Kyle D. Parker, past Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation board chairman, has been named president and CEO of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education and the proposed Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith.
The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education in Fort Smith announced Monday that it received a key approval from the American Osteopathic Association Commission, which paves the way for the school to open in August.
The association approved the Colleges’ continuing provisional accreditation, which will allow its Arkansas Colleges of Health to begin teaching students in the fall.
“This is another stamp of approval from the accreditation team and is the final phase of the provisional accreditation process,” according to a news release from the Arkansas Colleges of Health, which operates the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. The Commission will conduct yearly visits to the school and is expected to award the college full accrediation by the time the first class graduates in 2021.
The inaugural class will have 150 students, with 43 percent of them coming from Arkansas. Classes begin Aug. 4.
“We are one step closer to helping to alleviate the shortage of physicians and to improve access to excellent health care,” Kyle D. Parker, president and CEO of Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, said in the news release.
The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine will be the second osteopathic school in Arkansas. The New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro enrolled its first class of 120 students in August 2016.
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