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The Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo will host a public grand opening of its new academic building Saturday, March 9, 2024.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Caleb McKee is a medical student at the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Dr. Norman Wright is the president and CEO of the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Elle Gaudette is a medical student at the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Jacob Warner is a medical student at the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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The Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo will host a public grand opening of its new academic building Saturday, March 9, 2024.

Courtesy Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine

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Caleb McKee comes from a long line of physicians. In fact, his great-grandfather, Ilas Jeffery, was the first doctor of osteopathic medicine in Provo — and he was blind.

“He didn’t have his eyes, so he used his hands and he really made an impact on his patients in such a positive way,” McKee said. “All of the doctors in our family are DOs and I just love the holistic approach where we treat both body, mind and spirit and we’re making sure we have the full picture in mind when we’re attending to our patients.”

McKee, a third-year medical student at the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine, along with other medical students, will be at the school this Saturday for the grand opening of its new academic building, located at 2162 S. 180 East in Provo.

The event is open to the public and starts at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The public will then have the opportunity to tour the four-story, 140,000-square-foot building and even participate in augmented reality tours, watch a robotic birth demonstration, visit the surgical suite and laboratory and learn more about going into the field. There will even be a “mini med school” for kids.

“We have really been looking forward to this grand opening,” said Dr. Norman Wright, the college’s president and CEO. “We’ve been open since 2021, but we’ve been holding classes across the street. But the vision for this medical school started about 15 years ago when Dr. Rick Nielsen, who was president at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, started talking about the need for another medical school in Utah.”

The building itself was designed to bring in as much natural light as possible. The curves in the architecture have a welcoming feel as well, Wright said. Curves in architectural structures are used to signify comfort and ease and blend in with the surrounding landscape.

The school curriculum uses short, prerecorded video segments. Students work in small groups of three to eight people in on-campus learning pods to go over the learning material. The school has everything from a 23,000-square-foot simulation center and a state-of-the-art anatomy lab, to cadavers and actors who play the part of a patient with a particular disease to help students have real-life, hands-on experience. Approximately 194 students from all over the state and country are accepted to attend the school each year.

Doctors of osteopathic medicine are fully licensed physicians who practice all areas of medicine, from family doctors, hospitalists, surgeons and everything in between. The philosophy of osteopathic medicine is not only to practice traditional medicine, but also to treat the whole person — mind, body and spirit — which includes osteopathic manipulative medicine.

That feature of the curriculum is one thing that attracted Elle Gaudette to applying at Noorda College.

A former Olympian on the aerial ski team, Gaudette said she was captivated by the way team physicians treated her injuries with hands-on care.

“I saw all of the benefits of osteopathic medicine with my own injuries from being on the skin team and the techniques they used,” she said. “I like the fact that osteopathic medicine incorporates other methods besides just using pills alone. Sometimes when you go to the doctor, it’s a quick in and out with a prescription for medicine. And while I know medicine is important in some cases, that just didn’t sit well with me. I wanted to be able to offer additional treatments available to my patients.”

Jacob Warner decided he wanted to be a physician, so he applied to 20 medical schools across the country. He was accepted to 16 of them.

Because he was so impressed with the curriculum at Noorda, he said his decision to attend the Provo medical school was an easy choice.

“I just fell in love with their curriculum and how it’s such an innovative school, and I love the concept of treating the whole person — mind, body and spirit,” he said. “My favorite part of learning here is the structure. Everything is based on self-guided learning in small groups called pods. You learn so much more than sitting in a lecture with 200 other students, and the technology is just amazing.”

McKee said he would like to become a family physician so he can follow families throughout their lives and even continue with multiple generations.

Wright said Utah’s population is growing at a rapid pace and family physicians are needed more than ever before. By 2030, the state is projected to have an additional 1 million residents, with 600,000 residing in the Utah County area. The state currently ranks in the bottom 10% of the nation in key physician workforce categories, including active physicians and, specifically, 49th in the nation in primary care.

“The school is really a place designed to make you feel comfortable and ties into our mission to produce competent, confident and compassionate physicians,” Wright said. “We would like to see our graduating physicians stay here and practice in Utah long term, but even if they decide to go elsewhere, we want them to take that mission with them to the communities they’ll be serving.”

Wright said he hopes the public will come and celebrate the grand opening of the new building and participate in the many activities being offered on Saturday.

“We want to show the world what we’re doing here and we’d really like to get kids here so they can get excited about the world of medicine and maybe start thinking about preparing for a career,” Wright said.

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