Isaac Kirstein, D.O., FACOI

As dean of the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cleveland, which opened in 2015, Dr. Isaac Kirstein is in the forefront of developing a new approach to training physicians as a means to transform health care delivery.

To meet the growing need for primary care physicians and to provide the best care for patients, the Heritage College and Cleveland Clinic have joined forces to transform medical education through the Transformative Care Continuum, which will launch in August 2018. (More information is available at www.ohio.edu/transformcare ). The Transformative Care Continuum is an accelerated demonstration project, from medical school through residency, which will allow selected students who have committed to practice in family medicine to finish their undergraduate and graduate medical education in a shorter (and less expensive) time. Students will be embedded into their Cleveland Clinic site within their first days of medical school, and they will progress at that same site through to graduation, residency and board certification. 

The Transformative Care Continuum has earned the college membership in an exclusive consortium of 32 medical colleges nationwide, organized by the American Medical Association to create the medical school of the future. Each school in the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium is pursuing projects meant to transform undergraduate medical education to better align with the 21 ^st  century health care system.

Through the Transformative Care Continuum, Dr. Kirstein is following his passion to align health care systems and medical education in new ways. The alignment of educational resources can provide value to the care system and improve the well being of the communities we serve.

Before becoming dean at the Heritage College, Cleveland, Dr. Kirstein, an internal medicine physician, was vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer of Franciscan St. James Health in south suburban Chicago, and associate dean for postdoctoral education at his alma mater, Midwestern University – Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has held national leadership positions including president of the Illinois Osteopathic Medical Society and member of the American Osteopathic Association’s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation.