Agreement Guarantees CSUSB Students Entry to COMP

A significant agreement between California State University, San

Bernardino and Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona will

assure the admission of up to six CSUSB biology students each year to

Western University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.

CSUSB President Albert Karnig and Western University President Philip

Pumerantz signed the agreement Aug. 2, at Cal State San Bernardino. The

articulation agreement will create the BIO2MED program, which will select

up to six qualified Cal State San Bernardino biology undergraduates for

the osteopathic medical school upon graduation. It also is the first of

its kind for a California State University campus.

“”This is a historic event for both campuses. Both campuses have already

seen the value of each other’s programs, faculty and students,”” said

CSUSB Professor Jeff Thompson, chair of the university’s biology

department.

Karnig praised the agreement for its reaching and mentoring lower

division students to help them into medical school at Western and

offering mentoring from faculty members from both Cal State and WesternU.

The BIO2MED Program breaks new ground in the cooperation between CSUSB

and a private biomedical institution such as Western University, and

provides extraordinary new opportunities to students in the Inland Empire

and the diverse student population at CSUSB, Thompson said.

The articulation agreement reinforces the already excellent record that

the CSUSB biology department has in placing its students in medical

programs and forges even stronger links between CSUSB and WesternU.

BIO2MED will take effect in September when a team of faculty from both

institutions will select from freshman and sophomore students for the

program. The team will also serve as mentors to the students. The

students will participate in an extracurricular mentoring program. They

will have the opportunity to shadow practicing physicians in the office,

hospital and at Western University of Health Sciences.

Cal State San Bernardino students in the program will work toward and

receive bachelor of science degrees in biology before entering the

Doctors of Osteopathy (D.O.) program at WesternU.

There are two types of complete physicians in the United States.Both

D.O.s and M.D.s are fully qualified physicians licensed to perform

surgery and prescribe medication. D.O.s practice a “”whole person””

approach to medicine, by focusing on preventive health care as well as

the healing power of touch. With the addition of osteopathic manipulative

treatment (OMT) physicians use their hands to aide in diagnosing and

treating injury and illness.