Central Valley’s new medical school opens July 21 with 75 students

With its new pre-accreditation status in order, California Health Sciences University announced its grand opening for the Central Valley’s new medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM), will be July 21 when instruction begins for its inaugural class of 75 medical students.

As the university finalizes preparations to open its new state-of-the-art, three-story medical school building located at 2500 Alluvial Avenue in Clovis, a virtual ribbon-cutting video will post at 11 a.m. June 30 and can be seen on CHSU’s social media platforms after that.

The university also announced recently that the college has met all standards and requirements for Pre-Accreditation status by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation.

“Pre-Accreditation is a milestone achievement and the highest level awarded to COMs that have not yet graduated their first class,” said Dr.  John Graneto, COM dean, in his accreditation announcement June 10.  “We are encouraged by the diversity of the initial cohort and the representation by Central Valley students.”

Founded in 2012 and envisioned by the Assemi family, CHSU is addressing the shortage of healthcare providers in the Valley amidst statewide projections showing that California will need 8,800 more physicians by 2030 to serve healthcare needs.

“It’s gratifying to see California Health Sciences University fast-tracking its growth and trajectory toward becoming a nationally recognized institution and to help remedy this long-standing problem,” said Dr. John Welty, President Emeritus of Fresno State and chair of the CHSU Board of Trustees, when he wrote about the valley’s new medical school in several local newspapers recently.

Dr. Welty is also a founding member of CVHEC.

Dr. Graneto said 75 percent of the inaugural 2020 cohort are from California and 28 percent are local students from the Central Valley.

“Sixteen different languages are spoken by this diverse group of students, which is critical to help bridge the language barrier that many underserved populations experience when seeking health care,” Dr. Graneto said. “35 percent of the class speaks Spanish.”

In January, the CHSU-COM leadership, faculty and staff moved into the new facility following an expedited 18-month campus expansion project that was prepped and ready for students before the COVID-19 shelter in place orders were enacted.

CHSU opened the first pharmacy school in the Central Valley in 2014. Dr. Graneto also added that recruitment is now underway for the second cohort that will begin in fall 2021.

See video of the CHSU virtual ribbon-cutting June 30 at 11 a.m. on the university’s social media platforms.