What Is PCOM's Approach to Health Care Education?

PCOM's approach centers on "whole person health care": students are trained to see the person rather than only the symptoms, with preventive health and healthy lifestyles treated as part of comprehensive, high-quality care. This philosophy has shaped the institution since 1899, when Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine began training health care professionals. It suits prospective students who want clinical training embedded in a holistic, prevention-oriented outlook and who value learning to work in interdisciplinary teams.

The core idea: treat the person, not just the symptoms

PCOM describes its educational mission as preparing professionals to "see the whole person—not just the symptoms." Two commitments follow from that:

• Preventive health is part of care. The curriculum outlook includes developing attitudes and lifestyles that help prevent disease, rather than addressing illness only after it appears.
• Holistic care is the standard. Prevention sits inside a broader "comprehensive approach to providing high quality, holistic care," not as a separate add-on.

For a prospective student, this means expecting coursework and clinical experiences that ask you to consider a patient's full context, not just a diagnosis.

Team-based, cross-disciplinary training

PCOM states that it strengthens the worlds of health and science by giving students "unique opportunities to work in teams across disciplines in a dynamic medical school environment." In practice, that signals an educational model where students in different health and behavioral science fields learn alongside one another rather than in isolation—useful preparation if you expect to collaborate across professions in your career.

Where this approach is delivered

The whole-person philosophy is applied across three locations:

The site frames these as one community offering team-based, interdisciplinary learning in a medical school environment, so the approach is not confined to a single campus.

How to judge whether it fits you

Use the philosophy as a filter for your own expectations:

1. If you want prevention and lifestyle counseling to be central to how you practice, PCOM's stated emphasis aligns with that goal.
2. If you prefer to train in interdisciplinary teams, the cross-disciplinary team model described on the site is a relevant signal.
3. If location matters, compare the three campuses above before applying; the site presents them as part of the same educational community.

To go further, PCOM invites prospective students to explore its programs and degrees, request information, take a virtual tour, and view upcoming admissions events—concrete next steps for testing whether the whole-person approach matches what you want from your education.