ORANGE – Chapman University is studying whether to create Orange County’s only medical school awarding degrees in osteopathic medicine, university President Jim Doti said Friday.

The school would fill a growing need in the region for osteopathic medicine while continuing its aggressive expansion into a comprehensive university that offers a variety of educational options, Doti said during his annual State of the University address.

“This has been an idea that we’ve been looking at for a while,” Doti said.

Chapman has an anonymous donor willing to fund the study to see if the medical program would be feasible, Doti said. The donor would also be willing to provide additional funds to help launch the school if the university eventually decides to start the program, Doti said.

The medical school would offer only doctor of osteopathic medicine, or D.O. degrees. Osteopathic medicine is the branch of medicine that relies on holistic measures, such as the manipulation of joints and bones, to diagnose and treat illness.

Doti said Chapman is not exploring a traditional medical school that offers doctor of medicine, or M.D., degrees, similar to UCI School of Medicine.

“We have a fantastic M.D. school already in Orange County. That’s not what we are trying to do,” he said. “Quite frankly, if we try to create that type of medical school, it would take us 100 years to have a program that could rank in the top 10 nationally.”

It could take a couple of years before Chapman completes its feasibility study, Doti said. There is no time line of when the school would open, or how many students it would accommodate.

Doti said the program would likely be based out of Chapman’s Rinker Health Science Campus, in Irvine. The campus is already home to Chapman’s School of Pharmacy, which won accreditation earlier this month and will open this fall.

Currently, no college or university in Orange County offers degrees in osteopathic medicine. The nearest school with an osteopathic program is Western University in Pomona.

Nationwide, there are 40-plus accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine, an increase from 17 in 2000, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

More than 21,000 medical students are enrolled at the nation’s colleges of osteopathic medicine, nearly double the number from a decade ago, according to the association.

“This is a rapidly growing field,” Doti said. “We talked to our donors and other leaders in the community: There’s been an overwhelming response in support of an osteopathic program.”

Since he took over as president in 1991, Doti has overseen an expansion of Chapman from a small liberal arts college with 1,400 students into a university with 7,500 students offering more than 50 degrees. In addition to the school of pharmacy, Chapman has added film and law schools over the last two decades. The school’s endowment has grown to $273 million from $29 million in 1990.

The school is also planning a science and technology center and a museum to feature Californian art. The school’s performing arts center will open in 2016.

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