The New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury recently received the endorsement of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation for a new osteopathic medical school at the Arkansas State University in August 2016.
“They approached us because of our reputation and their need,” Barbara Ross-Lee site dean at the NYITCOM at Arkansas State University. “Arkansas only has one medical school, they’ve only had one medical school for 100 years. That school is doing a good job, but the need is growing.”
The new school will be located on the campus of Arkansas State University with an inaugural class of 115 students, to train generalized and primary care physicians.
“This is an extraordinary, transformative development for the citizens of Arkansas,” said Arkansas State Chancellor Tim Hudson. “NYIT’s highly regarded osteopathic curriculum is a boon to our university, our community, and to all of the new medical students we will welcome to our campus.”
Ross-Lee said that Arkansas ranks 49 out of 50 in its population’s health status among the 50 states and has a need for a localized program, which was a good fit for NYIT. “We’ve distinguished ourselves in producing primary care physicians who stay and practice in the areas they train,” NYITCOM Dean Wolfgang Gilliar said.
More than half of the college’s graduates annually enter the primary care areas of family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics, he added.
“Since A-State approached us, we’ve developed a new model of medical education for Arkansas,” said Ross-Lee. “Together with A-State, the community, and our health-care partners, we’ll educate physicians in Arkansas for Arkansas.”
Ross-Lee said that NYIT did not have plans to expand, but when approached with the idea in 2012, the school was open to it.
“The need in Arkansas is significant, and if we were going to do it, why not do it in a place with a critical need,” she said.
The school will act as an extension of NYIT, expanding on already established programs.
“I see this maybe enhancing and expanding the focus of some of the things we do in New York at the Old Westbury campus,” Ross-Lee said. “What we are is just an additional site for the medical school in old Westbury, so we’re really the same college we just have a site that’s in Arkansas.
She said the program will build off of Old Westbury’s research portfolio to include general population health for the Arkansas school.
Ross-Lee said that the school’s “goal is to train or educate physicians in Arkansas to practice in Arkansas.”
