Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), the country’s largest medical school, is expanding its reach with a new location at
Seton Hill University’s Greensburg campus. On June 17, the two institutions announced site preparation, curriculum and administration plans—including an affiliation with
Excela Health.
Increasing its class size, LECOM at Seton Hill will accept 104 students per year starting in August 2009. Thirteen full-time faculty members and four part-time instructors will be hired at the Seton Hill facility, which will be headed up by longtime Pittsburgh medical educator, Irving Freeman. LECOM enrolls more than 2,000 students; the Seton Hill location is expected to initially serve 400 students.
LECOM will invest more than $4 million to renovate and equip two Seton Hill’s Lynch Hall and Reeves Memorial Library facilities, which will house the new medical school program. Renovations will be designed by
MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects; contractor is Newington, Virginia-based
Marshall Erdman & Associates.
Responding to a critical shortage of physicians in Western Pennsylvania’s rural communities, the partnership aims to increase the percentage of medical school graduates who remain in the region for post-graduate training and residencies. In partnership with Excela—Pennsylvania’s fourth largest health system—students will gain clinical training during third- and fourth-year rotations at participating hospitals, including Johnstown’s
Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center and six LECOM affiliated hospitals located within 40 minutes of Greensburg.
LECOM’s highly successful Problem-Based Learning curriculum—taught exclusively at the school’s Bradenton, Florida campus—will complement Seton Hill’s existing natural and health science programs, and a new Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine cooperative degree program
Writer:
Jennifer BaronSources: Becca Baker and Molly Robb Shimko, Seton Hill University
Image courtesy Seton Hill University