MERIDIAN, Idaho — The important partnership between Idaho State University and the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine in Meridian is expanding.
“So, having this opportunity [will] really open doors for a lot of ideas and a lot of collaboration and [it will] really create the next phase of our research,” said Youssef Roman, PhD, PharmD, who is an Associate Professor at ISU.
Friday morning the ink dried on an agreement to provide affiliate faculty status between the two schools — pharmacist and Professor Youssef Roman says this will help research projects be more productive, providing better, future healthcare workers for Idahoans.
“Collectively, [this will] help us as researchers to really address really bigger issues around community health, population health and also addressing health disparities,” said Roman.
Students between the two schools often collaborate. Now that faculty can do the same for research, Idaho News 6 Reporter Allie Triepke asked pharmacy student Alexis Simpson how this will help students like her.
“With the increased research opportunities with different faculty, we’re gonna be able to dip into different specialties and things like that and, you know, broaden our scope of what we’re able to do research on,” said Simpson.
ICOM is the only medical school in the state. Their goal is to produce medical professionals that make an impact in the lives of Idahoans, especially when it comes to rural, underserved areas.
“The ability to work with people from different backgrounds and different disciplines allows us to really move the needle in healthcare,” said Roman.
