OU-HCOM welcomes the class of 2012

33^rd Convocation Ceremony initiates 117 new students, honors
Phillips Medal awardees

By Richard Heck

Photos by John Sattler

Make the practice of medicine personal, the class of 2012 was told Saturday at the college’s 33^rd Convocation Ceremony.

“Today starts your journey, which will involve years of hard work and study,” said keynote speaker Anne Pope, 10^th federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. “But with this essential education and training, let’s not forget the heart of medicine. As a doctor, your focus is and always should be about people.”

Highlighting the event was the presentation of the Phillips Medal of Public Service to two individuals who have made outstanding contributions to healthcare, education and/or public service. The award is named for the late J. Wallace and Jody Galbreath Phillips, both longtime friends of Ohio University. Mrs. Phillips died earlier this year.

In addition to Pope, Levente Batizy, D.O., also received a Phillips Medal of Public Service. Batizy directs medical education at Cleveland-Clinic South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights.
A third Phillips Medal recipient, Michael Opipari, D.O., attending physician emeritus of oncology and hematology at the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, was unable to attend the ceremony.

Pope serves as the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. Since being sworn into office Feb. 3, 2003, Pope has advocated for increased support of regional health care programs, such as the Appalachian Rural Health Institute Diabetes Center at OU-HCOM.

Batizy is credited with developing the first osteopathic emergency medicine residency program in Ohio. South Pointe Hospital honored
him as 2007 Physician of the Year, and the American Osteopathic Foundation named him 2006 Educator of the year.

Opipari has been a national leader in raising the standards of osteopathic medical education for more than 35 years. He chairs the Council on Postdoctoral Training of the American Osteopathic Association. In July, 2008, he was named among 37 “Great Pioneers”
of osteopathic medicine by the AOA House of Delegates.

During her address, Pope told the students that they must make a commitment not only to the practice of medicine, but to their patients
as well.

Pope told of her 81-year-old father, a retired dentist and a diabetic,
who, while being treated at a hospital, was prescribed a medication incompatible with others he was taking. When she told a cardiologist
of the problem, the doctor responded by saying it was not his department—not his problem.

“I say to you, how can it not be personal when the profession you are entering focuses on people? In fact, medicine is personal,” said Pope, who challenged the new students to consider what kind of doctor they would become. “Are you going to use only your knowledge and training, or will you remember to use your heart, and care—I mean really care—
for your patient?”

For one of the new students, the ceremony was personal on a family level.

Chad Keller, OMS II, student government president, shared a personal story before the White Coat Ceremony, in which students receive waist-length white coats donated by the Ohio Osteopathic Foundation.

“My father is an osteopathic physician. When I was a small child, I used to put on his white coat,” he said. “One year ago … I received my own waist-length white coat at the 2007 ceremony. It was at this moment I realized the gravity of what a white coat symbolizes … a commitment to a profession of life-long learning centered around the many patients we will one day have the privilege of caring for.”

The receipt of the white coats symbolizes the students’ entrance into
the medical profession. The coats must be worn during clinical assignments. Upon graduation, students receive long white coats, marking their official instatement as physicians.

During the White Coat Ceremony, Alanna Foglietti, OMS I, a Chagrin Falls graduate of the Ohio State University, was helped into her white coat by her father, Mark Foglietti, D.O. (’82), a Beachwood-based surgeon. Foglietti was one of three osteopathic doctors, all OU-HCOM alumni, who assisted the class of 2012—the largest in OU-HCOM history—into their white coats during the ceremony.

After helping his daughter into her white coat, Foglietti said he was proud that she chose to attend his alma mater. “I knew as soon as she interviewed here it would be a perfect fit for her,” he said.

Of the 117 new students, 85 percent are Ohio residents, with 10 percent hailing from Southeastern Ohio or Appalachian Ohio counties. The class is 56 percent female and 44 percent male, with minority students making up 27 percent.