WHAT:  33^rd Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM) Commencement

WHERE: Ohio University Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium

WHEN:  Saturday, June 2, 2012, 10 a.m.

HIGHLIGHTS: This year’s keynote speaker, David S. Drozek, D.O., is a medical missionary and 1983 graduate of OU-HCOM who spent more than eight years in Honduras helping to establish a hospital in an area of the country that previously had no medical care. Dr. Drozek is currently an assistant professor of surgery at OU-HCOM and serves on the college’s advisory committee for the Heritage Community Clinic, the college’s Free Clinic.

The 115 new graduates, the most to ever graduate at one time from OU-HCOM, will be the first class to earn diplomas with the name “Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.” Last June, the Ohio University Board of Trustees approved the new name, which recognizes the historic $105 million gift to the college by the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations. The Foundations gave the college the transformational gift to address some of the most pressing health care issues across the state and the nation – the impending shortage of primary care physicians and the diabetes epidemic.

Among this year’s graduates are the first 12 recipients of the new Osteopathic Heritage Foundations Primary Care Incentive Scholarships, which were established with funding from the April 2011 Osteopathic Heritage Foundations gift. Each student will receive $15,000. The scholarships were established to assist fourth year medical students who are lifelong Ohio residents who make a commitment to go into a primary care residency programs in Ohio, and will then go on to practice in Ohio in a primary care specialty of family medicine, general internal medicine or general pediatrics.

Sixty three percent of the new physicians and surgeons graduating
on June 2 will remain in Ohio for their residency programs, and 54 percent will enter a residency in a primary care specialty.

The event also will be the last Commencement ceremony that Jack Brose, D.O., will address the graduates as dean of OU-HCOM. This year marks his tenth graduation ceremony as dean. Dr. Brose will step down from his position at the end of June to accept a new position with the Ohio University provost’s office.

OU-HCOM will broadcast the Commencement ceremony live on
the Internet at http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/Commencement2012/video.htm.

Also, because of limited space in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, the ceremony will be broadcast live to the Baker University Center Theater to accommodate faculty and staff who cannot be seated in the auditorium, or family and friends of
graduates who choose to watch from the comfort of the theater.

The 115 new graduates will join the ranks of 2,783 alumni. Since its inception in 1975, OU-HCOM has specialized in the training 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-HCOM 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.