BLACKSBURG -- When the 148 students who make up the third class of graduates from the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine receive degrees today, it will signify more than an end to their studies.
It will mark the beginning of their careers as medical professionals.
"When they walk across that stage, they change their name forever," school spokesman William King said. "They're doctors."
And by the looks of the school's growth -- in population and physical space -- there are plenty more doctors on the way.
Enrollment for the entering class has grown from 154 in 2003 -- VCOM's first year -- to 188 this past year. The number of annual applicants has grown from 657 to 3,160 in that time.
The school's growth can be attributed to several factors, King said. They include national trends in the field of osteopathic medicine, word of the school spreading since its founding and the popularity of the school's international outreach and sports medicine programs.
"The ripple effect is going to be huge," said Gunnar Brolinson, associate dean for clinical research at the college. "And I think that sitting here today, it's really hard to envision the effect this is going to have on the health care delivery in this area."
VCOM is a private college that operates in partnership with Tech, collaborating on research and sharing some faculty. VCOM is governed by its own board of directors, many of whom have ties to Tech.
Accreditation requirements that set certain standards for space, number of faculty and clinical rotations will keep classes in the 175 to 190 range in the near future, King said.
But research and academic space at the college continues to grow.
Over the past couple of years, the college has expanded a second research building -- officially named VCOM Research Building II -- where it conducts nanoparticle and biochemistry research.
VCOM has also taken over the Knollwood Building, formerly occupied by Luna Technologies.
The 20,000-square-foot building sits across Ramble Road from the college's main building in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center and houses an 11,000-square-foot simulation technology center where students work with actors and mannequins that simulate symptoms and react to treatments.
Many of this year's graduates will practice in Southwest Virginia and other high-need areas in rural Appalachia -- the impetus for the school when Marion Bradley Via first envisioned it some 20 years ago.
"With a shortage of physicians, particularly in Southwest Virginia and other areas of Appalachia, we planned and anticipated growth to help meet these needs," VCOM President Jim Wolfe said. "We recognized that the number of qualified individuals seeking a medical education was increasing, as evidenced by our fourfold increase in applications over the past six years."
And the growth -- at least of the physical campus -- is continuing.
About a year after opening the simulation center, the school is opening another building. Officially named the VCOM Institute for Biomechanical & Sports Medicine, the building, located in the Corporate Research Center, hosted its first VCOM event Thursday -- a banquet for the graduates.
The college will share space with other tenants in the 48,000-square-foot building. About half of it will be used for classified government research not associated with VCOM.
"It's just basically called a secured facility that can process classified information," said Bill Price, VCOM's chief of operations, as he looked down at a crumpled scrap of paper. "And that's about all they can really tell us about it. I wrote that down so I could say that."
Price could talk about the academic space VCOM will have in the new building.
The area where it held the banquet can be used for large events such as Thursday's or be broken up into as many as four classrooms and seat 308 students.
The building will also house research space for work Tech and VCOM researchers have been doing for several years on head trauma through activities such as outfitting Tech football helmets with sensors to monitor impact during games.
Brolinson, who is the chairman of sports medicine at the college and has been collaborating with Tech mechanical engineering professor Stefan Duma, is excited about a high-speed crash sled in the new building. It can simulate car and small plane crashes and even has the potential to do research for NASA, he said.
A high-speed X-ray system will allow researchers to understand the mechanics of bone trauma as well. Brolinson said the collaboration among clinicians, physicians and engineers presents VCOM and Tech with a great opportunity.
"We really are fortunate to be able to study the whole situation right from the basic neuroanatomy, what's going on at a cellular level, all the way through what's going on in a car crash or on the football field," he said.
"This is one of those kind of things that we're really uniquely positioned to be not only a national leader but a world leader in terms of impact biomechanics."
Back across the street in the simulation technology center, VCOM will be the site for a new post-baccalaureate pre-med certificate program the school is offering to help bolster the credentials of students who want to go to medical school.
It begins in July and will enroll 25 to 30 students, King said.
While those students won't count toward the college's enrollment total -- expected to be about 670 next fall -- some of them could be future VCOM students.