Our Curriculum

Go To: Overview | Teaching Methods | Goals

Overview
The D.O. program curriculum is a four-year program leading to the degree of doctor of osteopathic medicine. In the first two years, students are taught the basic sciences through an integrated systems approach. The second two years resemble clinical education programs that are available in medical schools throughout the United States. In both phases, emphasis is placed on identification and treatment of illnesses, the promotion of health and wellness in patients, and on the necessity of treating each patient in the context of a wide variety of factors that influence health.

The First Two Years (Basic Sciences)
The first portion of the curriculum is designed to help students integrate the basic and clinical sciences, further develop their ability to diagnose illness, and increase their understanding of the context within which medicine is practiced. The integrated systems approach is built on the same strong foundation of scientific and clinical knowledge that has long characterized TCOM's outstanding academic program.

The Final Two Years (Clinical Sciences)
The clinical years of the curriculum provide students a comprehensive education into the clinical practices of modern medicine. Students complete over 3,800 hours of medical training in hospitals and clinics. Students are required to complete both a set of core clinical rotations and elective rotations.

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Teaching Methods

The instructional program of TCOM uses a variety of teaching methods and settings to prepare students for the increasingly complex role of the physician in modern society.

While much of the instruction in the first two years takes place in classroom settings, the use of other teaching methods and materials is increasing. The use of instruction based on clinical presentations of illnesses is increasing dramatically. Many opportunities are provided for laboratory instruction in the preclinical sciences.

The instructional program also contains computer-assisted instruction, small-group teaching, specialized workshops, and simulated clinical experiences. Evaluation of student performance uses objective structured clinical examinations (oSCEs), competency-based assessments, observational techniques, and standard paper-and-pencil tests.

Beginning with the first semester, students are placed in a variety of clinics and agencies to help them become familiar with the many facets of community health care and the health problems that will play a role in their lives as health care providers. These assignments provide a gradual transition from classroom to clinical settings.

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Goals

TCOM is dedicated to the principles of academic excellence and strives to improve the quality of its academic program. A primary goal is to help each student develop skills in self-learning and self-evaluation that will serve during formal medical education and throughout a professional career.

Emphasis is placed on learning activities that help each student interact effectively with peers and promote cooperative relationships with others in the health professions. Central to all educational activities in the curriculum are the goals of teaching critical thinking and helping each student develop the skills required to make decisions in the clinical setting. One of the primary objectives for our curriculum is that graduating physicians will increasingly transfer their clinical efforts:

• from therapy to prevention; that is, from remedial medicine to prophylactic medicine.
• from late-stage disease to early departure from health.
• from pathologic medicine to physiologic medicine, in order to help patients achieve and continue on their best physiologic path.
• from treating disease to teaching healthful living, especially by example.
• from intervention in the biologic processes to the search for optimal operation by improving the conditions in which they function.
• from a focus on parts of the body to a focus on the total person as the context in which the parts operate.
• from the physician to the patient as the source of health and the agent of cure. The physician's objective is to support and disencumber the natural processes of homeostasis, healing and recovery, and to place the patient in command of the situation.
• from a preoccupation with disease processes to concern about disease origins; that is, from causes of diseases to the factors that permit them to become causes.
• from specificity and multiplicity of disease to susceptibility to illness in general.
• from acute, crisis and episodic treatment to long-term care.
• from addressing acute episodic problems in isolation to dealing with them in the context of the total life and health of the patient.
• from an emphasis on depersonalized technology to a heightened awareness of human values and individual uniqueness.

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