Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

TOURO UNIVERSITY: Osteopathic college opens

Henderson private medical school first of its kind in state

Touro University students Daniel Gay, left, and Brent Michaels talk Monday during orientation at Touro University in Henderson. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Library director Doris Wisher, left, gives information to students during orientation Monday at Touro University. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Inside what looks like a factory, 78 students on Monday began learning the labyrinthine corridors, picking out lab coats and scrubs, and learning the computer system at the first osteopathic college in Nevada.

"I'm going to med school," said Jill Polanczyk, who came from Easton, Pa., to begin the four-year program. "I want to be a doc."

The students have been going through orientation at the newly opened Touro University in Henderson since Sunday. They'll become the typical emergency room and family practitioners seen in hospitals and doctor's offices -- with one difference.

Their name tags will say D.O., or doctor of osteopathic medicine, instead of M.D., also known as allopathic medicine.

"The difference between osteopathic and allopathic medicine is that from day one your students are taught to think of health rather than disease," said Mitchell Forman, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the university.

Osteopathy, founded in 1874, emphasizes the concept of wellness and aims to treat illness within the context of the whole body, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

There are nine graduates from Nevada universities in the first class, but administrators want to build a base of local students through partnerships with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Touro also expects enrollment to increase to 100 next fall.

The Southern Nevada private medical school is a branch campus of Touro's medical school in Northern California, which is fully accredited.

Tuition runs around $30,000 a year for the program. The average student grade-point average is 3.4. Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA and have taken prerequisite science and math classes.

Touro is also starting a physician's assistant program in October. Seventeen students are currently enrolled, and the school is looking for additional students.

There are 21 institutions nationwide that produce D.O.'s, Forman said.

A large gymnasium-like room filled with 30 massage tables is the pivotal difference between the D.O. and allopathic campus, Forman said. Osteopathy often involves manipulation of the body, which can be comparable to a massage, to relieve pain without prescriptions.

But the stereotypical scenes of med school are hard to ignore.

In a blinding white laboratory, students gathered around anatomy professor Terence Ma and his metal table, which will accommodate a cold cadaver in the coming weeks.

"We call them patients. Very much of what we teach with students is the cadaver as the first patient," Ma said. "We have received the greatest gift a person can give."