”
The new OMS-I students (first-year osteopathic medicine students) are already experiencing changes in their first semester. By resequencing elements of the curriculum, students now begin their education in July, roughly four weeks later than in prior years and achieving a major goal of the Strategic Enrollment Management Initiative to move to a later start date.
The revised semester includes an updated gross anatomy course, and now includes “Introduction to Osteopathic Clinical Skills.” In this new course, students explore osteopathic tenets, and how these support fundamental communication and physical examination skills and embark on their professional development as future osteopathic physicians.
“This new format incorporates independent prework and interactive classroom sessions, establishing greater connections with fellow students and building habits for academic success,” Dr. Waarala explained.
There will also be significant changes to the fall semester, with the launch of two new courses. “Foundations of Biomedical Science for Osteopathic Medicine” will introduce concepts in biochemistry, biostatistics, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology and physiology, building on how these disciplines interrelate. In the second half of the semester, the new “Musculoskeletal System” course will integrate gross anatomy, basic science and osteopathic principles as students learn about normal function and disorders. The semester concludes with an updated “Hematology, Oncology and Infectious Disease” course, which likewise will feature biomedical sciences foundations to understanding the hematopoietic system, as well as principles of neoplastic and infectious disorders that will connect to the subsequent systems courses.
Additional changes to the course sequence and details on a new, capstone semester can be found on the MSUCOM website and will be highlighted in future updates.
“I would like to express my gratitude and admiration to our SpartanDO community and everyone who has contributed to the vision, design, review and implementation of this important work,” Dr. Waarala said. “This certainly includes our current and new course directors, thread directors, instructional design and assessment team, Curriculum Committee chairpersons and members, curriculum assistants, and all the students, staff and faculty who have shared their input along the way.”
As you see, this comprehensive work would not have happened without the concerted efforts of the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine community – leadership, faculty, staff, students and partners – all with a focus always on better serving the health and wellness needs of patients and communities by supporting our medical students on the path to becoming tomorrow’s physicians, ever mindful that the osteopathic tenets that are now infused throughout our curriculum will forever guide our graduates’ efforts to be the best physicians.
Andrea Amalfitano, D.O., Ph.D.
Dean
Kirsten Waarala, D.O.
Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education