DO - Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine

CORE News
CORE Receives Commendations
The Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE), a medical education consortium that
includes the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM), 14 teaching hospitals and
three affiliated colleges of osteopathic medicine, received two commendations during the American
Osteopathic Association (AOA) on-site inspection in February.
AOA inspectors commended the CORE for its three-year osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM)
clinical curriculum and for the research initiatives it has undertaken in the past three years.
“The CORE has been described by many in our profession as ‘the gold standard’ in graduate medical
education,” Jack Brose, D.O., OU-COM dean, says. “That reputation has been reinforced by this visit.”
“It was a spotless inspection,” Keith Watson, D.O., chief academic officer for CORE and OU-COM
associate dean for graduate medical education, said. “We hope to be one of the first Osteopathic Postdoctoral
Training Institutes (OPTI) to achieve a five-year accreditation award.”
AOA inspections are required to reaccredit the CORE as an OPTI. Although AOA can reaccredit an OPTI
for up to five years, OPTIs have been receiving reaccreditation for three and a half years on average
according to a 2002 survey by Scott Dalhouse, the OPTI manager of the AOA department of education.
Cheryl Riley, R.N., M.S., assistant dean for academic affairs and CORE operations, explained that CORE
met all but one minor standard regarding sign-offs on conflict of interest statements. “And that’s easily
corrected, virtually with a stroke of the pen.”
Riley, whose association with the CORE extends to its very beginning, credited the hospitals and their
collaborative relationship for innovations in the curriculum.
“I’ve watched enormous change in both predoctoral and postdoctoral osteopathic medical education as
program directors from all over Ohio have met regularly over the years to share best practices and
troubleshoot issues,” Riley said.
The osteopathic profession is currently tackling challenges in graduate medical education (GME). At an
inaugural medical education summit held last January sponsored by the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations,
the AOA and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, over 70 leaders met to
identify and examine osteopathic GME. They also began to develop strategies to respond to those issues.
Watson chaired the summit’s steering committee (see “Noteworthy,” page 4).
“We do face tough issues ahead in educating the doctors of tomorrow,” Watson explains. “The trend
among students to move away from osteopathic GME programs, the question of a physician shortage,
the shortage of GME funding, perceptions of quality in osteopathic GME programs, the lower priority of
research in osteopathic medical education–these are just a few of the issues being discussed nationally. We
need to be ready to respond in the CORE.”
Riley says the CORE system will continue making improvements–plans are already underway to expand
the OMM clinical curriculum to the residency years–using what it has learned from the on-site survey
and the self-study, which OU-COM completed before the site visit.
–Jennifer Kowalewski
Grandview Receives Three Top Honors
Grandview Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, has just won the equivalent of a hospital triple crown-three
times over.
In February, Grandview landed on the coveted Solucient 100 Top Hospitals list for teaching hospitals for
its third time. It is one of only 25 hospitals in the nation to receive the designation.
This came after winning, for the third year in a row, the Health Grades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical
Excellence. Only 5 percent of the more than 5,000 hospitals in the nation receive this honor.
For a third year also, Grandview was ranked in the top 50 of U.S. News and World Report's Best Hospitals.
It placed 44th in the Respiratory Disorders category and in the Neurology and Neurosurgery category.
32 www.oucom.ohio.edu