Osteopathic medical education: Real-world effects in Pikeville, Kentucky

Colleges of osteopathic medicine generate significant economic benefits by creating jobs within the schools and surrounding communities, particularly in medically underserved and rural-adjacent areas. Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODM, is president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Here he points to Pikeville, Kentucky, as an example of how opening a college transformed a rural town’s economy and health care landscape.

Medical Economics: How would you describe the economic effect that the colleges of osteopathic medicine have on their communities?

Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODME: Now maybe I'll make just some broad comments first to answer that question and actually tell a very specific story. It was exciting to see some of the numbers that the number of jobs that are generated when you open a new college of osteopathic medicine, and recognizing that some of those jobs are new educators you may be bringing into the area, people who are going to teach might be PhD, EDD, DO, MD, who are going to become part of that school, but it's also all of the other people that are necessary to make that institution work. And so the school itself creates jobs, and then in the community, there tend to be new jobs that are created as well. I already mentioned to you that over half of our schools are medically underserved areas, and a fair number are touching on rural adjacent communities. All communities need jobs, but what better place to create jobs than some of those? And we could go through the names of, where are schools located in smaller rural communities that hopefully we've actually been able to make a difference.

But there's one example I always use, because it was for me a very personal opportunity: Pikeville, Kentucky, in rural eastern Kentucky, in coal country. And many, many years ago, I was invited there to potentially join the initial staff as they were opening this medical school in the mountains, as they called it. And there were people who thought, how can you open a medical school here? And what is it going to do? And I remember visiting Pikeville for the first time, as it truly was a rural community with a small college. I didn't take the job. But over the years, as I would go back and I would visit, I was watching this transformation in that town, as that initial college of osteopathic medicine brought not only those new people to that school, but it caused them to have a resurgence. You go down to Pikeville now, and it's a vibrant city with a vibrant hospital that wasn't there in 1997 and the only thing that changed was putting a college of osteopathic medicine in that particular space. So the good thing about this report is, we see that repeated in other places. Bring a college of osteopathic medicine to a particular community, you can expect to see new jobs and changes in the economics of that community.

But one of the other things that's really important is the fact that nearly 40% of COM graduates, if you look at all of the data, actually stay in the state where they've trained. If you're a state that's been underserved, we have some new research not included in this particular report, that actually shows some of those medically underserved designations disappear within a few years after that college opening, because we brought new doctors to that community, not only who are going to teach in the medical school, but who are actually staying after they finish their training. So we get to make a difference in people's lives.