Orientation begins Monday

All-school picnic, White Coat Ceremony, cap week

New student doctors Kellie Van Tuyl and Binh Phung.

On Monday, Aug. 14, orientation week begins for 88 new medical students who will become the Class of 2010. 

The week is capped by the all-school picnic from 5:30-8:00 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, on the college green. It’s a time to meet the new student doctors, their families and friends, enjoy barbeque dinner, live music, and refreshments. A Jupiter Jump will keep kids entertained. The picnic is sponsored by the OSU Alumni Association and the College of Osteopathic Medicine alumni office.

Student doctors will receive their medical student white coats at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, as the final step in their medical school orientation. The OSU White Coat Ceremony will take place at Tulsa Community College – Van Trease Performing Arts Center for Education, 10300 E. 81st Street.  Speaker for the event is Dr. John Fernandes, president and dean. The ceremony is open to the public.     

White coats are provided by the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association. After receiving their coats, students will recite the Osteopathic Medicine Oath of Commitment, symbolizing their entrance into the osteopathic medical profession. The traditional ceremony emphasizes the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and focuses on the true meaning of the art and science of medicine.  Classes begin Monday, Aug. 21.

Dr. JoAnn Ryan honored by OSU Pride Works!

Dr. JoAnn Ryan, clinic medical director, accepts her OSU Pride Works! award from Sandy Cooper, human resources director.

JoAnn Ryan, D.O., has worked for the State of Oklahoma for two decades, but now is the most exciting time of all, she says.

“Right now we have the leadership and the opportunity to improve health care in Oklahoma, and we have funding to make exciting changes possible.  We have made great progress, and we are going to make even more,” she says. 

Her OSU roots go deep, and her OSU pride does, too. “I deeply appreciate being recognized. When your peers commend you, it always is a great honor,” she says. 

She was nominated by Wila Petsche, who wrote: Dr. Ryan is always enthusiastic about OSU-CHS and everything involved with us.  She exhibits team spirit in everything she does and encourages everyone around her to exhibit the same.  She volunteers and gets involved in all the college’s activities that she possibly can.  She exhibits her orange and black as appropriate and encourages her “peeps” to do the same.  She exhibits the highest form of professionalism in all she does and has an attitude of “we can do this.”  She has touched so many lives in such a positive manner that those who know her know her for a lifetime.  Her students and employees love her, have the utmost confidence in her, and know her door is always open with a hug waiting inside.  She fully supports our college and strives constantly to make things better – from clinic black and orange restorations/remodeling to attitudes.  I have known her for almost 18 years – first as a student, doctor and now as a wonderful boss.

Emily Lim: She has some explaining to do

Emily Lim, assistant director of telemedicine and distance learning at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, is a teacher at heart.  Whether she is helping daughter Emma Jane to understand what makes a rainbow or assisting at a monthly telemedicine clinic, Lim likes to explain things.

OSU telemedicine’s Emily Lim (right) helps explain telemedicine to Rep. Dan Boren. Lim is being honored by the Journal Record as one of 50 Making a Difference at an event on Sept. 14.

She grew up in Heavener, learning from her Chinese dad and Peace Corp pioneer mom that education and hard work can get you anywhere in life. Her parents were a very important influence, Lim says.

So was teaching chemistry.  “It has shaped my life,” Lim recently wrote in a biographical portrait for an Oklahoma City publication, The Journal Record.  Lim is among the publication’s recently announced 50 Making a Difference, and is eligible for its Women of the Year title. The recipient will be announced Sept. 14. 

Lim earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, and was that year’s outstanding senior female graduate.  She taught chemistry at Holland Hall school in Tulsa for three years.  After a year as a medical student, she taught science at Union Schools in Tulsa and began learning and teaching technology to students and other teachers.

“I began to teach more and more technology and it became part of my job, so I decided to pursue it as a career. It goes back to my passion for explaining things,” Lim says.

In 2000, Lim joined telemedicine director Michael Young at OSU-CHS and together they began breaking new ground for the school. Lim soon helped to develop MIMI, a mobile integrated medical instrument that allows patients to be treated by specialists miles away.

“Emily brings the perfect blend of high technology and user-friendliness to telecommunications,” says Young. “I can always count on her to explain our services in an informative and imaginative way.”

MIMI is used monthly at the Akdar Shrine Center telemedicine clinic in Tulsa that allows orthopedic patients to be seen by experts in Shreveport. OSU’s telemedicine department donated the equipment. Lim helped bring the Shrine telemedicine clinic to life, installing cable, setting up equipment, programming, testing equipment, even vacuuming the floor.  Now, everyone at the center knows to expect her well before the first child arrives. They know she will not leave until the last child has been taken care of. 

For her, it is the fruition of ideas and hard work. “I love the positive feedback, and seeing the kids,” Lim says. “Having a mom shake my hand and tell me her child would not have been able to see a doctor and get help without the clinic is a profound experience.”

Staff Advisory Council begins year

Sandra Hale, president of Staff Advisory Council

Sandra Hale has been elected president of the Staff Advisory Council for the coming year.

Serving a second term as vice president is Marty Coleman.  Reneé Motte-Williams is secretary and Ginny Murphy-Swanson is treasurer. The primary purpose of Staff Advisory Council is to provide and facilitate communication between the OSU-CHS president and staff and to advise the president on issues, policies, and procedures affecting staff. 

There are 28 council members (approximately 10 percent of the staff).  Council members and council information are listed on the Staff Advisory Council web site.

Hale encourages staff to contact SAC regarding any issues or concerns.  Staff members can attend monthly council meetings as guests, and will have the opportunity to participate in discussion and ask questions. Only members may vote. 

“You are also invited to attend our monthly council meetings as a guest,” Hale said. “The normal meeting schedule is the third Wednesday of each month at noon.  You will receive an e-mail copy of the agenda for each meeting so you can attend at times when you have a specific interest in an item placed on the agenda, or feel free to join us each month.  We look forward to an exciting year.”

OSU receives grant to reduce tobacco’s toll

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Prevention Programs has received a five-year grant from the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-caused diseases among the low socioeconomic status population in Tulsa County.

The OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Tulsa Housing Authority, and Youth at Heart will assist in promoting the program, Addressing Tobacco in Specific Populations, beginning in October.  OSU Prevention Programs will receive approximately $100,000 per year. Bruce Singer, Ph.D.,  director of OSU Prevention Programs, said, “We will develop a detailed plan to implement effective strategies to address the unique needs of  the Tulsa  population and help reduce their risk for tobacco use and tobacco-caused disease.”  He added that to be successful, support and participation from organizations, agencies and individuals throughout Tulsa County is needed.

Tobacco use remains Oklahoma’s leading preventable cause of death, killing about 5,700 Oklahomans each year – more than AIDS, alcohol, illegal drugs, murders, suicides, and auto accidents combined. The TSET mission is to improve the health and quality of life of all Oklahomans through programs and services that address the hazards of tobacco use and other health issues. It was established through a voter-approved constitutional amendment in November 2000.

Alumni Association helps Eugene Field

Robin Dyer, D.O. and Elizabeth Nokes

Dr. Robin Dyer, treasurer of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine Alumni Association, presents a $500 check from the association to Elizabeth Nokes, campus coordinator for Eugene Field, our adopted school. The funds will be used to purchase school supplies for Eugene Field students.

Round of Applause

Dr. Stephen Eddy will participate in Leadership Tulsa Class 36, which begins this month.  He is one of 49 people chosen for the class from among 100 applicants.  Leadership Tulsa is a nonprofit organization that offers a variety of community leadership programs. Its flagship adult program immerses participants in a series of sessions and experiences that expose them to the Tulsa community and maximize their personal, professional and community leadership capabilities.  

Medical student Dustin Colegrove, received a Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Health Professions student grant for a symposium on improving care for the developmentally disadvantaged and mentally retarded. It brought together experts in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities to address and discuss the needs of individuals and how physicians can better address those needs.  He received a $500 student researcher travel grant to the inaugural Special Olympics National Games held in Ames, Iowa. Colegrove also has been appointed a student member of the American Osteopathic Association Bureau on Osteopathic History and Identity.

Dr. Richard Wansley and Dr. David Wallace joined representatives of other universities and colleges to make a presentation to the members of the Metro Tulsa Chamber of Commerce.  They described current research at OSU-CHS and highlighted strategies to expand the research enterprise in Tulsa.  Wansley discussed the positive contribution that growth in OSU-CHS’ biomedical research can have on economic development in Tulsa and Oklahoma.

Dr. Ken Smith, Stillwater, program director for the OSU OMECO sports medicine fellowship, recently completed two years as unit commander for Oklahoma’s Army Medical Detachment regiment. Incoming commander is Dr. John Loose of Lawton. Smith and Loose both are graduates of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Kim Sorensen has been appointed to serve on the Perinatal Task Force by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and Oklahoma State Department of Health. It studies issues concerning pregnant women covered by Medicaid to determine those issues in which the task force can make a positive difference and develop programs and plans to target those areas for positive outcomes; including high-risk care in pregnancy, undocumented alien women and access to care during pregnancy,  lifestyle risk behavior, and alternative pregnancy models of care.

Media
My impressions of a paper in science by Stephan Galli, telephone interview with Newsday, Dr. Joseph Price.

Interviewed and featured in an article on Morgellons Disease in the Pittsburg Post Gazette, Dr. Steve Eddy.

Interviewed by Carol Berczyk of ABC Primetime on Morgellons Disease to be aired in August, Dr. Rhonda Casey, Dr. Steve Eddy and Dr. Randy Wymore.

AOA webpage: “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: A Silent Killer,” reviewed and quoted, Dr. Stanley E. Grogg.

Publication
Application of Manual Assessment of Oxygen Radical Absorbent Capacity ORAC) for Use in High Throughput Assay of 'Total' Anti-oxidant Activity of Drugs and Natural Products, Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 54(1):56-6,  Dr. Joseph Price and Dr. Charles Sanny.

Reviews
Reviewed a manuscript for Frontiers in Bioscience, Dr. Randall Davis.
Reviewed a manuscript for Analgesia and Anesthesia and reviewed two R03 grants for National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Dr. Ken Miller.
Reviewed a manuscript for the American Journal of Veterinary Research, Dr. Al Rouch.