{"id":738,"date":"2015-05-12T15:26:08","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T22:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/extra\/?p=738"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:46:22","slug":"a-wsu-medical-school-what-we-envision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/campus-community\/a-wsu-medical-school-what-we-envision\/","title":{"rendered":"A WSU Medical School: What We Envision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-740\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8-396x264.jpg\" alt=\"WSU Spokane Campus\" width=\"528\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8-396x264.jpg 396w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8-792x528.jpg 792w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8-990x660.jpg 990w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-spokane\/uploads\/sites\/456\/2015\/05\/4-Campus-misc-_8-1188x792.jpg 1188w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>The following was written by Dr. George Novan, FACP, Associate Dean, WSU College of Medical Sciences, for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spcms.org\/Newsletter\/Archive\/15_Apr_Newsletter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April issue of The Message<\/a>, a publication printed monthly by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spcms.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spokane County Medical Society<\/a> (SCMS). It is republished here with permission from both Dr. Novan and the SCMS.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s not often a person has a chance to be part of starting a\u00a0new medical school. We at Washington State University have\u00a0been picturing what we want to create with a new WSU College\u00a0of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><!--more-->To understand the direction in which we are headed, let\u2019s\u00a0begin by explaining what our university is. WSU is a land-grant\u00a0university. Under the provisions of the 1862 and 1890 Morrill\u00a0Acts, states received federal lands to sell in order to finance the\u00a0establishment of universities. The mission of these land-grant\u00a0universities was to provide a practical higher education for their\u00a0citizens who then would apply their new-found knowledge and\u00a0skills to the benefit of those states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a new book*, Abramson et al. write that teaching, scholarship and extension-outreach remain the core missions\u00a0of a modern land-grant university. Furthermore, scholarship and\u00a0teaching comprise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\">\u201cA commitment to research, especially research of a\u00a0practical nature and research that has special benefit for the\u00a0state and nation.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">\u201cThe training of students who will provide the professional,\u00a0scientific and academic workforce of the future.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">With these ideas in mind, the concept for a WSU College\u00a0of Medicine is to develop practical solutions to challenging\u00a0problems in healthcare delivery, healthcare access and disease\u00a0prevention consistent with our land-grant mission. This sounds\u00a0good, but what does this mean? It means we want to focus on\u00a0realistic solutions to meet the needs of all communities and all\u00a0citizens in our state, whether those citizens be future patients or\u00a0future students. It means that we have to think beyond Spokane.\u00a0We have to think statewide in how we support our state\u2019s\u00a0communities and citizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Solutions will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\">Creating curricula in anticipation of what healthcare might look\u00a0like in the future<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">Developing a pipeline system &#8212; starting as early as middle\u00a0school \u2013 to attract those who may have thought a healthcare\u00a0career was out of reach<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">Training more students and doctors within their own\u00a0local communities<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">Leveraging interprofessional training to benefit those\u00a0communities lacking healthcare resources<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">Attending to the needs of the underserved<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">Placing an emphasis on health and wellness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">What will the school look like? It will be traditional for its first\u00a0two years. Spokane will be the base for our research faculty\u00a0and facilities. Our faculty will teach clinically relevant scientific\u00a0foundations of medicine to first and second year students. It will\u00a0be nontraditional in the curriculum delivery. It will be a curriculum\u00a0geared to today\u2019s students &#8212; students who expect the ability\u00a0to learn via asynchronous lectures and other on-line learning\u00a0tools, students who expect us to guide them through burgeoning\u00a0medical information, and students who expect to use class time\u00a0applying what they have learned to deciphering clinical vignettes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Beyond the basic science years, our school will become even\u00a0more nontraditional. We will establish regional clinical campuses\u00a0around the state which will serve as hubs for nearby rural\u00a0communities. Third and fourth year students will spend their last\u00a0two clinical years in one of these regional campuses. While we\u00a0will assign some of our students to Spokane for their two year\u00a0clinical stint, most will be at our other regional clinical campuses.\u00a0After all, we are a land-grant university with extensions in every\u00a0county and with a responsibility to support those counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Since it is our mission to reach out to communities, then it is\u00a0incumbent upon us to seek out ideas and possible solutions\u00a0from those communities themselves. As we formulate a\u00a0curriculum, we will seek input not only from physicians in\u00a0Spokane but also from physicians in communities in which\u00a0our clinical students will be embedded. We will also ask our\u00a0current and former students for their ideas. We will want to know\u00a0from practicing clinicians what they would like to see in future\u00a0students who will come to do their clinical rotations with them.\u00a0We will be asking students how they would like to be taught.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There is a lot of work to be done to build a medical school,\u00a0but it is exciting work. The formation of this medical school will\u00a0benefit Spokane and it will benefit our state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>*References:<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>1. Abramson CI, Damron WS, Dicks M, Sherwood PMA. History and mission. In: Sternberg\u00a0RJ, ed. The Modern Land-Grant University. Purdue Univ.; 2014:11-12.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following was written by Dr. George Novan, FACP, Associate Dean, WSU College of Medical Sciences, for the April issue of The Message, a publication printed monthly by the Spokane [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1513],"tags":[772,824,446,447],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5281,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/5281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}