By: Brianna Robinson
Deborah Young, director of faculty development in MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Statewide Campus System, or SCS, has been selected as one of two finalists for a $50,000 grant by the Assembly of Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education, or AOGME.
The purpose of the grant is to develop a national curriculum that will help graduate medical education training programs obtain and maintain osteopathic recognition through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
In 2019, Young recognized the need to promote and advance many of the current SCS training programs used in partner hospitals to the entire ACGME community. It was then that Young incorporated the college’s Osteopathic Principles and Practices and Osteopathic Manual Medicine curriculum into a proposal that would allow it to become a national training network.
In addition, Young and the SCS team decided to enhance the curriculum by packaging it so faculty could easily facilitate the course at individual sites, while also structuring it to meet demand for virtual programming across the country.
“This curriculum is unique in that it has been designed to meet the needs of the Statewide Campus’s 32 member hospitals,” Young said. “While each hospital possesses its own structure and culture, it is vital to develop programming that is universal in message and delivery.”
According to Young, some of the proposed enhancements include creating learning communities that further the principles and practices of osteopathy. These communities are designed to be within individual health systems, as well as across multiple systems and specialties.
“These communities are where we can learn about each other, share our philosophies in the practice of osteopathic medicine and in teaching,” Young said. “We are continuously revising, modifying and improving the curriculum by offering programs that meet the educational needs of the common program requirements, specialty specific education, faculty and professional development, licensure requirements and scholarly activity.”
Regardless of grant funding, Young said SCS will move forward with the enhancements, but receiving the grant funding would move up the launch of the program significantly.
“The funding will enable us to bring our program to its fullest potential in the least amount of time,” she said.
If selected, SCS will form a working group comprised of content experts, clinicians and educators who will be key contributors to various development stages.
“I am honored on a personal level to be among the finalists,” Young said. “While I know that Statewide Campus System will continue with the development of their existing osteopathic recognition program, I feel that being a finalist and being able to connect with AOGME on this level has deepened my commitment to furthering osteopathic education on all levels.”