PCOM Establishes the Medical Education Center of Excellence

February 8, 2022

With a nine-fold mission statement, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) has established a Medical Education Center of Excellence, under the direction of Art Sesso, DO, senior associate dean and chair of the Department of Surgery. According to Dr. Sesso, the center, which is the first in the nation, “strengthens the College’s ability to prepare the next generation of osteopathic physicians.”

The founding documents state that the center will strive to educate the finest osteopathic physicians, assure an understanding that student outcomes equate to patient outcomes, produce leaders in patient-centered care and develop a campus-wide community of educators.

According to PCOM President Jay S. Feldstein, DO ’81, the establishment of the center, which has developed the PCOM ONE curriculum for the osteopathic medicine program, underlines the fact that “PCOM is three distinct locations, but one university.”

He said, “We want to assure there is not a difference when our students graduate from the Philadelphia, Suwanee or Moultrie campuses. We want the standardization and quality assurance, the PCOM brand, to be the same when our students start their residency programs.”

He added, “MECOE strives to assure that our students have the same opportunities with the same curriculum the first two years. I don’t think we can understate that in today’s world,” he said, “because residencies will continue to be more competitive. There are more and more osteopathic schools and allopathic schools which continue to increase their class sizes.”

Not only is the content different with a new emphasis on wellness and nutrition, but curriculum delivery has changed. “The days of sitting in Evans Hall listening to lectures with 250 people all day is over,” Dr. Feldstein said. PCOM ONE involves small groups, active learning, critical thinking skills, team building. That’s the world we live in today,” he said.

The center’s mission prioritizes the integration of basic and clinical sciences in a translational education model, communicates and shares outcomes data for future curricular development, and inspires and supports research, scholarship and innovation.

Finally, the center addresses cultural competency, issues of health equity and the delivery system, in addition to providing an atmosphere that encourages new ideas and promotes faculty and student initiatives.

The center utilizes a structure with seven faculty directors across PCOM’s three campus locations. The directors are charged with ensuring the progress of each student throughout their educational journey. According to Dr. Sesso, the directors are able to immediately identify struggling students at risk and match them to specific resources including tutoring, mentoring, counseling, remediation plans and COMLEX readiness.

Dr. Feldstein said, “It was a massive undertaking and it’s a credit to everyone’s passion that the center has been accomplished.”

Establishing the center positions PCOM as a national leader in osteopathic medicine education. The MECOE group is an arm of the Provost’s Office and includes the Bio-Medical Sciences chairs from PCOM’s three campuses including Susan T. Hingley, PhD, PCOM; Richard White, PhD, FAHA, PCOM Georgia; and Jennifer Shaw, PhD, PCOM South Georgia.

In addition, the center’s directors include:

From PCOM:

• Peter Bidey, DO, MSED, director of longitudinal curricular integration and active learning
• Kerin Claeson, PhD - director of policy formation and metrics development
• Kerin Fresa, PhD - director of COMLEX readiness

From PCOM Georgia:

• Valerie E. Cadet, PhD, director of health equity curricular initiatives
• Shafik Habal, MD, director of pedagogical methods and curricular inventory

From PCOM South Georgia:

• Nikita Mirajkar, PhD, direction of curricular implementation
• Robert Jason Walker, PhD, director of student progression and off cycle curriculum

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