Drozek named Surgery Mentor of the Year

Faculty member honored for excellence in teaching, humanitarianism

By Richard Heck

Nov. 2, 2009

Sunday, Nov. 1, the national Student Osteopathic Surgical Association honored OHIO surgeon David Drozek, D.O. (’83), as Surgery Mentor of the Year. Drozek is an assistant professor of specialty medicine at OU-HCOM.

“Dr. Drozek has given osteopathic students not only the opportunity to succeed academically, but also—through his humanitarian medical work—an appreciation of serving those in need,” said James Prueter, OMS II, president of the college’s Surgery and Sports Medicine Club.

Prueter, who nominated Drozek for the award, cited his dedication to helping others in the Athens area and around the world. Prior to joining the OU-HCOM faculty in 2006, Drozek; his wife, Becky; and their three children lived in Honduras as missionaries for eight years.

“Each year he takes his family and a large group of students to study international medicine in the Central American countries of El Salvador and Honduras,” Prueter wrote in his nomination letter. There, for two weeks, he and his students assist with surgeries in Hospital Suizo and meet with Honduran medical students, interns and residents.

“Dr. Drozek works to improve students’ cultural sensitivity, communication skills and appreciation for modern medicine,” Prueter said, and gives students the opportunity to learn about “diseases not typically seen within the United States. … He provides underserved patients with the medical care they need and deserve.”

Prueter noted that Drozek donated suture kits and surgical gowns for each member of the OU-HCOM Surgery and Sports Medicine Club.

Besides his own private surgical practice and duties at OU-HCOM, Drozek also volunteers for Good Works, Inc., a local homeless shelter located in Athens.

A 1983 graduate of OU-HCOM, Drozek earned a bachelor’s degree from Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio. He completed a rotating internship and a general surgery residency, both at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, where he was chief resident in 1987 and 1988.