Dean's Office Communication on COVID-19 - 2020-08-18

Greetings COM faculty, staff, and students:

As a quick follow up to President Stanley’s announcement that all undergraduate classes will now be offered entirely online this fall in an effort to prevent COVID-19 spread in campus housing, I wanted to take a moment to reaffirm to all of you that our pre-clerkship and clerkship curricula will continue as already planned; that is, COM medical education will not be impacted as a result of this announcement by the greater university.

As you recall, our planning has always included utilizing a hybrid scenario of essential in-person, clinical skills instruction and clerkship rotations, as well as continued utilization of online and distance-learning capacities. For all of our in-person scenarios, the recommended safety protocols will continue to be followed including our use of symptom questionnaires, wearing masks, using social distancing and reporting any health issues. Furthermore, we will continue to limit any in-person activities to only those deemed essential to the mission of the college.

As a medical, non-residential college, it is recognized that our training of future physicians is an essential function, and we will continue our efforts, albeit always minimizing the need for face-to-face sessions to those essential to moving forward in our curriculum. We are also committed to our ongoing provision of serving as a regional NBOME testing center for administration of COMLEX-USA computer-based examinations.

Thank you very much for your understanding and patience during these ever-changing times, and I hope the notifications targeting undergraduate students at MSU does not cause you confusion in regards to our mission and planning as a health college.

Sincerely,

Andrea Amalfitano D.O., Ph.D.
Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine