Published: Monday, February 12, 2007
Medical school looks at changing operations
The medical school could merge with a university or become a health center.
By HAROLD GWIN
ROOTSTOWN — The state's creation of a study commission to look at ways to link five Northeast Ohio universities has prompted the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Board of Trustees to begin examining that institution's future.
NEOUCOM is the only independent, free-standing medical school in Ohio.
It was created in 1973 to serve as the medical school for Northeast Ohio, and, though it has formed degree program partnerships with Youngstown State University, Kent State University and the University of Akron (and the presidents of those schools serve on its board of trustees), it remains an independent institution.
The board is talking options, said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, telling the YSU Academic Senate this week that "the status quo won't remain."
Just how NEOUCOM might change and what affect that change would have on YSU's ties to the institution have yet to be determined.
Possible scenarios
Sweet suggested a couple of possible scenarios for NEOUCOM, one being that it be merged with a research university as was done with a medical school in Northwest Ohio, and another that it become a major health center on its own.
Dr. Lois Margaret Nora, MD.JD, president of NEOUCOM and dean of its College of Medicine, suggested a third alternative — that the institution remain just as it is.
NEOUCOM is already expanding its programs, she said, pointing out that it will open the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Pharmacy to its first 75 students this fall. It will be the only college of pharmacy in the eastern half of the state. Nora serves as president of that college as well.
NEOUCOM also has public health master's degree programs run jointly with YSU, Akron, Kent, Cleveland State University and Ohio University as well as joint biomedical programs with Akron and Kent.
The state Legislature created a Northeast Ohio Universities Collaboration and Innovation Study Commission last fall to search for ways that YSU, Kent, Akron, Cleveland State and NEOUCOM might work closer together to improve the overall educational effort in this section of the state.
The NEOUCOM Board of Trustees is just at the beginning stages of talking about the future, Sweet said.
Any board does strategic planning and discussion, and NEOUCOM is "looking at all things," Nora said.
No problems
Still, things are fine at NEOUCOM, she said, adding that the medical school, which graduates about 100 students annually, is "thriving," and the pharmacy program already has three applications for every available spot.
"There is no problem that would drive NEOUCOM into a particular relationship with a university," she said.
Affiliating directly with a research university might lead to more programs in research and other areas, but NEOUCOM's mission is to improve the health and the health-care access of residents of Northeast Ohio, she said.
That mission is key and more important than any structural issues, she said.
NEOUCOM expects the state collaborative study commission to view its operations as "best practice" in terms of nonduplication of services, collaboration and other areas of higher education, Nora said.
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