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Hands-on family practice
Jean Rettos, D.O. (’04)

By Anita Martin
Photo by John Sattler

After working 13 years as a nurse, family medicine was the perfect fit for Jean Rettos, D.O. (’04). “As a nurse, you get close to patients, and family practice lets you do that.”

Rettos, who runs an Athens, Ohio-based practice, Athens Health Solutions, was named Young Family Physician of the Year by the Ohio chapter of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians.

The honor wouldn’t surprise Rettos’ patients, considering her dedication to family care. She started her private practice to keep the overhead low so she could spend more time with patients than the average 11-minute primary care visit.

“I give all my patients my cell phone and my beeper numbers,” Rettos says. “They’re printed right on my card. Friends thought I was nuts to do that, but people don’t abuse it.”

Rettos dedicates 60 percent of her practice to general care, and the other 40 percent osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), a form of manual therapy using stretching, gentle pressure and resistance to diagnose, treat and prevent illness or injury.

“Family practice really allows me to incorporate OMM,” Rettos says. “A lot of people think OMM is just about lower back pain, but I do it for asthma, sinus infections, post-surgical bowel problems, helping infants better latch on during breast feeding … One older gentleman, who used to get bronchitis every summer, told me, ‘since I started doing OMM, I don’t get sick anymore.’”

Rettos’ interest in OMM goes back to her nursing days in the OMM office of Parks Hall. “I think a lot of medical students’ career decisions are based on clinical rotations, which is why the early clinical contact at OU-COM is so helpful. A lot of those first clinical experiences are in primary care, and that helps instill the value of family medicine.”

Jane Balbo, D.O. (’07)

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