The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) is a private medical school with a main campus in the neighborhood of Central Harlem in New York City and additional campuses in Middletown, New York and Great Falls, Montana. It is a division of the Touro University System. The college's inaugural class graduated in 2011. It was the first medical school to open in New York State in nearly 30 years and is the first osteopathic medical school with a special emphasis on training minority doctors. TouroCOM currently has a student body of about 1,080 students. TouroCOM has a stated goal of particularly identifying and recruiting students willing to make a commitment to practice in underserved communities. The Harlem neighborhood has been designated by the federal government as underserved by medical professionals. Community service events such as free health counseling, screenings, and flu shots are offered to local residents by students and faculty several times a year.

History

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in 2007 in Harlem, New York. It was the first medical school to open in New York State in nearly 30 years and is the first osteopathic medical school with a special emphasis on training minority doctors. The college's inaugural class graduated in 2011. The Middletown campus graduated their first class in 2018. TouroCOM is a division of Touro College. In 2009, students from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine worked with DKMS Americas (along with assistance from the Harlem community and the Apollo Theater) to arrange a Bone Marrow Registration Drive that resulted in about 200 new bone marrow registrants. The drive was inspired by the need to find a bone marrow donor match for Jasmina Anema, a six-year-old African American girl fighting leukemia, who died in 2010. A campus in Great Falls, Montana, opened in 2023.

Academics

TouroCOM offers two degrees, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and a Master of Science. Approximately 60 percent of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine students work in primary care following graduation.

Campuses

Harlem, Manhattan, New York

The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine Harlem Campus is located at 230 West 125th Street, diagonally across from the historic Apollo Theater in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood. The facility provides approximately 75000 sqft devoted to medical education. The school contains amphitheater-style lecture halls, classrooms, offices, support facilities, clinical skills training facilities, and laboratories. The virtual library includes more than 50,000 books and 1,000 journals, 26,000 electronic journals, virtual resources, more than 80 computer workstations, multimedia areas, and reading spaces. The Campus is located two blocks east of the A, B, and D train and one block west of the 2 and 3 train.

Middletown, New York

In August 2014, a larger campus that occupies 110,000 square feet of space in the Horton complex opened in Middletown, New York. The inaugural class consisted of 135 students, and graduated in 2018. The campus has since started a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies (MS) program. TouroCOM launched MedAchieve Scholars in 2012, a program that encourages students from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Great Falls, Montana

In 2021, Touro College & University System and Benefis Health System broke ground on a new Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine campus in Great Falls, Montana. The school is located next to Benefis, where students will do clinical rotations. The school has up to 125 students each year. The campus opened in August of 2023.

Admissions

Applicants apply through the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS). For the Class of 2020, TouroCOM received 6574 applications for 292 first year positions between the Harlem and Middletown campuses. No early decision program is offered.

Students

TouroCOM currently has a student body of about 1080 students. Over 200 underrepresented minority students have matriculated since the school's inception in 2007. In May 2024, 124 Doctors graduated from TouroCOM, with a 99% match rate for the class. In 2015, the NAACP recognized the Harlem campus's efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in medicine through the MedAchieve afterschool mentoring program, the Mentoring in Medicine program that brings local high school students into TouroCOM's anatomy labs, and the Fund for Underrepresented minority students.

Residency Match

Upon completion of their medical education, students apply to residency or internship programs throughout the country through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), AOA Match, Military Match, or other matching programs.

Accreditation

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and received the status of initial award of accreditation from the American Osteopathic Association's Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. (COCA).

Notable faculty