College of Osteopathic Medicine
Erie, PA
Welcome to LECOM Erie, PA
The LECOM Erie campus includes 3 campus settings across the Erie area.
LECOM Main/LECOM West campus is expansively situated along West Grandview Boulevard where a park-like, 53-acre campus boasts an excellent view of Lake Erie, and two major buildings for innovative teaching, learning, and research.
LECOM Bayfront is a picturesque campus on the Lake Erie Bayfront coastline – this campus accommodates small group learning facilities for Problem Based Learning Pathway students and flexible rooms for large group lectures or workshops as needed.
LECOM Education Center, a short drive from LECOM Main, is a 28-acre campus with multiples buildings for small group learning sessions, a study lounge for students, and a Simulation center for practicing physician skills on state-of-the-art medical manikins and task trainers.
Additional highlights that make LECOM Erie an exceptional location to study osteopathic medicine:
- Erie is home to the Millcreek Community Hospital and LECOM Medical Associates of Erie, physician practices that serve as the clinical wing of LECOM’s Academic Health Center. Students can achieve their D.O. degree and progress to graduate medical education residencies all in one location
- John M. and Silvia M. Ferretti LECOM Medical Fitness and Wellness Center – state of the art health/wellness facility with gym/exercise facilities and physicians’ offices in one location
- 26,000+ sq ft of Research Facility Space
- Train on site with Dental, Podiatry, and Pharmacy students
LECOM Erie is LECOM’s original and largest campus, offering multiple innovative learning pathways to fit student learning styles as they study to fulfill their dream of becoming an osteopathic physician.
Erie, Pennsylvania, offers the unique juxtaposition of small-town charm and security with the amenities of a much larger city. Tree-lined neighborhoods and community parks are as welcoming as the area’s low cost of living, four-season climate, and picturesque beauty. Located almost equidistant from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo, and within 500 miles of more than half of the U.S. population, Erie is easily accessible by car, train or plane; over 4 million people are drawn to Pennsylvania’s only “seashore” each year.
Erie’s crown jewel is Presque Isle State Park, a 2,300-acre sandy peninsula extending into Lake Erie just 4 miles west of downtown Erie. The peninsula is home to 7 miles of beaches and 13 miles of trails and offers a myriad of recreation opportunities, from swimming and boating in the summer to ice fishing and snowshoeing in the winter, plus everything in between. The park has been recognized as one of the top birding spots in the U.S., and locals rate Erie sunsets among the best in the world.
Visit EriePa.com, VisitEriePa.com or ErieCountyPa.gov for more information on the Erie community and the surrounding region.
Explore LECOM student-centered pathway cirriculum
(LDP) Lecture Discussion Pathway
LDP core curriculum starts with basic sciences and introductions to clinical education.
- Lecture presentations and laboratories are at the heart of the pathway.
- Students usually spend the morning in lecture sessions and the afternoon in a combination of lectures, laboratories, tutorials, small group discussions, and independent study sessions.
- For students more comfortable with a highly structured academic schedule and teacher-directed environment.
- Beginning the first year, second semester, the LECOM systems curriculum integrates basic and clinical science of human organ systems.
- Clinically based lectures provide a physician’s “real life” view of contemporary health care.
(PBL) Problem-Based Learning Pathway
PBL emphasizes student-centered, self-directed learning. Each group of eight students meets with a faculty facilitator three times per week.
- Students work independently and in small groups developing learning issues and discussing new information relevant to actual patient cases.
- Groups will request additional history and physical results, an EKG or an MRI as needed as students begin forming differential diagnoses.
- Each basic medical science subject is studied, not in isolation, but integrated with other subjects in the context of clinical cases.
(DSP) Direct Study Pathway
DSP provides significant flexibility for students during the first two years of medical school.
- For admission to DSP, the student must show excellent organizational and time-management skills in order to proceed through the curriculum and meet strict examination deadlines.
- Though the program stresses independence, it is a closely directed course of study. DSP students use lists of highly structured learning objectives compiled into modules that are divided into the core and systems curricula similar to the LDP courses.
- Students are given modules that contain highly organized and specific learning objectives that are used in conjunction with the assigned text in order to drive the majority of the learning.
(PCSP) Primary Care Scholars Pathway
LECOM introduced PCSP as a response to the need for primary care physicians, particularly for family medicine.
- LECOM Primary Care Scholars will graduate in three years from the Erie, PA campus with a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree that is equivalent to a four-year academic program, along with clinical education, to prepare for post-graduate training.
- Students complete the first two years of basic science and preclinical education in under 20 months by attending class year-round and using the DSP learning strategy.
- Students begin early clinical training and must complete core competency-based clinical rotations that meet all the educational requirements necessary for primary care medicine.
