Latest News: March 2010
The School of Pharmacy leadership team is complete and working together at the GA-PCOM campus to complete the details in anticipation of opening day in August 2010. All of the faculty responsible for teaching in the inaugural year of the program have been appointed and most are on campus at this time. Biographical profiles of the faculty and leadership team have been posted in the faculty section of this website. Applications continue to be accepted for the inaugural class and the first candidates have been invited for admissions interviews on-campus in Suwanee, Georgia.
The construction of the classrooms and labs continues on-schedule with an anticipated completion date of June 24, 2010.
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine's Doctor of Pharmacy program has applied for Precandidate accreditation status by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredits Doctor of Pharmacy programs offered by Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy in the United States and selected non-US sites. For a Doctor of Pharmacy program offered by a new College or School of Pharmacy, ACPE accreditation involves three steps: Precandidate status, Candidate status, and Full accreditation. Precandidate accreditation status denotes a developmental program that is expected to mature in accord with stated plans and within a defined time period. Precandidate status is awarded to a new program of a College or School of Pharmacy that has not yet enrolled students in the professional program and authorizes the College or School to admit its first class. Candidate accreditation status is awarded to a Doctor of Pharmacy program that has students enrolled but has not yet had a graduating class. Full accreditation is awarded to a program that has met all ACPE standards for accreditation and has graduated its first class. Graduates of a class designated as having Candidate status have the same rights and privileges of those graduates from a fully accredited program, generally including eligibility for licensure. ACPE conveys its decisions to the various boards of pharmacy and makes recommendations in accord with its decisions. It should be noted, however, that decisions concerning eligibility for licensure, by examination or reciprocity, reside with the respective state boards of pharmacy in accordance with their state statutes and administrative rules.
In order to enroll students beginning in the fall semester 2010, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy has applied for Precandidate accreditation status for its Doctor of Pharmacy program. An on-site evaluation will occur during spring 2010. The ACPE Board of Directors will meet in June, 2010 to consider the School’s application. The School will be notified of the Board’s decision as soon as feasible following the meeting. Should the Board feel that Precandidate accreditation status cannot be conferred at that time, the School could respond to the Board’s concerns and reapply. Should the School enroll and begin instruction of its inaugural class without first achieving Precandidate accreditation status or fail to advance to Candidate accreditation status before graduation of its first class, the program will be ineligible for accreditation by ACPE until after graduation of its first class.
Prospective applicants should also be advised that Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy will not commence classes prior to achieving Precandidate accreditation status. It is unlikely that graduates of an unaccredited Doctor of Pharmacy program will meet licensing requirements in any U.S. jurisdiction.
The School of Pharmacy has received the required approvals from the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The School of Pharmacy – Development
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) is rapidly developing the school of pharmacy, offering a four-year doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree at its Georgia campus (GA-PCOM). The GA-PCOM campus, a 19-acre site located approximately 25 miles northeast of Atlanta in Gwinnett County, Georgia, currently serves 338 medical and 75 graduate students. The new pharmacy program is designed to respond to the need for pharmacists in Georgia, the southeast and the nation.
The Pharm.D. program will emphasize patient-centered care, a model consistent with the emphasis of PCOM's other graduate and medical programs. The program proposal involves two development and planning years (FY 2008, 2009) with a desired opening date of August, 2010 (pending successful accreditation approval). A program planning budget has been approved by the PCOM Board of Trustees, with funding for faculty, administration, accreditation costs, library resources and operating expenses.
At its January 2008 meeting, the PCOM Board of Trustees approved a feasibility study and authorized a search for the founding Dean. In October 2008, Mark P. Okamoto, Pharm.D. was appointed founding Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Okamoto has appointed a group of distinguished pharmacy educators to form the PCOM School of Pharmacy's leadership team, and faculty recruitment is in progress. PCOM has begun construction, based on a multi-million dollar facility plan for the pharmacy school at the Georgia campus. This includes significant development of new facilities specific to the PharmD program, including state-of-the-art teaching laboratories, faculty and administrative offices, student service space and large lecture halls.
In addition to a partnership with the Georgia Statewide Area Health Education Centers Network, partnerships with a number of clinical training sites have already been secured, and we expect rapid progress on the completion of a high-quality regional training network that will include institutional and community pharmacy practice sites in both rural and urban settings. Students interested in the Doctor of Pharmacy program will have completed pre-pharmacy courses at undergraduate colleges, and the four year PharmD program is characterized by three years of didactic coursework in pharmaceutical, clinical and administrative sciences at the Georgia campus followed by one year of advanced pharmacy practice experiences at clinical sites throughout Georgia and the southeast. Introductory pharmacy practice experiences are also part of the three-year didactic program so that students can gain practical experience and begin developing ideas for the type of pharmacy practice they will choose after graduation. PCOM has already attracted a strong group of partners with local hospitals, clinics and community pharmacies to serve as clinical training sites with signed letters of intent or affiliation agreements.
PCOM is dedicated to the education of students in medicine, health and behavioral sciences and now pharmacy. The institution fosters the growth of the osteopathic profession by training physicians through programs of study guided by osteopathic medical tradition, concept and practice. The College is committed to the advancement of knowledge and intellectual growth through teaching and research, and to the well-being of the community through leadership and service. The Georgia Campus shares the PCOM mission but articulates a specialized focus. The focus of the branch campus is to help improve the quality of life for those living in Georgia and the southeast by providing professional and graduate-level degree programs that prepare practitioners and professionals in those fields that are particularly relevant to addressing the social, economic, and health care needs of the region. The professional degree in pharmacy will have a strong regional emphasis and a focus on increasing the number of practicing pharmacists in Georgia and the southeast.
