Basic Sciences
The Department of Basic Sciences has a threefold mission focused on the areas of teaching, scholarship and research, and service to the community of southern Nevada.
In teaching, the department strives to provide students with a foundation in the basic medical knowledge necessary for them to evolve into excellent osteopathic physicians. This goal is approached through a combination of traditional didactics, hands-on laboratories, and small group sessions. First year students are provided a rigorous education in anatomy and embryology, neuroscience, biochemistry, and physiology. Biochemistry, histology, and physiology are taught in a systems-based, integrated course. Students are also introduced to immunology and microbiology. These concepts taught in year one are tied into clinical case scenarios during the small group-based Problem Based Learning course. Topics of the second year courses in pathology, pharmacology, and immunology and microbiology are integrated with the Primary Care Clinical Systems course. Students also get important hands-on laboratory experience in the Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics course. The department works closely with the clinical departments in order to infuse osteopathic principles and clinical case scenarios throughout the first and second year curricula.
The scholarship and research and community service facets of the department mission are closely intertwined. Basic scientists are currently developing collaborative research activities with researchers located in the community, which ultimately will enhance the biomedical landscape of southern Nevada. The Nevada campus has recently completed buildout of a state-of-the-art basic science research laboratory, designed to be shared by researchers in various disciplines. The research program will initially draw on the strengths of the department in the areas of immunity and infection, neuroscience, cardiac physiology, and microbial ecology.
Click Here for the Basic Science Department's Website
OMM
The mission of the Department of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine is to cultivate and enhance development of professional behavior, cognitive acumen, tactile and palpatory perception, and therapeutic skill within each student. While it is our privilege to help begin these processes here at Touro University, Nevada, we train our students to join our professors in a never-ending quest for excellence in patient care, extending personal learning and development for the rest of their medical careers.
An osteopathic physician has the broadest education of U.S. medical professionals. Our students study standard-of-care medical, surgical and obstetric practice, but in addition, they learn the distinctive osteopathic philosophy, diagnostic approach and osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). Carrying on a tradition started in 1874 by Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O., the OMM Department integrates the latest scientific information. Students learn to approach patient care not only from the perspective of eliminating disease, but also by enhancing host mechanisms for recovery and maintenance of optimal health.
OMM I, II, III and IV comprise a four-semester continuum of comprehensive education emphasizing the importance of the neuromusculoskeletal system in diagnosis and treatment of the patient. Students attend lectures to build a basic information database, followed by clinical skills training sessions which offer the opportunity to learn effective observation, palpation, and distinctively osteopathic hands-on manual medicine. Instruction in the laboratory setting is through big-screen imaging and data-projection for easy viewing. Professors circulate among the students offering personal direction in the development of hands-on skills. Students are required to work as pairs, benefiting from the experience not only of learning diagnosis and manipulative procedures, but also gaining an understanding of the patient’s perspective. Small group problem-based learning sessions engage students in the process of diagnosis and management of common clinical presentations. Students are encouraged to continue skill development while on clinical rotations in the hospitals, where OMM Department members and other physicians present lectures and hands-on training sessions.
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Primary Care
The mission of the department of primary care is to prepare and train our first and second year medical students to attain the knowledge, skills and attitudes to become proficient clinicians who are committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of osteopathic medicine. Our goal is to provide the fundamental knowledge and training necessary to prepare our students to become the best possible physicians they can be.
In the spirit of the comprehensive and holistic approach of osteopathic physicians, our department will commonly work in collaboration with other departments of this university to provide the most integrative education possible.
Our growing faculty consists of experienced D.O.’s and M.D.’s from various specialties and is committed to providing only the highest standards of academic and clinical education.
