Department of Primary Care

The mission of the department of primary care is to prepare and train our first and second year medical students to attain the knowledge, skills and attitudes to become proficient clinicians who are committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of osteopathic medicine. Our goal is to provide the fundamental knowledge and training necessary to prepare our students to become the best possible physicians they can be.

In the spirit of the comprehensive and holistic approach of osteopathic physicians, our department will commonly work in collaboration with other departments of this university to provide the most integrative education possible.

Our growing faculty consists of experienced D.O.’s and M.D.’s from various specialties and is committed to providing only the highest standards of academic and clinical education.

Click here to see our Primary Care Faculty



First Year Courses:
Introduction to Clinical Medicine
Principles of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Medical Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Professionalism
Physical Diagnosis
Problem Based Learning


Second Year Courses:
Behavioral Medicine
Clinical Systems
OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam)Skills
Primary Care Skills
Radiology
Clinical Shadowing Experience


First Year Courses

Introduction to Clinical Medicine
The overall goal of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course is to introduce students to the many facets of osteopathic medicine as experienced by osteopathic physicians in clinical practice. It will focus on the many roles, expectations and responsibilities of physicians. The relationship between the physician and patient will be explored. The health care system will be examined, particularly as it pertains to the interrelationship of physician, patient, and community. Clinical thinking skills will be introduced as the process of making a diagnosis, utilizing appropriate diagnostic testing, and instituting treatment is presented. The approach to medical recordkeeping and clinical presentations, difficult clinical conversation and managing chronic illness will be explored. Elements of professionalism, medical ethics and law will be incorporated, providing the foundation for critical thinking and appropriate professional behavior in the complex world of medicine.

Medical Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Professionalism
The overall goal of the course is to provide the student with a general understanding of federal and state law as it relates to the practice of osteopathic medicine. In addition to subjects of contemporary topical interest, the course will include a detailed consideration of confidentiality obligations imposed by state and federal privacy laws, statutes and regulations governing the practice of osteopathic medicine, duty to treat, patient abandonment, consent to treatment, medical records, artificial reproductive technology controversies, end-of-life decision-making issues (including discussions of “living wills” and durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions), medical liability, professional liability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, fraud and abuse, anti-kickback statutes with their safe harbors, federal and state self referral law prohibitions and their exceptions, anti-trust laws as they relate to the practice of medicine, licensure and licensure discipline, telemedicine, and organ transplantation laws.

Physical Diagnosis
The goal of Physical Diagnosis is to introduce the student to the skills of
history taking and physical examination. The medical terminology used by health care providers will be implemented. Focused questioning as well as open-ended conversation will be utilized to assure accurate accounting of the medical history. Difficult patients, as well as poor historians will be explored. Physical examination skills will be taught, through a systems approach to the patient. Laboratory time will be utilized to practice and evaluate the student’s progress. Multiple faculty members will be utilized in their areas of expertise to ensure the best possible exposure for the student, and to ensure that the elements of the 7 AOA Core Competencies are met.

Principles of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
This course will expose students to biostatistics, concepts of evidence-based medicine, and global and cultural health issues. This course covers a variety of topics including: an overview of public health and health care delivery systems; an introduction to evidence-based medicine; epidemiology; biostatistics and hypothesis testing; definitions and appropriate uses; major public health issues for families, children, and older adults; managed care; and legal and ethical aspects of medical and public health practices.
The primary goal of this course is to teach the basic tenets of epidemiology and disease prevention in a manner such that they will become incorporated into the everyday practice of the health professional.

Problem Based Learning
The goal of this course is to allow the students to learn the many different tenets of medicine using a self-directed, student-centered learning model. Actual clinical cases will be given to groups of six to eight students and a faculty facilitator will be assigned to each group. The students will learn pathophysiology and treatment options for various medical diseases in a fun and interactive way.


Second Year Courses:

Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry
Behavioral medicine and psychiatry is a course designed for 2nd year osteopathic medical students. While introducing students to the foundations of psychiatric assessment, diagnosis and treatment, the course aims to teach aspects of relating to patients in ways that apply in every kind of practice. Psychiatric physicians from the community will provide guest lectures on occasion in order to expose the students to a variety of styles and points of view.

Clinical Systems
The clinical systems course is designed to introduce second year medical students to the medical presentations of disease entities, their diagnosis and treatment options. The intent is to integrate basic science knowledge with clinical reasoning that leads to a differential diagnosis, supportive laboratory, testing modalities, and basic treatment options. The structure of the course will provide the student with a foundation to begin clinical externships and the ability to reason and answer clinical vignette questions similar to the COMLEX part 1 examination.

Radiology
The overall goal of the Radiology Course is to familiarize the student with the multiple modes of diagnostic tests in the specialty of radiology. It will cover all aspects of radiology including plain radiography, mammography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and interventional radiology.

Primary Care Skills
The primary goal of this course is to teach those clinical procedures most frequently encountered in the primary care setting. This course, in essence, is a continuation of the Physical Diagnosis course taught in year one.
The course will consist of lectures, demonstrations, discussions,
and actual surrogate patient encounters. In addition to various
primary care clinical procedures, students will be exposed to
and become familiar with diagnosing some of the more common physical conditions seen in the primary care setting.

OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam) Skills
The standardized patient examination has evolved into an important tool for the teaching and assessment of medical students and physicians. It is this simulated practice and assessment of patients before allowing them to encounter the “real” clinical situation that OSCE is designed to address.

Clinical Shadowing Experience
The overall goal of the CSE is to provide early clinical exposure to our second year medical students. Physicians, allopathic and osteopathic, of all specialties in the community will participate in this program by allowing up to two medical students to “shadow” them in their clinical setting. The primary purpose of the CSE is to allow our students to observe the multiple aspects of the physicians’ role in the clinical setting.

Orientation to Clinical Rotations
This requirement will prepare second year students as they enter into third year clinical rotations. Expectations of professionalism will be stressed and reviews of important clinically-relevant skills will be conducted. Topics reviewed will include lab values, case presentations, hospital OMM, medical informatics, and patient charting. Certification in Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support will also be given.