ICOM’s third- and fourth-year curriculum delivery occurs through the regional sites located in the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and, South Dakota, and beyond. In the second year of the curriculum, students will be designated to a regional site. Regional site placement procedures are designed to support the mission of ICOM to recruit students to meet the health care workforce needs of the rural and medically underserved areas that we serve. The Associate and Assistant Deans of Clinical Education have the authority to assign a student to a rotation site and/or a regional site.

Students from the states where core sites are located will be given every opportunity to return to core rotation sites in their home state.

ICOM’s third-year osteopathic medical students are required to complete 12 core rotations. The required rotations for the third year are listed below; all core rotations must be taken and completed at ICOM core rotation sites. Core rotations are clinical rotations involving patient care that are required to be completed at an ICOM-affiliated clinical site with ICOM faculty.

The third-year core rotations are family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine subspecialty, women’s health, pediatrics, behavioral health, emergency medicine, general surgery, and surgery-subspecialty. All third-year students will complete clinical preparations, a four-week course at the beginning of their third year, to prepare them for clerkships. Third-year students also must complete a four-week scholarly activity rotation. All third-year rotations must be successfully completed to progress to the fourth year. Third-year students receive four weeks of vacation in the academic year.

The internal medicine subspecialties include: allergy/immunology, cardiology, critical care medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, hematology/oncology, infectious disease, pulmonology, nephrology, neurology, and rheumatology.
The surgical subspecialties include orthopedic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, urological surgery, otolaryngological surgery, anesthesiology, dermatology, neurosurgery, pediatric surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and vascular surgery.

The fourth year will consist of nine elective rotations, typically four weeks in length, to allow adequate time for audition rotations and to strengthen students’ clinical skills and knowledge in their favored specialty. One required rotation in the fourth year assists students in readiness for COMLEX-USA Level 2 and preparedness for residency. One rotation in the fourth year must be in a primary care specialty.