Ohio Auditor of State Betty Montgomery, J.D., took a trip Wednesday to Southeastern Ohio to OU-COM and spoke with its staff and faculty.

John Schriner, director of admissions, and George Dunigan, director of governmental relations, led Montgomery on a tour of the college and its facilities. For Montgomery, Ohio’s first female state auditor, it was the first time at the college.

“We invited Montgomery to our campus for an educational visit,” says Dunigan. “We wanted to share the college with her and information about the valuable health-care services we provide in Southeastern Ohio and throughout the state.”

Montgomery’s first stop was a press conference in which concerns were raised over state budget cuts in higher education, an area Montgomery found crucially important to the state of Ohio.

“Higher education is inextricably linked to a robust economy; there’s a direct relation,” she said, acknowledging that Ohio’s shift away from its more traditional manufacturing oriented economy will require a more educated populace to keep up with the changes of the shifting economy.

But Montgomery indicated that there was no relief in sight for universities depending on state funding.

“There’s going to be a real demand this year on the budget process,” she said.

Questions were also raised on the professional liability insurance crisis.

“While I think we’ve done a wonderful job, we still have a long way to go,” said Montgomery of the tort reform laws now on the books. Ultimately, Montgomery said, it will likely be the test of the constitutionality of those laws that that will determine whether the medical liability crisis has been solved. And it will take a while to see the effect of those laws on the price of physicians’ insurance premiums, she said.

Montgomery met with Dean Jack Brose, D.O., who made a presentation on the college’s history and accomplishments, particularly how OU-COM continues to meet and exceed the legislative mandate accompanying its founding in 1975: To train primary care physicians to serve the underserved of Ohio.

She praised OU-COM for its past awards as the top medical school for producing the highest percentage of primary care physicians in the nation, adding this feat was impressive for the college.

She also met with Ohio University President Roderick McDavis, Ph.D.

“It was really an introductory conversation with her, my first meeting with the auditor of the state,” said McDavis.

“This meeting provided me with an opportunity to discuss with her how we at Ohio University intend to increase our productivity and be more collaborative with other universities in the state.”

Montgomery also toured Edison Biotechnology Institute with David Wight, Ph.D., director of Edison, and met with John Kopchick, Ph.D., OU-COM professor of biomedical sciences and Goll-Ohio Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Kopchick is a principal investigator at Edison and undertook a major diabetes research project several years ago.

“I was very happy that she was able to visit OU-COM, Edison and, particularly, my group,” said Kopchick.

“She’s very aware of the importance of medical biotechnology industry and its benefits, in terms of economics and health care, to the people of Ohio. We hope that she takes back to Columbus our message that the medical biotechnology industry is alive, well and growing in Southeastern Ohio and reinforces that with her colleagues.”

Montgomery lauded the establishment of the Appalachian Rural Health Institute’s Diabetes/Endocrine Center, which along with Edison, is also a major player in diabetes research — research that will likely play a crucial role in fighting diabetes and improving the treatment options for the region’s diabetic population, which is more than twice the national percentage average. The center was established two years ago.

“Given what we know about the American public and obesity, which is directly tied to diabetes, I think the center is a wonderful addition and certainly needed,” Montgomery said.