Jonesboro, AR – Contributed – New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) has signed partnership agreements that will allow its students unique training opportunities that will enhance their ability to care for some of the most medically-underserved populations in Arkansas.

Earlier this month, NYITCOM signed affiliation agreements with the University of Guam as well as Guam Memorial Hospital and Guam Regional Medical Center that will allow the Arkansas-based medical school to recruit medical students and train student doctors – both from the Continental U.S. and from Guam – on the U.S. territory island.

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“NYITCOM has a long history of working with medically-underserved communities to help address issues regarding access to healthcare and health education,” said Dr. Shane Speights, dean of NYITCOM’s Arkansas campus. “We’re fortunate through these partnerships to come alongside the university and the hospitals to support their efforts and initiate change that truly will make a generational impact.”

NYITCOM’s new relationship with the University of Guam is intended to increase the number of island residents who pursue medicine. This unique partnership creates a bi-directional benefit in meeting the physician shortages in both Guam and the Mississippi Delta region.

While many of those from Guam will return home to practice, Speights expects some will remain in Arkansas at the conclusion of their medical education. Additionally, NYITCOM’s students who are from the continental U.S. will gain invaluable training in Guam that will help them better serve specific groups in Arkansas with similar backgrounds, many of whom have significant health disparities.

Speights noted that Arkansas is home to a growing number of Pacific Islander populations, including individuals from the Marshall Islands and other parts of Micronesia. The experience gained by students who complete their clinical training in Guam will make them uniquely qualified to serve many in Arkansas with significant healthcare needs.

“The goal of this endeavor is twofold,” Speights said. “The first being that we want to support an important U.S. territory in the training and retention of a sustainable physician workforce, something we have successfully done here. The second part is that understanding the cultural context of the patients you’re serving is key to providing quality care, and these partnerships give our medical students invaluable opportunities to gain that perspective.”

NYITCOM, which is based in Long Island, N.Y., operates medical schools in New York and in Jonesboro. The Guam partnerships will operate through the Arkansas campus, which opened in 2016 with a pointed mission of training physicians to practice in medically underserved parts of Arkansas and the Greater Mississippi Delta region. 

While Guam’s population is growing and its economy is flourishing, there are currently no medical schools on the island. Guamanians who are interested in pursuing medicine are forced to leave the island for upwards of 10 years – four years for medical school and three to six for residency training.

“Guam faces a critical shortage of health care professionals, and this partnership is part of the solution,” University of Guam President Anita Borja Enriquez said in a statement. “By creating a clear pathway to medical school, we support our mission to provide public value—developing local talent and strengthening the healthcare workforce for our island and region.”

Students who are admitted to NYITCOM will spend their first two years of medical school in Arkansas. Upon reaching the clinical portion of their medical education (years three and four), the students will return to Guam to rotate with the physicians at Guam Memorial and Guam Regional.

“At all medical schools, students spend their first two years in classrooms and labs, learning biological sciences, anatomy and physiology, and so on,” Speights explained. “The third and fourth year is spent in a clinic or hospital with a physician. NYITCOM does not operate a hospital, so we partner with community health systems for our clinical rotations. That system seamlessly translates to our new partnerships in Guam.”

According to Speights, physicians who train in community hospitals during their medical education are much more likely to practice in similar settings.

“We have years of data that supports that,” Speights said. “Medical students get to know their physician preceptors, set roots in the communities where they train, and experience the opportunities that exist to practice there. That’s the crucial part of our relationships in Guam. Our students will build those strong relationships that we believe will incentivize them to return and make it easy for them to do so.”

NYITCOM’s connection to Guam initially bloomed thanks in large part to Veronica Perez, an Ordot, Guam, native who is currently a fourth-year medical student at NYITCOM at A-State. Perez initially came to the U.S. to study at the University of Notre Dame, and she was admitted to NYITCOM in 2022.

Two additional Guamanians have followed Perez to NYITCOM: Hilary Tirazona of Dededo and Isabella Valencia of Tamuning, both of whom are University of Guam graduates and first-year medical students at NYITCOM at A-State.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to help other people from Guam follow my path,” Perez said.  “I’m thrilled that my medical school is committed to this partnership that will certainly make a difference to our island.”

During the current academic year, NYITCOM’s Angela Lewis, who is originally from Michigan, relocated to Guam to perform her third-year rotations there. The school expects additional residents from the U.S. mainland to take advantage of the opportunity in the upcoming academic year.

“I’ve had an outstanding experience in Guam because of the depth of hands-on clinical training and the strength of mentorship across the island’s hospitals and clinics,” Lewis said. “Caring for patients in this setting has powerfully illustrated the real-world impact of social determinants of health—from access to specialty care and transportation to economic and cultural factors—shaping how I think about collaboration, advocacy, and service to diverse populations. I’m very fortunate for the opportunity to train here.”

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