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by Brooke Bunch
Ekokobe Fonkem is leading the
way to a new breed of D.O.s. Fonkem, a second-year student and
native of Cameroon, a western African country, is recruiting
students to join the Students of Osteopathic Research
Association, a group of medical students devoted to encouraging
research in the osteopathic profession.
According to Fonkem, SORA’s
founder and president, many students in osteopathic medical
schools are not research oriented.
“They want to go straight to
clinical practice,” Fonkem says. That attitude, he believes, in
the long run, is not healthy for the osteopathic profession.
“D.O.s are very good
practitioners, but I think we can take a step further. I want
D.O.s to be leaders in research, too, not followers.”
Fonkem added that a majority of
American medical books and articles are written by M.D.s and
most of them push their own philosophies.
“They’re not pushing osteopathic
philosophies,” he says. “If the D.O. profession is going to
continue to grow, we have to encourage research in the field and
promote osteopathic principles. The era of evidence-based
medicine is on the rise, making research a crucial task for
D.O.s.”
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. This, he says, is clearly in line with one of
the aims of the American Osteopathic Association’s Council for
Osteopathic Research.
He became interested in
research while completing a summer fellowship at a laboratory as
an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fonkem’s father is a University of Wisconsin professor.
Fonkem, then a biochemistry
major, says the principal investigator of his lab really
supported his interest in research and made his fellowship that
summer a unique and very rewarding experience.
SORA already exists at the
College of Osteopathic Medicine at University of North Texas
Health Science Center, Fonkem says, who added the two chapters
will likely not have a formal affiliation, however the
possibility of them working together exists in the future.
During its first year, SORA,
advised by Janet Burns, D.O., assistant professor of family
medicine, aims to recruit students who understand the importance
of becoming research oriented — whether basic science or
clinical — and what the club is trying to accomplish. They also
hope to facilitate summer research projects for students.
“We’re hoping to start a series
similar to the Policy Puzzle — called the Research Puzzle,”
Fonkem says. “Through it we hope to bring in medical researchers
— M.D.s, D.O.s and Ph.D.s — from the outside to speak to us
about important research.”
“Students who attend
the series, we’re hoping to reward with a certificate from Dean
Brose.”
Fonkem, who was part of a team
at Madison that researched potential cures for asthma, hopes to
create an atmosphere conducive to research in which medical
students can work together in making D.O.s leaders in medical
examination.
“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.”
For more information or to join
SORA, contact Ekokobe Fonkem at (740) 707-2976 or e-mail at
ef308003@ohio.edu.
News for the week
of Oct. 11 – Oct. 16
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