| Acronym or Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AAMC | Association of American Medical Colleges |
| ACLS | Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (certification) |
| AACOM | American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine |
| AACOMAS | The centralized online application service for US colleges of osteopathic medicine |
| AOA | American Osteopathic Association |
| ARC-PA | Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant |
| BLS | Basic Life Support (certification) |
| Basic Science Curriculum (BSC) | A required classroom session in which faculty stress application of previous basic science material to clinical case scenarios. The emphasis is on application, integration, and interaction between faculty and students versus passive learning. |
| Careers in Medicine | AAMC program that provides students with access to information about medical specialties, preparation for residency and practice options to maximize career potential. |
| Class Rank | A measure of how a student's performance compares to other students in the same class/program. Class rank is calculated based on total number of quality points earned. |
| Clinical Integration Session (CIS) | A required classroom session in which faculty stress application of previous material to clinical case scenarios. The emphasis is on application, integration, and interaction between faculty and students versus passive learning. |
| COCA | Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation |
| COMLEX | Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination |
| CV | Curriculum Vitae; a short account of one's career and qualifications |
| DEIB | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging |
| DSA | Designated Student Assignment; a "self-study" assignment created by an identified faculty member consisting of a specific reading assignment, learning objectives, and examination questions that will not be accompanied by a lecture of laboratory session. Students are held responsible for DSA assignments during a CIS, quizzes, and examinations. |
| ECE | Early Clinical Experience |
| ERAS | The Electronic Residency Application System is an AAMC application that offers a centralized online application service used to apply to residency programs. |
| Examination | A summative evaluation of student learning outcomes delivered via proctored written format, computerized format, or practical format. |
| ExamSoft/Exemplify | Exam software used to provide a secure and stable testing environment for students. |
| Exxat | New software portal used to manage clinical clerkship rotations throughout the PA program and clerkships through the third and fourth years of the DO program. |
| Fellowship | The fellowship program is a 12-month training program integrated within the DO student's third and fourth clinical clerkship years. An additional year is added to the student’s osteopathic medical training to accommodate his/her clinical clerkship and fellowship obligations. The fellowship program affords students the opportunity to teach the science and art of osteopathic principles and practice, simulation or anatomy. |
| FERPA | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, which is a federal law that protects the privacy of and access to personal student educational information |
| Global Block Schedule (GBS) | Basic schedule of when courses in the DO program run each semester. This schedule does not provide detailed information regarding start and end times or assigned classroom |
| GME | Graduate Medical Education |
| Grade Point Average (GPA) | An indication of a student's academic achievement while enrolled at RVU. GPA is calculated as the total number of quality points received over a given period divided by the total number of credits attempted |
| HIPAA |
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. |
| HLC | The Higher Learning Commission; RVU's current institutional accreditor |
| IPE | Interprofessional Education; occasions when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care |
| IRB | Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research |
| Laboratory | A minimum 50-60-minute session in a laboratory or clinical setting that requires "hands on" instruction |
| Lecture | A standard didactic presentation involving direct faculty instruction in a classroom setting, lasting a minimum of 50 minutes. Each hour of lecture (50 minutes) assumes a minimum of two (2) hours of out-of-class student work. |
| LMS | Learning Management System; a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of educational courses. RVU currently utilizes an integrated LMS that can be accessed directly through MyVista. |
| LOR | Letter of Recommendation, typically written by a faculty member or preceptor (author). Used when applying for clinical clerkship clerkships and/or residency applications. |
| Lottery | Managed by the Department of Clinical Education, the Lottery is the Distribution of Clerkship Assignments process in which current OMS II student doctors are assigned a geographical region to complete core clinical clerkships during OMS III and, if necessary, OMS IV. |
| MODS | The Medical Operational Data System used to complete the initial electronic portion of the Military GME application |
| MSPE | Medical School Performance Evaluation; can also be referred to as a Dean's Letter. Honest and objective document summarizes a student’s personal attributes, experiences, academic accomplishments, and summative evaluation. All fourth-year medical students will have their MSPE composed and finalized before October 1st of each year and uploaded into ERAS by the Office of the Registrar. |
| MyVista | RVU's online portal where students, faculty, and staff can log into and access important program, financial, campus, and educational information, as needed. |
| NBME | National Board of Medical Examiners (administers the USMLE exams) |
| NBOME | National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (administers the COMLEX exams) |
| New Innovations | System used to manage clinical clerkship clerkships throughout the third and fourth years of the DO program. |
| NMS | National Matching Services; service that manages the osteopathic match (among others) |
| NRMP | National Resident Matching Program; service that manages the allopathic match |
| OMM | Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine |
| OPP | Osteopathic Principles and Practice |
| OSCE | Objective Structured Clinical Examination |
| Post-Exam Review (PER) | Faculty-led review of examination questions and results following a major examination. |
| Preceptor | A practicing physician who gives personal instruction, training, and supervision to a medical student or young physician (assigned for each clinical clerkship clerkship). |
| Quality Points | The cumulative points earned in a given program for coursework completed and grade(s) earned. Points are calculated by multiplying the numeric grade (in the DO program) or the assigned quality points based on the letter grade (MSBS program) by the number of credit hours for the course. |
| Remediation | The opportunity to remedy a previously-failed attempt |
| Rocky the Fighting Prairie Dog | RVU’s mascot for the Colorado campus |
| Rocky the Roadrunner | RVU’s mascot for the Southern Utah campus |
| RVUCOM | Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine |
| RVUCOM-SU | Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine - Southern Utah |
| San Francisco Match | Residency and Fellowship matching service for select specialties. |
| Semester Credit Hour (SCH) | A credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally-established equivalency that reasonably approximate no less than 45 hours of instructional/non-instructional time for every one (1) credit. |
| Shadowing | Opportunity available to students to observe the daily life of a doctor and obtain insight from professionals about their experiences and how they view their field |
| Shelf Exam | Required exam administered by the Office of Clinical Education after the completion of each Core Clerkship. |
| SOAP Notes | An acronym for subjective, objective, assessment, and plan, a SOAP note is a method of documentation employed by healthcare providers to write out notes in a patient's chart |
| Standardized Patient (SP) | Someone who has been trained to portray, in a consistent, standardized manner, a patient in a medical situation |
| Titer/Titer Lab Report | A titer (pronounced TIE-der) is a laboratory test that measures the presence and amount of antibodies in blood. If the test is positive (above a particular known value) the individual has immunity. If the test is negative (no immunity) or equivocal (not enough immunity) you need to be vaccinated. A Titer Lab Report is generated by the lab that tested the blood sample. The Titer Lab Report must include the test type, exact values (reference range), signature, and date to be acceptable. |
| Tracks | Extracurricular admission-based concentrations within the DO program that invite students to explore and experience a particular area of medicine closely. |
| Transcript | An official record of a student's work, showing courses taken and grades achieved |
| Urology Match | Residency match program for medical students seeking residency in Urology |
| USMLE | United States Medical Licensing Examination |
| Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) | The AAMC VSLO program merged two existing visiting student programs: the Visiting Student Opportunities (VSLO) Application Service (VSAS®) program that focused exclusively on U.S. domestic (formerly VSAS) away electives and the Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO®) program that facilitated international mobility into the U.S., from the U.S. to electives abroad, and from one non-U.S. location to another. |