In the 2004–2005 academic year, COMs confronted a number of challenges also facing the wider medical community in the United States. Some of these challenges were noted by Jordan J. Cohen, MD, former president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in his presidential address of November 2005.
1 The AAMC president called for allopathic medical schools in the United States to increase their student capacity by 30% over the next decade. Dr Cohen issued this call in response to a possible physician shortage that some studies have predicted.
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Dr Cohen also used his address to identify the following five challenges facing allopathic medical schools in the United States: (1) increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the medical profession; (2) leading the transformation of the healthcare system; (3) strengthening the continuum of medical education; (4) upholding the integrity of research and ensuring the safety of human research subjects; and (5) enlarging the capacity of medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
Colleges of osteopathic medicine and the osteopathic medical profession are facing challenges similar to those outlined in Dr Cohen's speech. As is addressed in the present article, osteopathic medical schools are successfully meeting some of these challenges by substantially increasing the student enrollment of women and members of ethnic minorities. Another success for osteopathic medical schools has been maintaining the stability of entrance credentials during a time of modest increases in class sizes. Although beyond the scope of this article, the osteopathic medical profession has, for several years, been examining methods to strengthen the educational continuum, from the undergraduate phase to graduate medical education and continuing medical education.
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This article also addresses how requests for increasing class sizes and the development of new COMs are affecting school applications, enrollment, and entrance credentials. Finally, tuition, revenues, and expenditures at COMs are summarized.