College of Osteopathic Medicine COMLEX Pass and Graduation Match Rates

College of Osteopathic Medicine COMLEX Pass and Graduation Placement Rates

Policy regarding methods used to collect and review information on student outcomes and licensure pass rates: Data regarding student pass rates on licensure exams is collected annually from national licensing bodies and is posted to LECOM’s website. This information is collected and reviewed by the Dean of each respective program and the Provost of the institution. Once the data has been reviewed and confirmed, it is approved by the Office of Communications and Marketing for use on the LECOM.edu website, as well as in recruitment materials.

The Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) provides Accreditation of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine: COM Continuing Accreditation Standards that each College of Medicine is required to follow.  The latest update of these Standards was September 26, 2023.  Two Elements of the Standards require publication of outcomes:  Element 11.4a: COMLEX-USA and Element 11.4b GME Placement Rates.  These data are included below.

Element 11.4a:  COMLEX-USA

Prior to graduation, all students must demonstrate osteopathic medical knowledge and osteopathic clinical skills by passing the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States (COMLEX-USA) undergraduate examinations (Level 1 and Level 2) and meeting a national standard for osteopathic clinical skills competency.

The COM must continually publish to the public the first-time pass rates for all students in each of the competency assessments in the COMLEX-USA examination series (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3) as reported by the NBOME. COMs must update their public websites within 30 days of receiving their annual update for each COMLEX-USA level testing cycle.

The following information is presented as LECOM’s response to Element 11.4a: COMLEX-USA.

What are the COMLEX exams?

All Osteopathic medical students are required to take COMLEX Levels 1, 2, and 3.  The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) website (www.nbome.org) provides the following description of the COMLEX Exams:

“COMLEX-USA (Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States) is a three-level, national standardized licensure examination designed for licensure for the practice of osteopathic medicine. COMLEX-USA is designed to assess osteopathic medical knowledge, knowledge fluency, clinical skills, and other competencies essential for practice as an osteopathic generalist physician. It is also a graduation requirement for attaining a DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) degree from colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States, and for entry into and promotion within graduate medical education (residency) training programs.” For additional information on the NBOME and COMLEX exams, please refer to the website.

Students take the COMLEX Level 1 following completion of their second year and Level 2 after the completion of their third year. Level 3 must be taken after graduation and during GME residency.

LECOM Comlex Performance Summary:

COMLEX LEVEL 1 BOARD PASS RATES

First time pass rate for testing cycles for years 2020/2021 to 2023/24

COMLEX LEVEL 2 CE (Clinical Evaluation) BOARD PASS RATES

First time pass rate for testing cycles for years 2020/21 to 2023/24

COMLEX LEVEL 3 BOARD PASS RATES

First time pass rate for testing cycles for years 2020 to 2023

COMLEX-USA Level 3 must be taken after a student has graduated and entered residency. Each residency program determines any requirements for preparation and may set the date when the exam must be taken.

Element 11.4b: GME Placement Rates

A COM must continually publish publicly the placement rates of its students in graduate medical education programs.  A COM must make available by request four years of student GME placement rates including, at a minimum, race/ethnicity and gender demographic data. The mechanism to request this data must be published and easily identifiable on the COM’s website. When applicable, for any value less than ten, the COM should indicate that value as “less than 10” in place of the value. LECOM has three campuses with COMLEX data and graduates.

The following information presented as LECOM’s response to Element 11.4b: GME Placement Rates

The placement rate must be calculated by dividing the number of students who entered into a PGY-1 position by the number of students that applied to enter into a PGY-1 position. View the detailed match information.

Demographics

To obtain GME Placement demographic information, please send your request with Subject Line “GME Demographic Request” to demographics@lecom.edu and allow 14 days for delivery.

Element 11.4c: Cohort Graduation Rates at years 4, 5, and 6

Element 11.4d: Cohort Retention Rates

LECOM Campuses’ COMLEX data structure based on AOA-COCA classification:

The LECOM at Seton Hill campus, located in Greensburg, PA is an additional location of LECOM Erie, as is the LECOM at Elmira campus in Elmira, NY. As additional locations, all student-related data is included with the LECOM Erie campus data. LECOM at Elmira matriculated its first class in fall 2020, so these students are first included in the Erie data for COMLEX Level 1 in the 2022-23 test cycle. LECOM Bradenton in Bradenton, FL is a branch campus and their student-related data is presented separate from the Erie campus data.