By Anita Martin and Colleen Kiphart

Photos by John Sattler

Figures from the OU-COM Class of 2009 confirm the continuation of a college legacy: graduating osteopathic physicians committed to primary care medicine. While less than 10 percent of medical graduates nationwide intend to pursue primary care, almost half of OU-COM’s newest graduating class began graduate medical programs in primary care fields this summer.

This reflects our total alumni figures: 54 percent are primary care providers—most in Ohio and many for underserved areas. OU-COM emerges as a national leader in this regard. Last year the AMA reported that the number of medical graduates entering family practice has dropped 50 percent in the last decade. The resulting shortage of family physicians has brought primary care to center stage in federal health care reform efforts (for more, see the “Message from the Dean,” by Jack Brose, D.O.).
 
Ohio University Medicine talked to a range of OU-COM alumni and students passionate about family practice, the “bread and butter” of primary care. Some things are changing, they said: higher medical education debt, electronic records, medical homes ... But the essential rewards of family practice remain: its endless versatility and its genuine human connections.
 
To read what our alumni and students have to say, click on the stories below.
 
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