2006 United Way Campaign - “It all begins with you.”

OEFOM funds student lounge improvements

Bedlam Challenge from OU-Tulsa

Round of Applause

OSU's rural physicians: good medicine

MS II Cara Johnston in Okmulgee with Dr. Tim Sanford

What is it like to be a doctor in a small town?

To find out, four Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicines students shadowed rural physicians for a one-month summer externship.

The program for rising second year medical students is available from the OSU Oklahoma Area Health Education Center. Its purpose is to give the student an early rural experience in keeping with OSU’s mission of developing rural primary care physicians.  Toni Hart, OKAHEC program coordinator, matched the students with four OSU osteopathic medicine alumni: Tim Sanford, D.O., ’98, Okmulgee; H. Chayne Fisher, D.O., ’93, Seminole; Thomas Osborn, D.O., ’81, Holdenville; and Steven Ivan, D.O., ’02, Ada. 

Cara Johnston was paired with Dr. Sanford in his family medicine practice. Johnston, from Inola, was seriously injured in a riding accident at age 13 and had to commute to Tulsa for specialized treatments. The experience piqued her interest in rural medicine. 

Working with Dr. Sanford, Johnston learned how health care is integrated into a rural community.  “He made it a really good experience,” Johnston said. “He asked me questions all the time and if I didn’t know something, he had me read up on it.  I had homework every night.”

The rural externship benefits both student and teacher. Johnston gained a better understanding of the physician’s role in the community. “I was amazed at the doctor-patient relationship. A rural physician has a very high profile in the community, and might be on call several nights a week.”

 Dr. Sanford says having students rotate in his practice keeps him on his toes. “When I was a student and rotated, I saw the need and importance of keeping up to date,” he says. “I try to impart a practice philosophy; not drugs and dosages; they can learn that other places.  I try to pass on the practice of preventive care, preventing problems down the road.  It is nice to be able to pass along wisdom of things you learned the hard way.”

Sara Cook, Zachary Fowler, nurse Darichele Alvarado and Dr. Steven Ivan

Holdenville native Brenda Jeffrey worked with Dr. Fisher, a general surgeon, and Dr. Osborn, a family practice-geriatrics physician.  She spent two weeks with each physician and learned that a rural surgeon’s pace is hectic, with a brimming clinic schedule, procedures, surgery, administrative meetings, and working the emergency room.  Geriatrics has a slower pace, but patients usually have multiple ailments and each patient takes more time. 

Students Zachary Fowler, from Broken Arrow, and Sara Cook from Wellington, Kan., were paired with Dr. Ivan at the Ada Family Medical Clinic.  “I enjoyed the one-on-one contact with Dr. Ivan,” Fowler says.  “He is in his first year of practice and understood my capabilities.”   Fowler said they saw seven to 10 new patients every day. He learned how patients’ symptoms and presentations guide a physician to proper treatments.

“On my last day, I got to do histories and interview patients.  I was able to use what I learned.”

“I’ve known since I was eight years old that I wanted to be a doctor,” says Sara Cook.
Her rotation in Ada has affirmed her decision to be a rural physician who sees a variety of patients.  ”I learned more about medications, about what to prescribe and why. And, I haven’t had pharmacology yet, so that will help me.”

The students learn quickly, Dr. Sanford says.  “When they begin rotations you have to slow yourself down, but the end of month you can see how much they have learned.” 

“The doctors asked me questions and helped me reason through things. I got to observe clinical medicine and it opened my eyes to its possibilities,” Jeffrey says. “In a rural practice, you get to do it all.”  

2006 United Way Campaing - "It all begins with you."

Mark your calendar for United Way campaign week Oct. 23-27, a week packed with fun activities you won’t want to miss. Last year we surpassed our goal of $16,000, raising a total of $16,534.  Let’s do it again this year, and beat our goal of $18,000. 

Through United Way, your gift helps support 65 area nonprofit agencies — agencies that depend on United Way donations to provide invaluable services and programs in our community. Your donation pledge card was sent by interoffice mail. Please give what is comfortable for you  (even $5 makes a difference).  Donations cards should be sent to the Human Resources office on the OSU-Tulsa campus.

Here’s the fun part:

Wear Jeans All Week
Make a $10 contribution and wear jeans all week long, Oct. 23-27. Bring your donation or send via interoffice mail to Elizabeth Nokes in PR/Marketing, A-130.  You’ll receive a jeans pass giving you permission to wear your denim.

Drawing for Chalkboard Dinner & Night at the Ambassador Hotel
Prize Drawing donated by Faculty Senate
Every person who donates a minimum of $25 through the United Way pledge card will automatically be entered in a drawing for a dinner for two at the Chalkboard Restaurant and overnight stay at the historic Ambassador Hotel in downtown Tulsa. The winner will be announced Nov. 3.

Chili & Cookie Cook-off
Wednesday, Oct. 25 ▪ noon-1 p.m.
Sponsored by Staff Advisory Council
Do you make a great chili?  Got a scrumptious cookie recipe?  Now is your chance to put it to the test and tantalize the taste buds of your fellow CHSers.  Entry is free.  Entrants must provide a crock pot’s worth of chili or two to three dozen cookies.  You can enter either or both the chili and cookie categories and can submit multiple entries.  To enter, go to CenterNet and click on the cook-off link, or contact Elizabeth Nokes at 561-8424.  Entry deadline is Oct. 18.  Official CHS judges will pick the winners, and you can cast your vote in the People’s Choice Award.  Come eat lunch in Founders Hall for $5. You’ll get a hot dog, chips, beverage and samples of the chili and cookie entries.  All proceeds go toward our campaign goal.

Breakfast Bar
Thursday, Oct. 26 ▪ 8-10 a.m.
Sponsored by CHS Management Team
Muffins, scones and other yummy breakfast items will be available for sale across from the elevators in the main building, with proceeds going to our United Way campaign.  Come start your day right at the Breakfast Bar.  Visit with management team and enjoy an a.m. treat.  After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Movie & Popcorn
Friday, Oct. 27 ▪ 1 p.m. ▪ Merkel Auditorium
If you make a donation of any amount, you are invited to join us for a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.  You can make your donation at any time prior to the movie showing or turn in your pledge card or make a one-time donation at the movie

Authority ushers in new chapter for OSU graduate medical education

OSU Medicine students Kevin Pargeter, Kipp Slicker and Sarah Luthey at the first meeting of the OSU Medical Authoriy, which manages an agreement for graduate medical education at OSU Medical Center in Tulsa.

Gov. Brad Henry convened the first meeting of the new OSU Medical Authority on the OSU Center for Health Sciences campus in September, starting a new chapter for the school’s graduate medical education programs.

Last spring, the center’s OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine and Tulsa Regional Medical Center signed a 50-year Academic Affiliation Agreement, now managed by the authority. The state legislature appropriated $40 million over the next five years to fund improvements at the teaching hospital, renamed OSU Medical Center. Nashville-based Ardent Health Services owns and operates the hospital.  Management and operation of the residency program will be largely controlled by OSU.

Gov. Brad Henry and Dr. John Fernandes, president and dean

Henry called it an historic moment and an important time for health care in Oklahoma.  “The big winners are the people of Oklahoma,” he said. OSU Medicine students feel like they are big winners, too. “The creation of the authority symbolizes the state’s recognition of OSU’s role in the health care needs of the state and in teaching future physicians,” says Kevin Pargeter, second year medical student and a member of the school’s political action committee. “It gives our school a solid foundation in perpetuity. It has our needs and patients’ needs at heart.”

Second year medical student Kipp Slicker, president of the OSU Student Osteopathic Medicine Association, says, “Our future is not in question anymore.  We will be able to do amazing things.”

“This agreement will help us recruit more and better students and have more residency programs,” said Sarah Luthey, second year student and leader of the school’s Student Ambassador program.  “And more graduates will stay in-state for their graduate training.”

Henry conducted the meeting until David Johnson of Tulsa was elected chairman. Johnson is president and CEO of People’s Bank in Tulsa.  Authority members include Robert Langland, Jerry Hudson, Randy Compton, Mike Fogarty and Dr. John Fernandes, president of the OSU Center for Health Sciences. Dr. Jim Hess, CHS vice president of administration and COO, is chief executive officer. Lana Rusch, executive assistant at CHS, is assistant secretary.

OEFOM funds student lounge improvements

A $20,000 gift to OSU-CHS from the Oklahoma Educational Foundation for Osteopathic Medicine will refurbish campus student lounge areas. The first floor lounge will be named the OEFOM Student Lounge.

“We will begin improvements in the first floor lobby area outside the current lounge and progress through all the lounge areas. Improvements also will be made to the west Founders Hall lobby,” says Dr. Leigh Goodso, vice president for enrollment management and marketing. 

The OEFOM also supports the school through assistance for commencement exercises, professional dues, the Dean’s fund and other initiatives.

OSU Physicians offer new treatment for back and neck pain

The OSU Physicians Health Care Center’s structural medicine center offers a new, non-surgical treatment for neck and lower back pain.

The treatment uses the SpineMED™Table, which provides non-surgical decompression of discs. It provides relief from the pain of herniated and degenerative discs without surgery. Research shows that the treatments relieve pain caused by bulging, herniated, degenerative and ruptured discs.  It also treats sciatica, and posterior facet syndrome.

“The SpineMED™ Table offers the most advanced technology available to physicians for non-surgical treatment of the cervical and lumbar spine,” says Dr. JoAnn Ryan, director of the OSU Physicians clinic system. “Accurate and controlled non-surgical decompression of intervertebral discs is now possible in an office environment with the SpineMED™ Table.” 

The therapy also promotes re-hydration of the nucleus and repair of the disc wall through nutritional transfer and fibroblast migration caused by the negative pressures created during decompression.   The treatment has proven to be safe and painless with a success rate of more than 86 percent in relieving neck and lower back pain. 

Bedlam Challenge from OU-Tulsa

OSU-Tulsa has been challenged by OU-Tulsa to the first “Tulsa Run Bedlam Challenge.”  The event is Saturday, Nov. 11. The Tulsa Run includes 15K and 5K runs and a 2K fun run.  Teams will accumulate points in the following categories:

• Participation (1 point for staff and faculty and 2 points for students)
• Oldest 15K runner (3 points)
• Youngest 15K runner (3 points)
• 15K fastest time (5 points)
• 5K fastest time (5 points)
• Volunteer (1 point for staff and faculty and 2 points for students)  

Students, staff, faculty, and administrations are invited to help outshine our across-town rivals.  For questions or to sign up contact Emily Brown at emily.brown@okstate.edu

Round of Applause

Teri Bycroft has done it again, winning three blue ribbons at the Tulsa State Fair for her quilts.  She also won a third place award for greeting cards.

Adjunct faulty member Duane Koehler, D.O., Family Medicine, Miami, Oklahoma, a Preceptor and Hub Site Coordinator for the Rural Clinics Rotation (formerly Family Medicine B), was awarded the “Rural Health Physician of the Year” by the Rural Health Association of Oklahoma.  He is in private practice in Miami and also serves on the boards of the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association and the Physician Manpower Training Commission. 

Invited Lecture
“Disease-Causing Amebas in the Environment,” to the OSU-Stillwater honors class Medicine in the 21st Century, Dr. David John.

Presentations
“Glutamatergic  Sensory Neurons and Their Role in Pain,” presented to ORU premedical students, Dr. Ken Miller.

“The Opioid Antagonist, Beta-Funaltrexamine, Inhibits Chemokine Expression in Human Astroglial Cells,” presented at the International Narcotics Research Committee Annual Meeting, St. Paul, Minn., Drs. Randall Davis and Craig Stevens, and Daniel Buck and Neda Saffarian.

Publication
“Sex differences in electrophysiological and behavioral responses to NaCl taste,” Behavioral Neurosciences 120:917-924, Dr. Kathleen Curtis.

Reviews
Reviewed a manuscript for Acta Biochimica Polonica, Dr. Earl Blewett.
Reviewed a manuscript for American Journal of Physiology Regulatory and Comparative Physiology, Dr. Kathleen Curtis.
Reviewed a manuscript for Analgesia and Anesthesia, Dr. Ken Miller.
Reviewed papers for Brain Research, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Neuroscience Letters, Dr. Craig Stevens.

NIH Grant Review Panel – R03 grants for National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Dr. Ken Miller.

Reviewed prepublication article, “A Follow-Up Study of Asymptomatic HPV Positive Women,” Oscar Fajardo and et al, Facultad de Medicinina, Monterrey, Mexico; reviewed and commented on new book by Arnold Melnick, D.O., ACOP, “Twelve Puzzles in Ethics;” JAOA accepted manuscript “Medical Issues of International Adoptions”, Stanley Grogg, D.O.
Internal Review of Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience Graduate Program, Oklahoma City, Dr. Ken Miller.

Study Section Member
Viral and Eukaryotic Pathogen Special Emphasis Panel, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology IRG, Center for Scientific Review, NIH, Bethesda, Md., Dr. Earl Blewett.

Service
September,  medical mission trip to Nicaragua with Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International with Cornerstone Church in Sand Springs, Montgomery L. Roberts, D.O.