by Brooke Bunch

A surge of student-driven research is sweeping OU-COM’s campus according to Joy Matthews-López, Ph.D., CORE research director, marking one of the highest research-oriented classes in years.

“Research is gaining tremendous momentum,” says López. “Over the last two years I’ve seen an interest in research grow enormously. Actually, we’ve seen a 2,000 percent increase in the number of recorded CORE student and resident research projects since 2002. Students are asking for more and more opportunities to be exposed to and participate in research.”

López says there are no OU-COM mandates (although all students are required to produce a case report prior to graduation) for students to conduct research, making it all the more ambitious of them to get involved. There are, however, research requirements for all residents. By engaging the research process as students, OU-COM graduates will be better prepared to conduct quality and meaningful research as residents.

“The students are taking it upon themselves,” she says. “They are taking the initiative to grow their research culture, to prepare themselves to practice evidence-based medicine. I can only imagine what terrific physicians and mentors they will someday become.”

López says the surge can be attributed to a number of factors, one being the stiff competition for admission into high-demand residence programs.

“Nearly everyone has great board scores and great letters of recommendation,” López says. “The students feel something that will set them apart is their ability to handle research. Osteopaths bring a unique flavor to clinical research.”

Jerald Hurdle, D.O. (‘04), stressed the importance of such research in a time of evidence-based medicine.

“Medicine in the 21st century is mainly evidenced-based and is not like the anecdotal medicine of old,” says Hurdle. “If the research has not been done, the medical body of science tends to question the validity of the information.”

Hurdle is currently involved in an extensive research project that attempts to explore the correlation between asthma and atopic eczema, a common infantile disease. Hurdle says its nature and extent during childhood remains unclear. He proposes to determine if eczema predisposes individuals to asthma, determine the risk factors that lead to eczema and asthma; and determine whether or not treatment with a prescription drug in eczema patients will reduce the risk to further progressive asthma symptoms.

Hurdle says it’s vital for all D.O. students to embrace research now because it can mean a better quality of professional life for physicians, which in turn, can result in a higher quality of life for patients.

“The benefits are social, economical and physical,” he says. “As the cost of health care continues to rise in our country, we, as physicians, will need to provide more preventive measures for the diseases we face.”

Jeremy Mauldin, a fourth-year medical student, says it’s vital for all medical professionals to be involved in research, whether they are M.D.s, D.O.s, R.N.s or P.A.s.

“I think if all medical professionals were doing research, we’d have a lot less unknowns out there,” Mauldin says. “And believe me, there are plenty.”

Mauldin is currently researching a better formula for the estimation of fetal weight using ultrasound-derived fetal measurements. The formulas in current use are only accurate to within plus or minus 10 percent, says Mauldin, who thinks research as a student will make future research more manageable.

“Some might say we’re trying to do more research to make a name for D.O.s,” he says. “That might be true for some. I’m just doing it because I think this is what being a medical professional is all about.”

Hurdle says the reason the D.O. profession has not historically focused on research is due to the nature of their practice.

“We practice primary care,” he says. “Mainly specialty medicine leads the way in research, and now as D.O.s branch out into more sub-specialty fields such as dermatology, we are faced with the need to become more involved in research.”

Ekokobe Fonkem, a second-year medical student, says research is gaining considerable importance in the era of evidence-based medicine, particularly in the D.O. profession.

“We want D.O.s to become a major force in research direction and policy in the whole medical profession,” Fonkem says. “As future D.O.s, we really have to push our profession into the forefront of research.”

Fonkem is recruiting students to join the Students of Osteopathic Research Association (SORA), a group of medical students devoted to encouraging research in the D.O. profession. Fonkem says the purpose of SORA is to encourage research within the osteopathic profession, leading the way to cutting-edge studies by D.O.s and osteopathic medical students.

Fonkem, who was part of a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that helped design new therapies to treat asthma patients, hopes to create an atmosphere conducive to research, in which medical students can work together in making D.O.s leaders in medical examination.

“When students graduate medical school, learning doesn’t stop,” López says. “If anything, that’s when you have to fasten your seat belt.”