• OSUMC - The State's Medical Center
• Dr. Wallace is Champion of Public Health
• Title Changes
• New Club Hopes to Set Up International Rotation Opportunities
• Eugene Field Visitors Make Halloween Fun
• United Way: Chili, Cookies, Breakfast and More
• Round of Applause
• New Employees

OSUMC - the State's Medical Center

A new era begins for OSU graduate medical education

With the OSU logo front and center on the building formerly named Tulsa Regional Medical Center, a new era begins for graduate medical education. TRMC’s proud osteopathic heritage joins the “power of orange” at the newly named OSU Medical Center. The change is part of the academic affiliation agreement between OSU-CHS and the hospital.

A state authority oversees the agreement and a $40 million legislative appropriation for improvements benefiting the residency program. The OSU Medical Center is the largest osteopathic teaching center in the country, training 126 residents each year in primary care and sub-specialty areas. The hospital continues as home to OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine graduate medical education programs as it provides outstanding care in a setting of medical and academic excellence. The hospital and the OSU medical school have trained more than 2,100 physicians, many of them practicing in rural Oklahoma.

Dr. Wallace is Champion of Public Health

Arthur G. Wallace, Jr., D.O., M.P.H., a 1977 graduate of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, received the Champion of Public Health award Oct. 30.

The award is given as part of a Champion of Health event sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the Oklahoma State Medical Association, the Oklahoma Hospital Association and the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association.

Dr. Wallace is an emergency room physician at OSU Medical Center and director of its emergency medicine residency program.He began the state’s first Disaster Medical Assistance Team (D-MAT) after Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and serves as unit commander and supervisory medical officer.

He worked with outside financial assistance to find donated medical equipment, a warehouse and large trucks for the DMAT team, as well as qualified volunteers willing to work without compensation for their time or labor. Since then, he was deployed to sites such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack in New York City; and areas of the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He has been a leader in organizing coordinated volunteer efforts to assist those affected by disasters.

William S. Eddy, D.O., M.P.H., was nominated as a Champion of Children’s Health. In addition, OSU Structural Medicine Center was nominated as an Education and Awareness Champion. Alumnus Mark W. Newey, D.O., was nominated as a Champion of the Uninsured.

Title Changes

Title changes have been approved by the OSU/A&M Board of Regents. They include: 

Fred J. Crapse Jr., from associate professor, surgery, to associate professor and vice chair, surgery.

Leigh B. Goodson, from vice president for enrollment management and marketing, assistant professor of medical education, to vice president for enrollment management and external affairs and associate dean of graduate studies.

James D. Hess, from chief operating office and vice president of healthcare administration and assistant professor, family medicine, to COO, vice president and executive director, and assistant professor, administrative affairs.

Eric J. Polak, from director of fiscal affairs/business office, to director and CFO, medical practice plan, administrative affairs.

In other actions, the board gave approval for the initiation of the architectural selection process for the multi-purpose telemedicine/clinic facility.

New Club Hopes to Set up International Rotation Opportunities

Open wide - Scott Mackey helps at a clinic in Ethiopia.

OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s new International Medicine Club wants to give OSU Medicine students a chance to complete rotations in other countries.

Guided by second-year students Brandon Green, president and founder of the OSU chapter, and Scott Mackey, vice president, IMC is exploring the possibilities.

“We are trying to set up a relationship with foreign rotation sites. Right now, students have to find opportunities on their own and get them approved,” says Mackey. “We want to set up an agreement with an English-speaking country that can teach us how first-world medicine works in another country.”

Both men have made medical mission trips abroad. Green spent the summer in Kenya working with a mobile clinic. “I saw patients and did physical diagnoses and osteopathic manipulative medicine. It gave me confidence in dealing with patients, and practice in making physical diagnoses,” Green said.

Mackey went to Ethiopia on a summer mission trip with a medical team. “We went to small, poor towns where we screened about 200 children a day for worms, bacterial infections of the eye, malaria, tuberculosis and other conditions we rarely see here,” he said. “The way they approach sanitation and medicine is different from ours. There is no electricity, and people live in grass houses. It is a completely different world.”

Green says OSU’s new IMC is a member of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, comprised of 102 member countries. The club is exploring setting up a permanent bi-lateral exchange through IFMSA so that students can have overseas clinical experience. Foreign students would come here as part of the exchange.

“This is a good investment for our students and for osteopathic medicine because international students learn what osteopathic medicine is,” says Green, who hopes to start a yearly service trip for IMC members.

Eugene Field Visitors Make Halloween Fun

Halloween excitement filled the main campus when visitors from Eugene Field Elementary School enjoyed activities planned by Elizabeth Nokes, our adopt-a-school coordinator. About 150 children were treated to snacks and the movie, “It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.”  In Founders Hall, the children made Halloween masks, and then paraded on the ground floor and first floor, trick-or-treating from faculty and staff.

United Way: Chili, Cookies, Breakfast and More

Round of Applause

AOA Department of Communications: “Health for the Whole Family” article; “The Benefits of Breastfeeding;” also, Tulsa Public Schools video productions: “Difference Between USA and Russian Medical Systems,” Stanley Grogg, D.O.

Invited feature editor for the Fall 2007 issue of “Academic Exchange Quarterly,” a peer-reviewed journal. The issue focuses on Health Informatics and Telemedicine. Laurie Clark, D.O.

Paper accepted: “The Importance of Companion Animals in Emergency Evacuations,”  the 15th annual conference of the International Society for Anthrozoology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, Sherril Stone, Ph.D.

Book review: “Histology,” a text and atlas by Ross and Pawlina, for Lippincott,
Williams and Williams. William Meek, Ph.D.

Reviewed paper for “Neuroscience Letters,” Craig W. Stevens, Ph.D.

Speaker, Tulsa Surgical Society, on the OKC Bombing; Tulsa Endodontic Study Group, on transmission of diseases by dental means. R. Tom Glass, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Parasitology consultant for the 31st edition of “Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary,” David John, Ph.D.