Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) is a public, interprofessional, community-based health sciences university in Rootstown, Ohio. Until 2011, the school was known as the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM).
Its medical school is the only in the United States that has partnerships with four public universities (University of Akron, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, and Youngstown State University) and one private college (Hiram College). It also has 24 hospital partners, while the pharmacy school has over 100 pharmacy partners. These relationships allow the university to focus on its mission of training physicians and pharmacists oriented to practice at the community level, especially in Northeast Ohio. The class size has grown to around 160 medical and 80 pharmacy students.
The College of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the College of Pharmacy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.
History
The medical university was begun by Leonard Caccamo, who became its first chairman of the Board of Trustees. As medical director of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, he began the planning for the university. He was assisted by Harry Meshel, then majority leader of the Ohio Senate. With the assistance of Lyle Williams, Congressman for the Ohio 17th district, a feasibility study was begun in concert with the Youngstown Hospital Association to address a regional need for primary care physicians and use existing facilities at the state universities and hospitals in the area. Based on that initial study a three-city consortium of Akron, Canton, and Youngstown was developed with the University of Akron (UA), Kent State University (KSU), and Youngstown State University (YSU). Cleveland State University (CSU) was added in 2008.
The school was established by the Ohio state legislature in 1973, and the campus site in Rootstown along Ohio State Route 44 near Interstate 76 was selected in 1974 with groundbreaking in December 1975. The charter class was selected in September 1977 and included 42 students from UA, KSU, and YSU in a combined B.S./M.D. program. They graduated in 1981, the same year the school became fully accredited.
The College of Pharmacy, approved in 2005, was inaugurated with 75 students in August 2007 in the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program. Given the school's more rural setting, the Doctor of Pharmacy program has a community pharmacy emphasis. In May 2011, the university graduated its inaugural class of 61 pharmacists.
The university has collaborative arrangements with other colleges and universities to offer graduate-level education in biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. Starting with the class of 2009, the College of Medicine has adopted an Integrated Steps Curriculum.
Jay Alan Gershen began his term as president of the university on January 15, 2010. In his February 2010 address, he announced major plans to raise the university's profile, including a name-change for the university to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). This was officially signed into law on April 29, 2011.
In 2015, NEOMED was named a Top Workplace in Northeast Ohio by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, its third time doing so.
Campus
The main campus is located in Rootstown, Ohio, approximately 14 miles (23 km) east of Akron, 33 miles (53 km) west of Youngstown, and 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Cleveland. The NEOMED Education and Wellness Center (NEW Center) houses a fitness center, bistro, coffee shop, and conference space, as well as physical therapy and childcare services. There are also plans to contain a pharmacy and medical offices through partnerships. The third floor of the NEW Center is home to the Bio-Med Science Academy, a STEM charter school for grades 9â€"12. On the northern edge of campus, the university offers on-campus housing for professional students, faculty, and staff in The Village at NEOMED, which opened in 2014.
Bio-Med Science Academy
In August 2012, Northeast Ohio Medical University opened Bio-Med Science Academy, a charter high school with a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) curriculum and an additional focus on medicine (STEM+M). The first class had 70 students with successive freshmen classes added each school year. As of August 2015, enrollment is approximately 400 students in grades 9â€"12.
Notable alumni
- Rajeev Venkayya (1991), President of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
- Amit Majmudar (2003), Ohio's first Poet Laureate
- Angela Funovits (2013), magician who performed on NBC's Phenomenon
Notable faculty
- Frederick Frese, psychologist and schizophrenia researcher
- C. Owen Lovejoy, anthropologist who reconstructed Lucy (Australopithecus)
See also
- University System of Ohio
- Medical education in the United States
- List of medical schools in the United States
- List of pharmacy schools in the United States
References
External links
- Northeast Ohio Medical University official website