VERMILLION For over a year, faculty at the University of South Dakota have been preparing a way for students to take advantage of the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Sanford School of Medicine.

The solution is a new major in Medical Biology, which is a joint undergraduate degree between the two departments, and will be offered this fall.

Executive dean of the school of medicine Ron Lindahl said the intent is to provide students who know they have a strong interest in either the medical profession the undergraduate knowledge to be most successful in a graduate program in health affairs at the medical school.

Its an official major, which will result in a Bachelor of Science degree, Lindahl said. It's targeted at students who would normally get a biology or chemistry major, who think they have a likelihood of getting into medical school. We think this major will best prepare them for medical school.

Lindahl said he and Matthew Moen, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, created a committee to develop the major.

One major advantage of the new major, is that it will focus on what the Howard Hughes program states premedical curriculum should look like going forward in the future, Moen said.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the American Association of Medical Colleges both issued reports designed to redirect premedical education across the country in the years ahead. It's a formula that is a little bit more competency-based, Moen said.

Lindahl is hoping the new program will encourage students to stay in South Dakota after graduation, he said.

(Moen) and I have always found it ironic that other schools in the region have a program they target towards students that want to go to medical school, but the university in the state that is home to the school of medicine and is the biggest liberal arts college didn't have a program that was targeted towards that group of students, he said. It was a gap that Matt and I decided we needed to fill. Hopefully, with a different undergraduate preparation, we can keep some of them in the state.

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USD To Offer New Degree In Medical Biology