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OU-HCOM graduates continue
to choose primary care specialties
More than 63 percent of
this year’s graduates to practice
in Ohio
By Richard Heck
(ATHENS, Ohio)
More than one-half of this year’s
graduating class at the Ohio University
Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM)
will be entering primary care
residencies this summer, bucking a
national trend for new physicians to
choose specialty medical fields.
Of the 108 new OU-HCOM medical students
who will receive their doctorates of
osteopathic medicine during the 32nd
Commencement exercises on Saturday at
Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial
Auditorium, 63 percent enter residency
programs in Ohio.
Within the next 15 years, some health
care experts predict that the nation
will experience a serious shortage of
physicians who practice primary care,
which traditionally includes family
medicine, internal medicine, and
pediatrics, and sometimes includes
OB/GYN.
“Primary care physicians are desperately
needed in this country, yet the number
of physicians going into primary care
continues to decrease,” said OU-HCOM Dean
Jack Brose, D.O. “At OU-HCOM, we remain
committed to recruiting and encouraging
students who want to practice in all
fields, and particularly primary care.”
Since its inception in 1975, OU-HCOM has
specialized in the recruitment, training
and placement of primary care
physicians. More than half of the
medical school’s 2,675 practicing
graduates serve as primary care
physicians, and 60 percent practice in
Ohio. That makes OU-HCOM number one in
Ohio, and near the top ten nationally,
in medical schools that graduate
physicians who choose primary care
specialties. OU-HCOM graduates are also
more likely to practice in under-served
rural areas.
The keynote speaker at this year’s
ceremony is Leonard H. Calabrese, D.O.,
director of the R.J. Fasenmyer Center
for Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic
and head of the clinical immunology
section. He specializes in
immunodeficiency diseases including HIV
and hepatitis C infection, which are
subjects of both his clinical care and
investigation.
Among his many awards and honors, Dr.
Calabrese holds the R.J. Fasenmyer Chair
of Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation.
When he was awarded the Theodore F.
Classen, D.O., Chair in Osteopathic
Research and Education in 2008, he
became the first dual-chair holder in
Cleveland Clinic history.
He received the Phillips Medal of Public
Service from OU-HCOM, and the Cleveland
Clinic’s Bruce Hubbard Stewart Award for
Humanistic Medicine.
He was named an honorary alumnus
of OU-HCOM in 2007.
In addition to his duties with the
Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Calabrese is a
professor of medicine at the Cleveland
Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of
Case Western Reserve University and vice
chair of the Department of Rheumatic and
Immunologic Diseases. He has lectured
nationally and internationally on the
subjects of HIV, immunology and
rheumatology and is the author of more
than 300 published peer-reviewed
articles, book chapters and reviews.
For the first time, OU-HCOM will stream
the Commencement ceremony live via web
broadcast. The live feed can be viewed
at
http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/Commencement2011/video.htm,
beginning at 10 a.m. |
