Alumni physicians
discuss the rewards and challenges of family practice
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, go to
the next page or click on the names to the right
