DO Degree Osteopathic medicine is a comprehensive approach to health care. Its essence lies in examining and treating the whole person, not just the symptoms. As a PCOM student, you are strongly encouraged to gain insight into your patients' health needs by looking beyond the person in front of you and discovering the social and economic factors that impact him or her. From the first day of medical school, we emphasize the interpersonal context in which medicine will be practiced. In a suite of exam rooms and offices called the Clinical Learning and Assessment Center, you will learn how to present yourself to patients and how to improve diagnostic and communication skills.
Professional actors assume the roles of patients, with specific medical histories.
Each session is videotaped, and student performance is evaluated by a faculty member and reviewed with the student. The primary patient care skills are complemented by our integrated approach to biomedical knowledge that introduces both basic and clinical sciences in your first two years. By learning these subject in tandem, rather than one followed by the other, the abstraction of science becomes tangible by its application in practice. Since medicine is practiced within a social context, the curriculum includes humanities-oriented programs, such as medical ethics, human sexuality, medical law and medical economics. Every doctor must address these topics, which broaden your understanding of changing attitudes and contemporary health care issues.