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PROVO — Utah Valley's first college of osteopathic medicine is hosting a grand opening to show off its innovative and tech-filled building to the public.
The Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in 2021 at a temporary location while the school's new building was being completed. After transitioning to the building at 2162 S. 180 East, in Provo, the school is hosting a grand opening on March 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to welcome the public.
"What we offer to the community is what will soon be the state's largest medical school. And to offer a place for more of Utah's students and people throughout the region to pursue their dreams of becoming physicians," said Schyler Richards, vice president of institutional advancement.
Richards said Utah Valley is "a little bit lacking" in health care providers, and it's an area experiencing large growth.
"So we knew, that with the ultimate goal of providing health care to the community, this was an area that was now in need and going to continue to be in even greater need," she said.
The college has state-of-the-art simulator robots to give students real-life opportunities to operate without risking mistakes on real people. The simulators breathe and move, have joints and tissues that can be punctured or palpated, show vital signs and can express a variety of medical issues and symptoms.
A pregnant woman that can give birth or have a heart attack, a baby that needs heart surgery, a man with gastrointestinal bleeding and more are among the robots housed in the simulator labs.
Director of medical simulation Patrick Murphy said most medical schools don't have simulators so tightly intertwined in their curriculums, but students at Noorda start learning on simulators from their first semester.
"You don't want them to know the knowledge, then freeze up in an emergency situation," Murphy said. He added that simulators can give students experience with situations they might not get in clinical labs.
For example, a medical student might only experience delivering a baby without complications while they are a student. But with "the push of a button," students can learn how to deal with complex or emergency birth situations on a simulator.
"We are trying to be very forward thinking and adapting to new technologies ... and to how (students) grow as learners," he said.
Murphy said the school hires actors — some who are licensed nurses — to pretend to be the patient's family for students to practice interacting with guests during high-stress situations.
The school also has exam rooms where actors will come in and students practice diagnosing various ailments and get feedback on their bedside manner.
Along with augmented and virtual reality labs, collaborative "learning pods" for classes, instead of large lecture halls, and a surgical suite that could be used as a backup for nearby hospitals, the 140,000-square-foot building can accommodate around 800 students.
"It's a really unique approach, and it's the way students want to learn today," Richards said. "We're really excited about the grand opening because it's the first time we've really opened our doors to the community to show them how unique this facility is."
The public event on March 9 will have food trucks, an escape room where attendees search for clues to help them diagnose a patient, tours of the building and its labs, and robotic demonstrations. There will also be service activities and a "mini med school" for children to enjoy.
Why osteopathic?
The Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine is the first osteopathic medicine college in Utah Valley and the second in Utah, joining Rocky Vista University in southern Utah.
The course of study for doctors of osteopathic medicine, or DOs, takes a different "philosophical" approach than that of traditional medical school that doctors of medicine, or MDs, take, Richards said. Both degrees use the same curriculum but osteopathic medicine programs have additional coursework on osteopathic manipulative medicine.
"It's that we're treating patients and we're treating the person, not necessarily just the symptoms," Richards said.
Before becoming a faculty member at Noorda, Murphy said he didn't even know what osteopathic medicine was, and the grand opening will help educate people.
"I think (for) a lot of the people in the community, seeing what we do here will actually help the community know what kind of healing they would want to have," he said.
Student Kaitlyn McFarland is in her third year at Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine and is part of the school's original class of only 90 students from when it first opened.
As someone who spent a lot of her childhood at the hospital undergoing surgeries, McFarland has had experience with good and bad physicians.
"I wanted to go to a school where I would be made to be a physician who shows their patients that they are not alone and they have someone who wants their health to be at the best it can be. Even if they're going through difficulties in their healthcare journey, they're getting the best care possible and they're being told every step of the way what's going on so they're never confused, lost or unheard," she said.
"The people here really care about their students and the mission to bring fantastic physicians to Utah and I'm really glad to be a part of it," she added.
