Michigan State University
College of
Osteopathic Medicine

Fact Sheet 2002

Addressing Michigan’s Health Care Needs

The Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine successfully addresses the health care needs of the people of Michigan. Two-thirds of our 3,015 living alumni practice in Michigan, and 95% percent of the students from this year’s entering class of 124 are Michigan residents. More than half of all MSUCOM alumni practice primary care medicine – family practice, general internal medicine or general pediatrics. Diversity is important to the college, and is reflected in the lives and experiences of our students. MSUCOM’s commitment to caring for the medically underserved is evident in the work of faculty, students and alumni.

Michigan’s Family of DOs

The osteopathic profession’s commitment to the college is apparent with more than 1,400 Michigan physicians holding faculty appointments who volunteer to teach third- and fourth-year MSUCOM students in their communities and local hospitals. It is only because of this generous sharing of time from its clinical faculty that the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine can educate its students at a lower cost per student than most other state medical schools.

Statewide Campus System

MSUCOM offers many innovative educational opportunities to students and graduates.

MSUCOM has developed a six-month Primary Care Ambulatory Clerkship to teach medical students the clinical skills needed by primary care physicians in the 21st century. This program has expanded to include community clinics throughout the state.

To provide high-quality pre- and postdoctoral osteopathic medical education MSUCOM collaborates with 20 Michigan community hospitals through its Statewide Campus System. Its predecessor, the Consortium for Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education and Training, has served as a national model for innovative graduate medical education for more than a decade — actively developing faculty, standardizing curricula, monitoring program quality, and recruiting residents. This year 964 physicians in training are enrolled in SCS programs, including 156 residents in family medicine, 125 in internal medicine, 84 in obstetrics and gynecological surgery, 68 in general surgery, 74 in orthopedic surgery and 128 in emergency medicine.

CME and State Organizations

MSUCOM provides continuing medical education classes and credit for all of Michigan’s osteopathic physicians and other health care providers. During 2000-01 MSUCOM offered 77 CME programs providing a total of 1,107 hours of CME credits. A total of 1,206 health providers attended these courses.

MSUCOM works closely with the Michigan Osteopathic Association in areas such as government relations, public relations and advocacy. The college also has close ties to the Michigan Osteopathic College Foundation, which, primarily supported by Michigan DOs, provides financial support for scholarships. The Michigan Osteopathic Medicine Advisory Board, appointed by the governor, actively advocates on behalf of the college in the areas of external relations, development, recruitment and research.

East Lansing to the World 

MSUCOM addresses the needs of Michigan and the world through community service. College faculty participate in a broad network of primary care and specialty care clinical services. The Department of Pediatrics is the largest single provider of pediatric care to poor children in the Lansing area. MSUCOM faculty provide services at the Ingham County Health Department and at clinics serving the homeless, persons with substance abuse problems and the indigent. The college provides medical services for the Michigan Special Olympics, maintains a special muscular dystrophy clinic, facilitates an immigration clinic, and conducts numerous health screenings and immunization clinics each year. MSUCOM students, who won East Lansing’s prestigious Crystal Award for their voluntarism, also conduct a free Student Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Clinic, mentor young students, conduct diabetic counseling in the community and volunteer at city events.

Alumni Contributions to Health

MSUCOM alumni have made significant contributions to health and medicine, primarily within the state of Michigan, but also throughout the world. Barbara Ross-Lee is serving as vice president of health sciences and medical affairs and dean of the School of Allied Health and Life Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology. Joyce Johnson serves as surgeon general of the U.S. Coast Guard. L. Bing Liem is a nationally recognized researcher on cardiovascular disease, and Andrea Amalfitano has become a leader in the cutting-edge field of genetic medicine. John I. Jackson has provided medical care to some of the poorest people in the United States — in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Illinois and abroad in Honduras, Kenya, and Nepal.

Sister Anne Brooks, who provides care in Tutwiler, Mississippi, one of the poorest communities in the nation, has been nationally featured in print and broadcast media. Julie Dixon has spent her entire career providing much-needed care to Native Americans. Susan Hendrix leads the Detroit site for the Women’s Health Initiative, the largest U.S. study concerning women’s health. Kathleen Kleinert has been seminal in developing a faith-based initiative to increase access to health care for 15,000 people in Detroit.

International Health

MSUCOM is involved with a wide variety of international health programs, including the Institute of International Health; malaria research and clinical care in Malawi; health care consultation in the United Arab Emirates; establishment of a medical clinic in the Belizean jungle; studies of hypertension in Zimbabwe; and development of clinical clerkships abroad by the International Health Project — a student organization. 

Medical Informatics

The Office of Medical Informatics (OMI) provides a broad array of computing and communication technology services in support of the college and its Statewide Campus System. These include medical informatics curricular development, information systems development, support for the student Kobiljak Computer Center, computer support for faculty and staff, network development (including community connectivity), media services (including videoconferencing) and training. Recent research activities include bioinformatics training in Malawi, studying the uses (and barriers to use) of interactive health communications among health providers, development of a web-facilitated disease management system, and curricular and practice-related uses of handheld computers. The OMI also provides a variety of liaison functions within the university and the profession (with the Michigan Osteopathic Association, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine) aimed at enhancing coordination and collaboration with our sister colleges, the MSU HealthTeam and osteopathic physicians in the arena of technology capacity building and best practices.   

Excellence in Research

Medical research is essential to MSUCOM faculty, staff and students. Our college received nearly $6 million last year in outside funding for research on a wide spectrum of medical issues ranging from malaria to the causes of cancer. MSUCOM faculty are recognized internationally for their research, teaching and clinical practice of osteopathic manual medicine, and receive clinical referrals from around the globe. They also author books, videotapes and articles in professional journals, and present scientific papers on diverse topics at national and international conferences. Increasingly, research is done in conjunction with faculty in the Statewide Campus System hospitals.

 The Carcinogenesis Laboratory at MSUCOM is a large research facility dedicated to investigating the nature and number of changes involved in turning normal human cells into cancer cells. Under the leadership of University Distinguished Professors J. Justin McCormick, PhD, and Veronica Maher, PhD, the lab has achieved international recognition for its studies and has been awarded more than $17 million in external funding support.

The Department of Neurology and Ophthalmology conducts clinical research in areas such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, visual disorders and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Under the leadership of David Kaufman, DO, its participants have had continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1988.  

Terrie Taylor, DO, of the MSUCOM Department of Internal Medicine, has earned an international reputation for the excellence of her work in treating cerebral malaria among children in Malawi, Africa. Working six months a year in Malawi and six months on the MSU campus, she has been awarded several major NIH grants. Named "Researcher of the Year" by the American College of Osteopathic Internists, she has also obtained funding in a joint venture with scientists at Johns Hopkins University to establish a medical informatics system to support her clinical and research work.

The Institute of International Health is dedicated to multidisciplinary research on health issues faced by other nations and those relevant to MSU and the U.S. Currently directed by Evangelos Petropoulos, MD, PhD, the institute is working on projects funded by the NIH, Fogarty International Center, NSEP, and NATO. These projects include environmental health research and training for Balkan scientists in-country and at MSU, the Minority International Research Training Program in seven overseas countries, biomedical informatics development in sub-Saharan Africa in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, and environmental sciences training in Japan for U.S. students. The institute also sponsors an annual summer training workshop on osteopathic manipulative medicine for students from the Medical Trainer College of Tokyo.

The Medical Scientist Training Program offers MSUCOM students the opportunity to receive joint DO and PhD degrees. MSUCOM was the first osteopathic college to offer this program, which requires a minimum of seven years of study, including basic science, medical courses, graduate studies, dissertation research and clerkships. Twenty students have completed the program and are now in private practice or are faculty members in medical schools at major research universities.

For more information about osteopathic medicine or osteopathic physicians please contact:

Michigan State University
College of
Osteopathic Medicine