OU-COM to graduate 32^nd class of physicians, surgeons
June 4 ceremony will be broadcast live on the web

WHAT:  32^nd Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) Commencement

WHERE: Ohio University Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium

WHEN:  Saturday, June 4, 2011, 10 a.m.

HIGHLIGHTS: This year’s keynote speaker, Leonard H. Calabrese, D.O., is director of the R.J. Fasenmyer Center for Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic and head of the clinical immunology section. He specializes in immunodeficiency diseases including HIV and hepatitis C infection, which are subjects of both his clinical care and investigation.

Among his many awards and honors, Dr. Calabrese holds the R.J. Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. When he was awarded the Theodore F. Classen, D.O., Chair in Osteopathic Research and Education in 2008, he became the first dual-chair holder in Cleveland Clinic history. He received the Phillips Medal of Public Service from OU-COM in 1991, and the Cleveland Clinic’s Bruce Hubbard Stewart Award for Humanistic Medicine. He was named an honorary alumnus of OU-COM in 2007.

In addition to his duties with the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Calabrese is a professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and vice chair of the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases. He has lectured nationally and internationally on the subjects of HIV, immunology and rheumatology and is the author of more than 300 published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and reviews.

For the first time, OU-COM will stream the Commencement ceremony live on the internet. The live feed can be viewed at http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/Commencement2011/video.htm.

Of the 108 members of the Class of 2011, 53 percent will enter primary care residencies of family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics or OB/GYN, while 63 percent of the graduates will remain in Ohio.

The 108 new graduates will join the ranks of 2,675 alumni. Since its inception in 1975, OU-COM has specialized in the recruitment, training and placement of primary care physicians, which includes family practice, general internal medicine and pediatrics.  More than half of the medical school’s practicing graduates serve as primary care physicians and 60 percent stay in Ohio to practice.  That makes OU-COM number one in Ohio, and near the top ten nationally in medical schools that graduate physicians who practice primary care, particularly in under-served rural areas.