Self-Study Report for the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation
October 2015
Self-Study Reportforthe
Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation
October 2015
NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE SELF-STUDY
OCTOBER 2015
Standard Committee Members 4
Self Study Process 6
Historical Overview 7
NYITCOM Mission and Vision 9
Standard 1: Mission, Goals, and Objectives 10
Standard 2: Governance, Administration, and Finance 23
Standard 3: Facilities, Equipment, and Resources 42
Standard 4: Faculty 56
Standard 5: Students 74
Standard 6: Curriculum 104
Standard 7: Research and Scholarly Activities 140
Standard 8: GME Outcomes 150
Conclusion 156
A Note of Thanks
The following self-study document defines and describes the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine’s continued adherence to the educational standards set forth by the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA).
Our NYITCOM community, faculty, staff, administration and students actively share the responsibility for the achievement of our college’s mission and vision. We would like to thank our entire community for their hard work to making the self-study not just a document, but also a true improvement opportunity, by contributing to the process. We want to acknowledge every individual who gave of his or her time and expertise to make the document live.
NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE COCA SELF-STUDY COMMITTEES
Standard Committee Members Standard 1: Mission, Goals and Planning
Chair: Wolfgang Gilliar, DO, Dean Members: Harriet Arnone, PhD
Jerry Balentine, DO Alissa Craft, DO Catherine Flickinger, JD Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Angelo Mascia, OMS III
Standard 2: Governance, Administration and Finance
Chair: Wolfgang Gilliar, DO, Dean Members: Harriet Arnone, PhD
Jerry Balentine, DO Shelley Cohen Alissa Craft, DO
Catherine Flickinger, JD Barbara Ross-Lee, DO
Standard 3: Facilities, Equipment and Resources
Chair: Ronald Manning, JD Members: Jerry Balentine, DO
Susan Christie Jack Conrad, PhD Alissa Craft, DO
Linda Darroch-Short Marianne DeMarco Leslie Goldstein, PharmD
Daniel Pasternack, OMSIV Larry Stepp, PhD
Jeanne Straussman Ben Tack, OMS II
Standard 4: Faculty
Chair: Raddy Ramos, PhD Members: Kurt Amsler, PhD
Shelley Cohen Alissa Craft, DO
Wolfgang Gilliar, DO John Kappenberg, EdD
Standard 5: Students
Chair: Mary Ann Achtziger, MS Members: Felicia Bruno
Linda Darroch-Short Esther Hevia
Alice Heron-Burke Joan Gothardt Clair Jacobi
Sharon Koehler, DO
Donna-Marie McMahon, DO Alex Nello, OMS II
Louisa Sethi, OMS IV Christy Ton, OMS III Rodika Zaika
Standard 6: Curriculum
Chair: Nancy Bono, DO Members: William Blazey, DO
Claire Bryant, PhD Alissa Craft, DO Abraham Jeger, PhD
Standard 7: Research and Scholarly Activities
Chair: Kurt Amsler, PhD Members: Min Jung Kim
Bhuma Krishnamachari, PhD
Standard 8: GME Outcomes
Chair: David Broder, DO Members: Felicia Bruno
Alissa Craft, DO Wolfgang Gilliar, DO Abraham Jeger, PhD Barbara Ross-Lee, DO
Self - Study Process
The COCA self-study process began in January 2013, with the appointment of Wolfgang Gilliar, DO as Dean of the College. The entire faculty participated in a review of the COM’s mission and vision and reaffirmed our mission. Next, the faculty was charged with analyzing our curricular strengths and weaknesses, reviewing both curricula in place, and submitting recommendations for future educational improvements.
In 2014, a subcommittee for each standard was established and each subcommittee chair was a member of the Dean’s Executive Council or a senior faculty member. Membership of the subcommittees was comprised of individuals representing all areas of the College (e.g., Basic Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Academic Affairs, Student Administration, Research, Students, and Staff). Each subcommittee met to discuss their particular standard and to review draft documents. The chair and members of each Standards subcommittee also engaged various other constituencies on campus to collect the information needed to draft the Standard report. Chairs and self-study committee members are listed within this report.
Draft documents were incorporated into the final document and then circulated to the Dean’s Executive Council and other members of the COM and NYIT leadership team, who reviewed and edited each report. Edited reports were compiled and then sent for final review to the University’s Executive leadership team.
Historical Overview of the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine
On June 11, 1981, the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Old Westbury graduated its first class, awarding D.O. degrees to 26 men and eight women in a commencement ceremony held on the school's athletic field.
Back then, newly minted New York D.O.s struggled to find placements for internships and residencies and later, to secure posts as attending physicians at area hospitals. Osteopathic physicians at the time joked that the only way they'd get into certain Long Island hospitals was to come in by ambulance and be admitted as a patient, recalled former NYCOM Dean Stanley Schiowitz, D.O.
The seeds for NYCOM's creation were planted in 1976, when several organizations-including the AOA and the New York State Osteopathic Medical Society - explored the possibility of opening the state's first osteopathic medical school. Among the plan's strongest proponents were Dr. Schiowitz and W. Kenneth Riland, D.O. Dr. Riland was the personal physician to Nelson A. Rockefeller, who served as governor of New York and the 41st vice president of the United States under President Gerald R. Ford.
Rockefeller was so taken with osteopathic medicine that he introduced Dr. Riland to President Richard M. Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Both received regular OMT from Dr. Riland, who accompanied Nixon on his historic trips to Russia and China in 1972 and traveled with Kissinger to Paris for his now famous peace talks with the North Vietnamese.
After Nixon resigned in 1974, Dr. Riland continued his personal and professional relationship with Rockefeller, accompanying him on his travels as Vice President. Because of his unwavering belief in the "DO difference," Rockefeller got involved in NYCOM's launch a few years later. He and other members of his family advocated for the school's creation and contributed to its general endowment fund.
In 1977, NYIT amended its charter to establish NYCOM, which was accredited by the AOA and chartered by the New York State Department of Education. Both Rockefeller and Kissinger took part in the opening convocation, as did Dr. Riland, who served as chairman of NYCOM's Board of Governors. The school's founding dean was Philip F. Fleisher, D.O., a Manhattan- based cardiologist and a devout practitioner of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM). A member of the first New York State Council on Graduate Medical Education, Dr. Fleisher oversaw the dedication of NYCOM's Nelson A. Rockefeller Academic Center in 1979 and the completion of the W. Kenneth Riland Academic Health Care Center in 1984.
In 1991, the school graduated its 1,000th physician. That year also saw a changing of the guard: Dr. Schiowitz began his 12-year tenure as NYCOM dean and provost, having served as assistant dean for clinical affairs, medical director of the Academic Health Care Center, director of medical education and founding chair of the OMM department.
In 2001, the AOA re-accredited NYCOM for another seven years. In February of that year, Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., then dean of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in
Athens, was recruited to join NYIT as Vice President for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs. In July 2002, Dr. Ross-Lee succeeded Dr. Schiowitz as Dean of NYCOM. At the time, she was one of just seven women to head a U.S. medical school and the only woman of color to hold such a position. Her strategy for NYCOM's future included five initiatives: unity, community, continuity, quality and visibility.
In 2007, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Thomas A. Scandalis, D.O., was named the fourth NYCOM dean. He was the first NYCOM graduate to become a Dean at any osteopathic medical school.
Then in 2013, two big changes occurred…NYCOM was renamed the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) in acknowledgement of our institutional structure. Also, in January 2013, Wolfgang Gilliar, DO, was appointed as the fifth Dean of the College. Since that time, NYITCOM has continued to provide two preclinical curricular tracks – the traditional lecture track and a problem based learning track. In April 2015, NYITCOM received preliminary approval from the COCA for our additional location on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR.
On May 18, 2015, 283 members of NYITCOM's graduating class proudly marched down the aisle in a hooding ceremony held at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Old Westbury. Now the largest osteopathic medical school on one campus and one of the largest medical schools in the United States, NYITCOM's clinical education affiliates include hospitals, ambulatory health care centers, and private preceptor offices throughout the region. Military sites, public health centers and hospitals all over the world are available for selected portions of the fourth-year curriculum. Graduates from NYITCOM are able to continue into osteopathic graduate medical education thanks to the NYCOMEC OPTI, which has developed 1389 training positions in New York, New Jersey, and Arkansas.
NYITCOM Mission & Vision
Mission
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine is committed to training osteopathic physicians for a lifetime of learning and practice, based upon the integration of evidence-based knowledge, critical thinking, and the tenets of osteopathic principles and practice. We are also committed to preparing osteopathic physicians for careers in health care, including those in the inner city and rural communities, as well as to the scholarly pursuit of new knowledge concerning health and disease. We provide a continuum of educational experiences to NYITCOM students, extending through the clinical and post-graduate years of training. This continuum provides the future osteopathic physician with the foundation necessary to maintain competence and compassion, as well as the ability to better serve society through research, teaching, and leadership.
Vision
To advance patient-centered, population-based osteopathic health care through transformative education and illuminating research.
NYITCOM Goals & Objectives
1. Osteopathic Philosophy
2. Medical Knowledge
3. Practice Based Learning and Improvement
4. Professionalism
5. Systems Based Practice
6. Patient Care
7. Communication Skills
8. Primary Care
9. Scholarly/ Research Activity
10. Global Medicine and Health Policy
11. Cultural Competence
Standard 1.1
The COM must have a clearly defined mission statement, including goals and objectives appropriate to osteopathic medical education that addresses teaching, research, service, including osteopathic clinical service, graduate medical education training and student achievement.
Guideline: The mission statement should be clear and concise, and provide in a concise format what the COM does. The mission statement should be communicated to faculty, staff, students and other communities of interest. The mission statement should be periodically reviewed and revised as necessary.
The New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) developed its current Mission Statement in 2008. An extensive review and reaffirmation of this statement occurred in 2013, when Wolfgang Gilliar was appointed Dean at NYITCOM. At the same time, a consultant worked with Faculty, Staff, Students, and Administration to develop our Vision Statement. Our vision statement is “To advance patient-centered, population-based osteopathic health care through transformative education and illuminating research.”
The school’s Mission is maintained as a living, breathing Mission by posting framed copies throughout our buildings. New faculty and staff hires are asked to review the Mission and Vision as part of their orientation process. The statements are posted on the School’s website at: www.nyit.edu/medicine/about/mission.
A policy for annual review of the Mission Statement exists within the COM policies and procedures.
Documents in Support of Standard 1.1: NYITCOM College Catalog NYITCOM Mission and Vision Mission and Vision Review Policy
Standard 1.1.1
All COMs have accreditation status must submit a "mid-cycle" report to the COCA on their success in meeting their mission. This report will be submitted with the Annual Supplemental Report in the fourth year after receipt of initial or continuing accreditation status.
The mid-cycle report was submitted to and accepted by the COCA in 2013. Documents in Support of Standard 1.1.1:
NYITCOM COCA Mid-Cycle Report 2013
COCA May 2013 Approval Letter
Standard 1.2
Each COM must maintain in effect any charter, licenses or approvals required for it to function as a college of osteopathic medicine in the jurisdiction in which it operates.
NYITCOM maintains a charter from the State of New York, granted on July 29, 1977. This is located in the Dean’s Office in the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Documents in Support of Standard 1.2: Charter from the State of New York
Standard 1.3
The COM must connect its learning outcomes assessment to mission plans and objectives in order to continuously improve the educational quality of its osteopathic medical education program.
The statements of Mission and Vision are the starting points for all strategic planning and assessment. The College’s goals and objectives are developed from the mission and are designed to ensure that NYITCOM is able to attain our vision. The goals and objectives are updated as needed at an annual strategic planning retreat in which deans, chairs, representatives of the faculty, and NYIT administration participate.
In November 2014, a new Vice President for Medical Affairs and Global Health was hired at NYIT. This Vice President has oversight for the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Within six months of his arrival, an additional strategic planning session was held to further refine the goals and objectives in a manner consistent with the New York Institute of Technology, our parent university.
NYIT, including NYITCOM, has a strategic plan called NYIT 2030, first published in 2006, which envisions that the NYIT of 2030 will be recognizable in terms of today's institution but at the same time be different in exciting ways. The University will maintain main campuses in New York City and Old Westbury (with the implied trade-offs involved in the two campus footprint), and numerous additional campuses and sites - in the United States and abroad. The vision is that, by 2030, NYIT will be:
1. Known for its career-oriented undergraduate and unique and distinctive graduate and professional programs
2. Known for its thriving graduate centers featuring interdisciplinary research, degree programs, and "best-in-class" work in a small number of highly targeted niches
3. Known as a global and partially virtual university with NYIT in New York as its quality hub
4. Known as a model student-centered university
5. Known as a leader in teaching quality improvement
6. Known as a well-funded institution, with dependable revenue from a variety of sources.
To ensure that its strategic plan is as strong over the next ten years as it has been thus far, in 2014 NYIT’s president called for members of the NYIT community to participate in a comprehensive review and updating of the plan. The overall charge to members of the Steering Committee for this strategic plan review is to assist in: