PCOM requires all applicants who are offered admission and all enrolled students to meet specific technical standards. These standards describe the functional abilities and professional capacities considered necessary to participate in the curriculum and to provide safe, effective patient care.
The technical standards are separate from academic requirements. They focus on essential abilities required for participation in classroom learning, laboratory instruction, clinical skills training, and supervised patient care. The standards are intended to ensure that students are able to meet the demands of medical education and clinical practice.
These standards may be met with or without reasonable accommodations. They are not intended to exclude individuals with disabilities who can fulfill program requirements with appropriate accommodations consistent with applicable law.
This information is presented for reference only. The technical standards form will be provided to admitted applicants. Official matriculation and continued enrollment in a degree program cannot be confirmed unless the technical standards form is completed and returned.
Students who have an ADA-recognized disability and who require accommodations related to one or more technical standards should contact PCOM Disability Services for guidance on the accommodation process. Requests for accommodations generally require documentation supporting both the disability and the specific accommodations being requested.
Each request is evaluated individually to determine whether the accommodation is reasonable and whether it allows the student to meet the essential requirements of the program without compromising patient safety, educational standards, or professional expectations.
Disability Services may be contacted at disabilityservices@pcom.edu.
Requests related to cultural practices or religious beliefs are not addressed through the disability accommodation process, as they are not considered ADA-recognized disabilities. Students who believe that cultural traditions or religious requirements may affect their ability to meet one or more technical standards are encouraged to contact the Equal Opportunity and Access Team.
Such requests may be reviewed and discussed; however, approval is not guaranteed and depends on the essential requirements of the academic program.
The Equal Opportunity and Access Team may be contacted at titleixcoordinator@pcom.edu.
The graduate student in biomedical sciences must have the knowledge and skills to function in a broad variety of academic and research situations and function effectively in classroom and laboratory and clinical settings. In order to carry out the activities described below, biomedical science students must be able to consistently, quickly and accurately integrate all information received, and they must have the ability to learn, integrate, analyze, and synthesize data.
A student must have abilities and skills of five varieties, including: observation; communication; motor; conceptual, integrative and quantitative; behavioral and social. Technological compensation can be made in some areas but a candidate must be able to perform in a reasonably independent manner.
Candidates and students must have sufficient vision to be able to observe demonstrations, experiments, and laboratory exercises in the basic sciences. They must be able to observe demonstrations accurately for proper understanding of the science content.
Students must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively with faculty, fellow students, research subjects and others. Communication includes not only speech but also reading and writing. They must also be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in oral and written form with all members of the research and/or health care team.
Candidates and students should have sufficient motor function and strength and mobility to execute movements required to perform laboratory exercises.
These skills include measurement, calculation, reasoning, analysis and synthesis. Problem solving, the critical skill demanded of scientists, requires all of these intellectual abilities. In addition, candidates and students should be able to comprehend three dimensional relationships and to understand the spatial relationships of structures.
Candidates and students must possess the emotional health required for full utilization of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to classwork, laboratory exercises and research. Candidates and students must be able to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility and to learn to function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the scientific environment. Compassion, integrity, concern for others, interpersonal skills, interest and motivation are all personal qualities that will be assessed during the admissions and educational processes.
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine maintains a biomedical science curriculum that stresses clinical applications of biomedical concepts.
As part of this training, students may participate in activities involving patients and research subjects.
Therefore, it is mandatory that all matriculating students understand and accept these professional responsibilities including fulfilling professional responsibilities to peers, faculty and research subjects, demonstrating professional demeanor at all times and adhering to appropriate dress standards.
Successful completion of the curriculum requires that each student demonstrate proficiency and professionalism with all aspects of biomedical science instruction.
Meeting the technical standards is a condition of admission and continued enrollment in the MS in Biomedical Sciences program. Students are responsible for notifying the institution if their ability to meet these standards changes. Accommodations must be requested through the appropriate institutional offices and supported by documentation. PCOM reserves the right to evaluate whether a student can meet the essential requirements of the program.
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