The design of the applications-based systems curriculum is based on successful integrated academic models for the first two years of the curriculum. Each system is studied twice, first with an emphasis on normal form and function in Year 1, followed by an emphasis on the pathophysiology and clinical approach to each system in Year 2. As well, the curriculum highlights interdisciplinary collaboration and guides students to develop an osteopathic approach to medicine. Basic scientific information and methodology is regularly correlated with fundamental clinical application. Students are exposed to clinical settings in their first semester, which gives them the opportunity to prepare for the “real world” of medicine. This clinical exposure expands in the second year, and the students have increased opportunity to interact with standardized patients on campus, as well as be involved, under physician supervision, with real patients in the office and hospital setting.
The COM has a dedicated faculty; established affiliations with medical centers, hospitals, and healthcare systems; a structured and supported rural medicine program; and a mission to educate the finest osteopathic physicians possible. Students are placed at one of the college’s regional centers to ensure continuity and coordination of clinical education within the COM’s vast and growing clinical training network. Our innovative curriculum is designed to fulfill the COM’s mission of training students who are competent and ready to enter graduate medical education and training with an emphasis on becoming primary care physicians.
Physicians do not work alone, but rather as part of a healthcare team, and RVUCOM promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and interprofessional educational opportunities in the classroom and in all of its clinical settings. RVUCOM is dedicated to the incorporation of milestones, competencies, and Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) into its curricular framework as outlined by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
