by Tara Beverly

Doctors Hospital Family Practice Center’s (FPC) residents have distinguished themselves on the national stage. Since 1998, five FPC residents have earned the prestigious American Osteopathic Foundation (AOF) Resident of the Year award. This includes four OU-COM alumni — (1998) Chau Pham, D.O. (’95); (2001) Wendy Wozniak, D.O. (’98); (2003) Tinisha Jordan, D.O. (’00); (2004) Jason Dapore, D.O. (’01) — and (2000) Inga Jolly, D.O.

Bill Burke, D.O. (’88), director of the Doctors Hospital Family Practice Center and OU-COM associate professor of family medicine, is very proud of the program and the residents’ outstanding achievement.

“The individuals that received the award had a tremendous work ethic and a keen interest in increasing their knowledge and skills. They demonstrated a strong commitment to osteopathic philosophy and medicine,” says Burke.

“They all were excellent clinicians and were able to establish an effective rapport with their patients. They understood the importance of being a physician and giving back to their community. They served in ways over and above what is expected of physicians in training.”

That the center has produced five AOF award recipients, says Burke, “shows more than anything else the quality of the individuals that have chosen to train with us and the mentoring that senior residents give to their junior colleagues.”

The center, located in Grove City, is an outpatient training site currently for 24 interns and residents and has been a family practice residency program for 27 years. Doctors Hospital is one of the 13 teaching hospitals in the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education system.

“Doctors Hospital has been a strong supporter of the family practice residency program and has provided us with the excellent facility and equipment that we need,” says Burke.

Program directors such as Burke can nominate one person a year for the AOF award.

“The faculty and I nominated Dr. Dapore, but an AOF panel made the final decision at the national level. There are four recipients of the national award each year. The winners are picked based on five criteria.

“The first is the commitment to the osteopathic profession. The second is the compassion and commitment to patient care. The third is strong leadership skills and experience. The fourth is the commitment to the community. The fifth is commitment to education and enrichment of self and others through continuing research, publication and education.”

Dapore, Burke says, earned his award because of his dedication and the tremendous contributions he made as a resident at FPC. Dapore, who is married and living in Columbus, says he was very honored to receive the prestigious national award and lauded the center.

“It was a great honor, and I was very humbled,” says Dapore.

“The center has an excellent program that provides a variety of invaluable experiences. I was able to get very, very sound family practice training at FPC. I was able to further develop my skills in osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) as well as sports medicine.

“The faculty is very impressive and very professional. There always was a lot of enthusiasm.

“When you work hard, you get rewarded. It makes you a better physician. The AOF award is a testament to the great training I received at OU-COM and the great training Doctors Hospital provides.”

Burke says that physicians and staff at FPC strive to work as a team with interns and residents.

“Our residents all know their responsibilities and are dedicated to excelling at them,” Burke says. “We emphasize community service in our program in addition to physician education and teaching. We have a large number of medical students and graduate and undergraduate pharmacy students who rotate through our facility.

“Part of their training is didactic, consisting of five hours a week of lectures and presentations. There is a strong academic base here. Our residents all know coming into the program that teaching will be a large part of what we expect from them as well.”

As an American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians approved program, there is also a large emphasis on scholarly activity and research.

“Our residents have ‘senior’ projects — research papers — that they complete as part of the American Osteopathic Association’s Clinical Assessment Program to meet their graduation requirements,” he says. The projects — retrospective chart reviews — cover a variety of areas, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease and lower back pain.

“We strongly emphasize the osteopathic approach and philosophy and the use of OMM. We also emphasize the importance of lifelong learning after leaving our program.”