The college was established to provide new opportunities in medical education. Its purpose is to prepare well-qualified physicians who are oriented to the practice of medicine at the community level, especially primary care and family medicine. The medical training required in the program is combined and integrated with university coursework in order to produce physicians who are well-grounded in the sciences, humanistic in their approach to patients and liberally educated.

This program requires that students be enrolled for 11 months in each of the six academic years. Phase I of the program is spent on one of the three university campuses. Phase I begins with a summer term and continues through two academic years and two additional summer terms. During this period, coursework is focused on studies in the behavioral and basic pre-medical sciences. It also includes orientation to clinical medicine and work in the humanities.

Phase II of the program involves intensive medical training and may be accompanied by summer coursework in the humanities. In the first year of Phase II, students study the basic medical sciences, including anatomy, physiology and microbiology, at the NEOMED Basic Medical Sciences Campus in Rootstown. Students may return to the university campus for the summer term following this year to complete any requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree.

In the remaining three years of Phase II (years four, five and six of the overall program), students develop competence in the clinical aspects of medicine through instruction provided principally at one or more of the community hospitals associated with the program.