Duquesne now allowed to recruit students to planned osteopathic medical school

Duquesne University is allowed to begin recruiting students to its planned college of osteopathic medicine, a significant step toward opening in the fall of 2024.

The college rising along Forbes Avenue on the Bluff now has pre-accreditation status from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, campus officials said Wednesday.

The Catholic university plans to enroll 85 students next fall and grow yearly to 170 students starting in 2026. Duquesne hopes to enroll 680 students over all four years by the 2029-2030 school year.

Construction of the College of Medicine building is now well underway, senior leadership for the college is in place and the college’s curriculum has met guidelines of the accrediting agency, Duquesne leaders said.

University officials said the agency’s decision to grant pre-accreditation status is an important step for the largest project in Duquesne’s 150-year history. The project aims to help alleviate a shortage of primary care physicians in Western Pennsylvania and nationally.

The project was first announced in 2019. It weathered delays tied to the pandemic and pushed back construction timetables.

“This is a momentous occasion for Duquesne University and the Pittsburgh region, as we begin to attract and train the next generation of physicians for Western Pennsylvania and beyond,” Dr. John Kauffman, dean of the College of Medicine, said in a statement.

Duquesne already has a nursing school, pharmacy school, health sciences school and music school, and university administrators have said an osteopathic school of medicine would benefit from health-related work already occurring in those disciplines.

“The progress of our medical college marks another milestone in Duquesne’s legacy as a major anchor in the health care field,” said Duquesne President Ken Gormley. “We are grateful for the generous support we have received from the Pittsburgh community – government, industry, foundations and alumni – in making the historic launch of the College of Medicine a reality.”

For their first two years, students will study at the university’s medical school, which will include state-of-the-art technology and focus on various areas of patient care, including family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and surgery, among others, project planners said.

The final two years of training will take place at the school’s partner hospitals. Duquesne has reached agreements with multiple hospitals in Western Pennsylvania. These health care partners will offer clinical placements for third- and fourth-year medical students.

Officials estimated in 2021 that the project would cost $151 million, much of it for the 80,000-square-foot, five-story building housing the school, as well as related demolition work.

Meanwhile, officials at Indiana University of Pennsylvania are exploring what would be the first school of osteopathic medicine on a public campus in the state. IUP, one of 10 state-owned universities in the State System of Higher Education, recently announced its largest gift to the fledgling project, a $1 million donation from an alumnus.

Initiatives at both IUP and Duquesne are seen as a potential way to address a national shortage of primary care physicians, especially in rural areas. Qualified medical students across the United States outstrip available slots in medical schools.

Officials at the universities noted that 57% of doctors of osteopathic medicine practice primary care medicine, and 1 in 5 work in rural communities.