COM Outlook Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 43 NSU-KPCOM received initial accreditation status from the American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to serve as a sponsoring institu- tion for graduate medical education programs, opening the door for existing and future KPCOM residency and fellowship programs to become accred- ited by the ACGME—the sole GME accrediting organization—after June 30, 2020. The KPCOM has been sponsoring a psychiatry residency program, along with fellowships in allergy and immunology, correctional medicine, environ- mental medicine, sports medicine, and urology and sexual medicine. The American Osteopathic Association had previously accredited the KPCOM’s correctional medicine, psychiatry, and sports medi- cine programs. “As an ACGME sponsoring institution, the KPCOM will be transitioning its psychiatry program initially,” said Janet Hamstra, Ed.D., assistant dean of graduate medical education, who serves as the college’s desig- nated ACGME institutional official. “We intend to apply for ACGME accreditation for our existing environmental medicine fellowship and allergy and immunology fellowship.” Once the KPCOM sponsors either an emergency medicine, family medicine, pediatric, or physical medicine and rehabilitation program, it will be able to transition its sports medicine fellowship to ACGME accreditation. Currently, there is no ACGME specialty accreditation for the college’s correctional medicine or urology and sexual medicine fellowships. “Having sponsoring institution ACGME accredita- tion enables the KPCOM to build new GME relation- ships with hospitals seeking to either begin new GME or expand their existing GME programs under KPCOM sponsorship,” Hamstra explained. “We also intend to maintain our strong relationships with our many existing GME partners.” o KPCOM Earns ACGME Sponsoring Institution Status According to data reported by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), for the first time in history, osteopathic medical students make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. medical student population. Fall 2018 first-year student enrollment at the nation’s colleges of osteo- pathic medicine (COMs) increased by 5.7 percent from fall 2017 first-year student enrollment. This rise in first-year matriculation brings the preliminary fall 2018 total student enrollment at U.S. COMs to 30,918—a 6.7 percent increase from the official total enrollment in fall 2017—and serves as a major milestone for the profession. AACOM’s preliminary fall 2018 enrollment report stated that the number of new matriculants climbed from 7,901 in 2017 to 8,281 in 2018; that the preliminary number of D.O. students graduating from medical colleges between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018, rose from 6,038 to 6,516; and that 8,574 students began their osteopathic medical education in 2018. o Osteopathic Enrollment Reaches Historic High