Osteopathic medical school training rural primary care physicians in Appalachia since 1997.
KYCOM offers a four-year Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree with emphasis on community and behavioral medicine, ambulatory care, osteopathic manipulative therapy, and rural medicine. The first two years feature system-based and discipline science courses including anatomy, biochemistry, immunology, and osteopathic principles, with early hands-on training on human models. Years three and four consist of clinical rotations at sites across Kentucky and other states (Arkansas, Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia), allowing students to develop specialization interests and prepare for residency training.
KYCOM offers the Osteopathic Medical Scholars Program (OMSP), which provides accepted undergraduate freshmen at University of Pikeville a pathway to earn a bachelor's degree followed by automatic matriculation into the DO program. The school also runs the Professional Education Preparation Program (PEPP), a two-week on-campus program introducing high school students to medical education through lectures and faculty/student interaction. For the class of 2015, average MCAT was 24 and cumulative GPA was 3.5, showing improvement from 2011 when average MCAT was 21.97 and GPA was 3.3.
Over 700 KYCOM graduates have earned DO degrees since establishment; 60% serve in the Appalachian region and 69% practice primary care—the second-highest rate nationally. Two-thirds of graduating seniors gain admission to their first-choice residency program, with 85–90% matching to one of their top three choices. The school is ranked fourth in affordability among US private medical schools and is one of 37 osteopathic medical schools in the nation.
The Coal Building, a nine-story, 84,000-square-foot facility completed in 2012, houses clinical skills training and evaluation centers, high-fidelity robot simulators, research and teaching labs, gross anatomy laboratory, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine lab, lecture halls, classrooms, and a campus cafeteria. Construction cost $40 million, funded by a $26.5 million direct loan from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, $10 million from the New Market Tax Credit, and $1 million in grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and James Graham Brown Foundation.