EAST LANSING, Mich. — An initiative by Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine will dramatically increase the number of osteopathic physicians from Canada and help build the osteopathic profession north of the U.S. border.
Fourteen of the 316 entering students in the college's class of 2014 are from Canada, thanks to a new partnership with the Canadian Osteopathic Association and Lambton College to increase the number of osteopathic physicians in the nation.
Canada does not have an osteopathic medical school, and there are only about 20 osteopathic physicians practicing in all of the country.
"This is a culmination of four years of work to help Canada get its own osteopathic medical school," Dean William Strampel said. "However, it would take a long time to establish a new school, and there were concerns about clinical education in a country with almost no osteopathic physicians. We decided on this pilot program here at MSU, with graduates returning to Canada to build the osteopathic profession there."
MSU plans to recruit up to 25 qualified Canadian students each year for the next several years. Incoming first-year student Chris Jacob, who grew up outside of Toronto, said what drew him to the program was that the principles of osteopathic medicine resonated with his personal beliefs.
"The partnership with MSU really makes it easier to come here to study, and then we can return to Canada to promote osteopathic medicine," he said. "We essentially will be some of the pioneers to make doctors of osteopathic medicine as popular in Canada as they are here in America."
Ted Findlay, an osteopathic physician for 25 years and president of the Canadian Osteopathic Association, said MSU's reputation and its strong osteopathic presence made the partnership very appealing.
"We are in the process of growing our profession to meet the medical care needs of our population," Findlay said. "This partnership will help us produce a significant cohort of osteopathic doctors that we hope will locate back to Canada generally and Ontario specifically.
"From that base, we can provide more training opportunities and train more family physicians."
MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine is in the midst of an overall expansion and enrollment boost. In summer 2009, its entering class size was increased from 200 to 300 students, with 50 students each at two new educational sites: the Detroit Medical Center in downtown Detroit and the Macomb University Center in Clinton Township.
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