Jul 16, 2014 04:06 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Commonwealth Medical College, one of the country's newest schools in Pennsylvania, has received full accreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

As a result, TCMC students are now eligible for federal loans, PA Home Page reports.

Steven J. Scheinman, President and Dean of TCMC, said that faculty, staff, founders, volunteer faculty and 24 partner hospitals deserve the credit for the College's success.

John Moses, a founding member of the board of trustees said that this is a certification of excellence. "If you think together, plan together and work together and pray together, anything can happen, even a healthy, viable medical school in Scranton," Moses said, The Times-Tribune reports.

TCMC aims to offer community-based model of medical education with three regional campuses. LCME accreditation determines whether an MD program meets established standards, while the Middle States process focuses on institutions as a whole.

Both accrediting agencies commended TCMC's innovative curriculum and stability of College's finances.

"The curriculum is structured to provide longitudinal patient care experiences that emphasize continuity of care, the psychosocial environment in which care is provided, and interactions with patients and their families. These experiences occur in primary care settings and span the full curriculum," LCME said in a statement.

The news of full accreditation comes less than two months after TCMC graduated its second class of 66 students from the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree program and fifth class of 55 students belonging to the Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) degree program.

"I am very proud to see all that TCMC has accomplished to improve health care for the people of our 16-county region in its short history," Louis DeNaples, chair of the TCMC Board of Trustees, said.

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