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Winter 2009
college of osteopathic medicine
Ahead of the
aging boom
OU-COM prepares students
to serve the 65+ population,
which will double by 2030.
Plus
Combating
childhood obesity
Real-life ethics
lessons from the
State Medical Board

ohio university
Winter 2009
A publication of the College of Osteopathic Medicine
02
From the Dean
Medical education for a new generation
03
05
06
College Check-up
Noteworthy
Research News
Q&A: Rathindra Bose, Ph.D.
Ohio University Vice President for
Research and Creative Activity
08
Features
Michael Kleinfeld
Features
17
18
20
24
Follow-up
Gumption and goodwill
Georgenna Riley, D.O.
Class Notes
Going to extremes
Stephen Augustine, D.O.
More than 40 students and clinical faculty from OU-COM and about 800 others from
across the U.S. attended the 2008 D.O. Day on the Hill this April. This national lobbying
event, coordinated by the American Osteopathic Association, brings together D.O.s and
medical students to advocate for health care policy reform.
OUM
For more photos from D.O. Day on the Hill 2008, go to
www.oucom.ohiou.edu/oum.
Getting a grip on
the aging boom
In thirty years, the senior population
will nearly double, while the number
of geriatricians continues to dwindle.
OU-COM trains students to help
meet the demand.
08 12 14
First: Do no harm
Soon after receiving their short white
coats, the class of 2012 will do something
they had hoped to avoid throughout their
careers: appear before the State Medical
Board of Ohio.
Fit kids,
fit communities
Through education and perspiration,
OU-COM tackles the intricacies of
childhood obesity.
Michael Kleinfeld
OUM
Visit Ohio University Medicine online for additional content. www.oucom.ohiou.edu/oum

College Check-up
From the Dean
College News
ohio university
Ohio University Medicine is published twice a year by the
Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine Office of Communication.
Editorial Advisory Board
John A. Brose, D.O.
Dean, College of
Osteopathic Medicine
Pat Burnett, Ph.D.
Director, Student Affairs
George Dunigan II
Director, Governmental Affairs
Judith Edinger, M.Ed.
Director, Predoctoral Education
Andrea Gibson
Director, Research Communications
Ohio University
Jill Harman, M.Ed.
Director of Alumni Affairs
Christine Knisely, M.A.
Executive Director of Research
and Grants
Editor
Karoline Lane, M.L.S.
Managing Editor
Anita Martin
Copy Editor
Shelby Mullins
Design
Jeff Brown
Photography
John Sattler
Contributing Photographers
Leonardo Carrizo
Michael Kleinfeld
Kevin Riddell
Writers
Natalie Cammarata
Anita Martin
Mary Reed
Dwayne Stewart
Richard Heck
Stephen McKean
Susie Shutts
Administration
Roderick McDavis, Ph.D.
President, Ohio University
John A. Brose, D.O.
Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine
Karoline Lane, M.L.S.
Director, Office of Communication
Marie Graham
Associate Director, Communication Design Services
Daniel Silbiger
Student Government Past President
Edwin Rowland, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of
Biomedical Sciences
John Schriner, Ph.D.
Director of Admissions
Kathy Trace, M.H.A.
Director of the Area Health Education
Center, Community Health Programs
Patricia Westfall, M.S.
Professor of Magazine Journalism
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
Sharon Zimmerman, M.P.A.
Director of Medical Development,
Executive Director of Alumni Affairs
Opinions expressed in Ohio University Medicine are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect viewpoints of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic
Medicine. © ’08 Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Editorial offices: Room 330, Grosvenor Hall, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701.
Address updates for Ohio University Medicine should be referred to:
Sheila Bycofski
OU-COM, 332 Grosvenor Hall
Athens, OH 45701
phone: (740) 593-2346
e-mail: bycofski@ohio.edu
Medical education for a new generation
We are publishing our college magazine with a new name, a new look and a renewed commitment to
storytelling. It seems fitting that as we publish this revitalized magazine, change envelops us as never before.
We are surrounded by changes on Wall Street, in Washington and in the environment, many of which
require us to challenge long-held beliefs and design new methods to improve quality, despite diminishing
resources. For our communication efforts, this means better quality publications that place a high value
on your time and interests. For the magazine specifically, it means a well-defined editorial purpose, more
economical in-house development, a polished look and stories that quickly and effectively express the
values and activities of OU-COM. Even though Ohio University Medicine is smaller than Today’s D.O.,
our newfound vibrancy and the accompanying Web site help extend our reach.
Medical education is another area fertile for innovation. A new generation of student physicians
now enters medical school with knowledge and abilities far different from those who preceded them.
Our incoming students grew up with portable computers, video games, cell phones and PDAs as major
components of their lives. Many can’t imagine a world without them. They pride themselves on their
abilities to multitask, switching from one activity to another and back at dizzying speeds. Indeed, for many
students, concentrating on a single task for a prolonged period is difficult and dull. Medical educators must
take advantage of these skills and adapt curricula to better engage this new generation of learners.
Perhaps lectures as we once gave them are no longer the best way for most students to learn. At OU-COM,
we have created curricula that emphasize active and small-group learning. While these efforts have proven
very successful, it is now time to take a next step.
To supplement small-group learning and traditional lectures, faculty members now have opportunities
to develop computerized instruction tailored to today’s medical student. Computerized instruction allows
students to move through material at their own pace. Learners can repeat sections, speed up or slow down
presentations and take breaks. Instructors can embed movies (such as surgical procedures), animate
diagrams and demonstrate medical technology such as echocardiograms and MRIs. These demonstrations
can utilize voice-over explanations, highlighting and interactive quizzes to keep the learners engaged.
In an era emphasizing energy conservation, modern classroom technology and videoconferencing offer
greener and more economical possibilities for medical training. Problem sets, grand rounds and clinical
demonstrations could be conducted from hundreds of miles away. Students could participate both on the
college campus and from their homes.
Developing these new methodologies won’t be easy. They will require some time and faculty
development. However, creating learning experiences tailored to a new generation of students has the
potential to free faculty time, include new instructors from distant sites and create a richer learning
environment that will make it well worth the effort.
And as with our magazine, we’d better get started quickly, or the world will change again before
we get there.
Jack Brose, D.O.
Dean, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine
04
05
06
07
Surgery rotation in Honduras
OU-COM’s first international
surgery rotation
Keith Watson, D.O.,
named Educator of the Year
American Osteopathic Foundation
honors Dr. Watson
Noteworthy
Honors, accolades & retirements
Research
•OU-COM discovery pays off
•Artificial intelligence in insulin pumps
•Dinosaur discoveries
Q&A: Rathindra Bose, Ph.D.
New OU-COM professor and cancer
researcher also oversees research, creative
activity and graduate studies at
Ohio University
Serving the State
OU-COM fills primary
care gap in Ohio
While recent studies show a steep national
decline in young physicians choosing primary
care, OU-COM graduates continue to do so
in large numbers.
Of the 106 members of the Class of 2008,
52 graduates—49 percent—started primary
care graduate medical programs this summer.
Of those programs, 26 were family medicine
residencies; six, pediatric; and 20, internal
medicine (though many internal medicine
residents may go on to sub-specialize).
The number of U.S. medical graduates
entering family practice dropped 50 percent
in the past decade, as reported in the Sept. 10,
Journal of the American Medical Association
( JAMA), while the American Academy of
Family Physicians projects that the need for
primary care specialists will skyrocket by
2020, when the nation will need more than
139,000 family physicians.
The JAMA studies reveal a strong
correlation between salary and popularity of
a specialty—and that primary care specialties
rank among lowest average salaries. Despite
these trends, OU-COM has long trained
physicians committed to primary care, many
of whom choose to practice in underserved
regions of Ohio.
Of total OU-COM graduates, 54 percent
are primary care providers, 62 percent
practice medicine in Ohio, and 46 percent
serve communities with populations less than
50,000, with 11 percent in Appalachia Ohio.
Those figures reflect the college mission,
mandated by the Ohio General Assembly,
of serving Ohio populations in need and
emphasizing family medicine. The OU-COM
Office of Admissions highly considers these
factors during interviews, recruiting mainly
within the state and seeking applicants who
value primary care training.
“We require out-of-state students to
practice at least five years in Ohio following
medical school and residency, which can
be waived if students choose an American
Osteopathic Association accredited three-year
primary care residency within the Centers for
Osteopathic Research and Education,” said
John Schriner, Ph.D., director of admissions.
“Many of these physicians choose to stay in
the state indefinitely, making OU-COM a
state importer of medical talent.”
From early clinical contact hours through
third- and fourth-year rotations, OU-COM
prioritizes primary care medicine. With
few exceptions, students’ early Clinical and
Community Experience requirements take
place in primary care settings, and in both
curricular tracks at OU-COM, the vast
majority of first-year case studies involve
patients who initially present to their primary
care physicians, emphasizing family medicine
as the first clinical contact point.
OU-COM students begin their third
year with a four-week primary care rotation.
Before they finish their fourth year, they will
have spent an additional six weeks in family
medicine and other primary care rotations.
“We are one of a dwindling number of
medical schools who maintain primary care as
a high priority,” said Dean Jack Brose, D.O.
“We draw a lot of outstanding students here
because of our reputation for providing an
excellent foundation in primary care.”
Winter 2009
3

College Check-up
College Check-up
Transitions
Noteworthy
Commencement 2008
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner gave the keynote
address at the 29th annual Commencement ceremony
on June 7. Brunner, Ohio’s first female secretary of state,
received the 2008 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award,
the nation’s most prestigious honor for elected officials.
Convocation 2008
With 117 students, the class of 2012 marks OU-COM’s largestever—and
its top-performing. “I am extremely proud of this
year’s class, which has both the highest grade point average
and the best medical college admission test scores in our
college’s history,” says Dean Jack Brose, D.O.
Anne Pope, federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional
Commission, delivered the keynote address at the 33rd
Convocation ceremony August 18.
2012 class profile
56% female, 44% male
85% Ohio residents
10% from Southeastern Ohio
or Appalachian Ohio counties
27% minority students
Cultural Competency
First international
surgery rotation
A group of OU-COM students headed to La
Ceiba, Honduras, in November for the college’s
new clinical immersion in Hospital Suizo.
“The hospital-based experience gives a
perspective on a foreign medical system. This is
unlike our other international rotations that set
up temporary clinics,” says Assistant Professor
of Surgery David Drozek, D.O. (’83), who led
the two-week program for third- and fourthyear
students.
In the first week, the group performed
surgeries at Hospital Suizo for patients waitlisted
at the local government-sponsored
hospital. Drozek says that Hondurans unable
to afford private hospital fees often wait months
for federally funded care.
Next, students followed up with surgery
patients and visited local health care facilities
Student Life
Tapped out
Chad Keller, OMS II, (right) Student
Government Association president,
welcomed the Class of 2012 with collegebranded,
reusable water bottles. Keller
says the bottles will replace about 12,000
disposable water bottles previously served
at SGA-sponsored lunch lectures this year,
reducing waste and saving the SGA $2,500.
and a medical school in San Pedro Sula, where
they shadowed local medical students.
Hospital Suizo is part of a non-profit
foundation that provides medical care at about
half the cost of private hospitals, without the
wait of government-sponsored hospitals.
Drozek lived in Honduras for seven years,
where he worked with Hospital Suizo’s
General Director Doris Eggenberger. In March,
Eggenberger visited OU-COM, where she
recounted leaving her home in Switzerland to
found Hospital Suizo in 2000 after witnessing
Honduras’ poverty-stricken health care system.
“A lot of people don’t have dreams or goals,”
Eggenberger said. “You just have to have one
and do it.”
By Natalie Cammarata
OUM
For photos and reports from our students who
went to Honduras, go to
www.oucom.ohiou.edu/oum.
Accolades
Keith Watson, D.O., named
AOF Educator of the Year
“Few osteopathic physicians have had more
influence on postdoctoral medicine than
Dr. Keith Watson,” (above) says American
Osteopathic Foundation President Gilbert S.
Bucholz, D.O., who presented Watson’s award at
the July 2008 American Osteopathic Association
House of Delegates meeting in Chicago.
Watson, associate dean for graduate medical
education and associate professor of surgery,
is also chair of the Centers for Osteopathic
Research and Education board. Bucholz says
that Watson has brought the CORE, OU-
COM’s statewide consortium of teaching
hospitals, to a national prominence that is the
envy of medical educators, both osteopathic
and allopathic.
Regional Innovations
Health information network
connects Southeastern Ohio
Twenty health care organizations have
formed the Appalachian Health Information
Exchange (AHIE) to help coordinate use
of health information technologies such as
electronic record keeping and the electronic
exchange of health information in Ohio’s
Appalachian communities.
AHIE, which elected its first board in April,
was born out of a National Library of Medicine
grant OU-COM won through the National
Institutes of Health. The association is assessing
needs and developing strategies to incorporate
information technologies into the region.
Before coming to Ohio, Watson taught first
at the Oklahoma State University College of
Osteopathic Medicine, where he chaired the
Department of Surgery, and then at the Des
Moines University College of Osteopathic
Medicine, where he was a professor of surgery,
associate dean for clinical affairs and project
director of the Standardized Performance
Assessment Laboratory.
“Dr. Watson has gone to extraordinary
lengths to improve and promote osteopathic
postgraduate education by developing new
programs, conducting mock accreditations
and increasing the visibility of osteopathic
residency programs,” Bucholz says.
“I am very honored,” Watson says. “I see this
award as reflecting all the individuals at the
CORE and OU-COM. We do this together.
It’s important for all of us to share this honor.”
By Richard Heck
Ross
Franklin
Fairfield
Pickaway
Pike
Scioto
Licking
Hocking
Vinton
Jackson
Lawrence
Guernsey
Muskingum
Perry
Gallia
Visit the AHIE Web site at
www.oucom.ohiou.edu/AHIE/
Coshocton
Morgan
Athens
Meigs
Noble
Washington
Belmont
Monroe
HONORS & APPOINTMENTS
Mario Grijalva, Ph.D.
Director of the Tropical Disease Institute
Coordinator of the Surveillance and Information Systems Work Group
World Health Organization’s Global Network for Chagas Elimination
John Kopchick, Ph.D.
Goll-Ohio Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
• AMVETS Silver Helmet Award
54 th Silver Helmet Awards Banquet (March 29; Alexandria, Va.)
• Honorary Doctor of Science degree
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Commencement (May 10)
Brian Phillips
Chief Information Officer
Ohio Broadband Council (appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland)
Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O.
Former Dean
Ruth Purdy, D.O., FACOI
College Advocate
Both named “Pioneers in Osteopathic Medicine”
American Osteopathic Association House of Delegates Annual
Meeting (July 18; Chicago, Ill.)
Martha Simpson, D.O.
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Ohio Department of Insurance Advisory Committee on Eligibility
and Real Time Claim Adjudication
GRANTS
Mark Berryman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
“Role of CLIC in epithelial morphogenesis”
$154,875, NIH (4/1/2008 – 3/31/2010)
Karen Coschigano, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences
“Cross-talk between growth hormone and inflammation pathways
in kidney damage”
$221,250, NIH (3/10/2008 – 3/9/2010)
Mario Grijalva, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
“Characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi in Southern Ecuador”
$201,839, NIH (5/1/2008 – 3/31/2010)
Jane Hamel-Lambert, Ph.D.
Director of Interdisciplinary Mental Health, and
Kathy Trace, M.H.A., R.N.
Director of Community Health Programs
“Rural health outreach special initiative”
$189,677, HRSA (8/1/2008 – 7/31/2009)
Frank Horodyski, Ph.D.
Professor of Biomedical Sciences
“Molecular and functional characterization of
the allatotropin receptor”
$420,000, NSF (11/1/2008 – 10/31/2011)
Susan Williams, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
“Collaborative research: Ecological and functional morphology
of feeding in free-ranging mantled howling monkeys”
$6,200, NIH (5/1/2008 – 12/31/2008)
RETIREMENTS
Gerald Rubin, D.O.
Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Suzanna Theodoras
Diabetes Nurse Educator
4
Winter 2009
Robert Woodworth, D.O., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Social Medicine
5

College Check-up
Research Revenues
Ohio University ranks fourth
in nation for research returns
on investment
Forbes magazine has ranked Ohio University
first in the state and fourth in the nation for
returns on research investment, largely due
to OU-COM research. The university earned
$9.3 million in licensing royalties in the past
two years for the acromegaly drug Somavert ® ,
which developed out of a 1988 research
discovery by John Kopchick, Ph.D., Goll-Ohio
Eminent Scholar and professor of molecular
biology.
The Forbes study was based on 2006 data
from the Association of University Technology
Managers. Income generated by Somavert ®
is reinvested in research at all levels of the
University.
6
Treatment Technologies
Intelligent Therapy
Efforts to bring artificial intelligence to insulin
pump therapy could make life easier for patients
with type 1 diabetes—and their doctors.
Frank Schwartz, M.D. (above), associate
professor of endocrinology and director of the
Appalachian Rural Health Institute (ARHI)
Diabetes/Endocrine Center, is working with
diabetologist Jay Shubrook, D.O. (’96),
assistant professor of family medicine, and
Cindy Marling, Ph.D., a computer scientist
at the Russ College of Engineering and
Technology, to design the smarter pump
therapy.
Today’s insulin pumps measure glucose
levels, which project a dizzying array of
data difficult even for an endocrinologist to
interpret. They do not adjust insulin levels
automatically or make treatment suggestions,
but the software Schwartz, Shubrook and
Marling are developing will do just that.
“The technology will remember patterns
and interpret daily lifestyle information to
make suggestions about how patients can
better manage their glucose,” Schwartz says.
In last year’s initial study, 20 patients
documented their treatments and lifestyles—
diet, stress, sleep and exercise habits—in an
online database for six weeks. Schwartz and
Shubrook reviewed the data to propose action
plans for each patient. Based on the outcomes
of these plans, the researchers began teaching
the insulin pump therapy program to recognize
problematic patterns and possible solutions.
ohio university medicine
“If someone’s glucose levels are high at night,
Dr. Schwartz may tell them to increase their
pump basal rates of insulin infusion,” Marling
says. If the recommendation works, they plug
it into the computer program as a solution to
this problem.
The team has identified 50 problems and
solutions so far. This year, they will follow up
with two studies. The first, which involves 60
patients, will test and validate the software.
The second will expand the software with the
help of 28 new patients.
The project receives support from OU-
COM, the Russ College and the ARHI
Diabetes Research Initiative, and equipment
from Medtronic MiniMed, an insulin pump
manufacturer.
Initial findings will appear in the Journal of
Diabetes Science and Technology, Computational
Intelligence, and the Proceedings of the European
Conference on Case-based Reasoning.
“We’ve registered a patent application, and
we’re meeting with insulin pump companies in
hopes of forming a collaborative partnership,”
Schwartz says. “Putting the technology in the
hands of a national manufacturer would help
it reach more patients.”
By Dwayne Stewart
A version of this story originally appeared in the Autumn/
Winter 2007 issue of Perspectives magazine.
Biomedical Sciences
Dinosaur discoveries
When they’re not teaching human anatomy, a few
of our biomedical sciences professors stay busy with
high-profile paleontology research.
Duck-billed hadrosaurs outgrew
T-rex to survive
With its soft body and long limbs, the duck-billed hadrosaur
had few defenses, but research by OU-COM postdoctoral
fellow Drew Lee, Ph.D., suggests at least one; it grew
much faster than its predators, giving it superiority in size.
Lee and collaborators compared growth rate data from the
bones of the hadrosaur to that of three predators: two kinds
of tyrannosaurs and the small Velociraptor-like Troodon.
They found that the hadrosaur reached adulthood in half
the time as these predators.
Q & A
Rathindra Bose, Ph.D.
Cancer researcher,
university administrator
Our new biomedical sciences professor is also
Ohio University’s vice president for research
and creative activity, and dean of the graduate
college—a new unit designed to enhance
graduate education. He assumed all roles July 1.
Meanwhile, he conducts preclinical trials on
compounds with the potential to treat ovarian,
testicular, and head and neck cancers.
OUM: How will your role as VP for
research complement your role as dean of
the new graduate college?
RB: It’s all integrated. Graduate students
are in the forefront of research, under the
supervision of their advisors. Faculty shape
graduate students: their overall perspectives,
their projects—and they use graduate
students to drive their own research to the
next levels.
Describe the biochemical research
you do at OU-COM.
I’ve spent 25 years working to find out why
cancer in some patients develops resistance to
drugs while other patients do fine. If you can
figure that out, you can create better drugs.
Dinosaur tracks discovered
on Arabian Peninsula
Nancy Stevens, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical
sciences, was part of a team that discovered the first
dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula. The tracks,
preserved in the Republic of Yemen, date back some 150
million years to the Late Jurassic period.
Paleontological findings have been rare in the Arabian
Peninsula, but Stevens and her Dutch and Yemeni
colleagues suspect the area to be rich in discovery. This
finding provides insights into the geological and
chronological overlap of dinosaur species, as well as
their herding behaviors.
College Check-up
The compounds that we found kill cancer
cells at the same rate in both sensitive and
resistant models. We’re doing trials with
mouse models of both (resistant and sensitive)
cell lines for ovarian, testicular, and head and
neck cancers.
How did you get into this line of research?
As a chemistry student, I understood
that most diseases are caused and treated by
chemical compounds. Chemists can redesign,
synthesize and reshape molecules based on
what properties we want. I’ve always wanted
to find out how the properties of compounds
can best benefit society, so I decided to focus on
cancer biochemistry.
If you had free time, what would you do with it?
Soccer. I used to play in two teams, until
about five years ago. One day, I saw the ball
coming at the optimal height for a bicycle kick,
(for which) you turn your body between 180
and 360 degrees. I hit the ball, but I landed
right on my shoulder and injured it. My wife
said, “Okay, Biomedical that’s enough.” Sciences
By Anita Martin
Prime time dinos
Lawrence Witmer, Ph.D., Chang Ying-Chien endowed
professor of paleontology and professor of anatomy,
attracted film crews from the National Geographic
Channel, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and
the Japanese public broadcast network NHK this year.
The National Geographic Channel interviewed Witmer
for their series, “Prehistoric Predators,” and chronicled his
paleontological research, which uses CT scans performed
at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, for a documentary,
“Bizarre Dinosaurs.”
Meanwhile, the History Channel has featured Witmer in
two new programs: “Prehistoric Monsters Revealed,” a
documentary, and “Jurassic Fight Club,” a new series; and
the Discovery Channel interviewed Witmer for a show
about terror birds and saber-toothed cats.
Witmer (second from right)
and National Geographic crew.

Faculty monitor from a control room as students
interview community members with Parkinson’s Disease
in the Clinical Skills Assessment Lab.
By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or
older. The senior population will double to 71
million in that year. But there will be only
about 8,000 geriatricians.
Feature
Getting a
grip on the
aging boom
In thirty years, the senior population will nearly
double, while the number of geriatricians
continues to dwindle. OU-COM trains
students to help meet the demand.
By Anita Martin
Photos by John Sattler
“Ok, Stevens, you’re blind. Schilb, you’re deaf. Martin, you’re visually
impaired. Lykens, you have arthritis.”
Sarah McGrew, B.S.N., manager of clinical and community
experiences, passes out assignments to OU-COM students for the
Sensory Changes Lab. The lab is part of their required three-week
block of coursework in geriatrics, the medical specialty focused on
elderly care, before they begin third-year rotations.
Depending on the students’ “conditions”—all reflecting common
afflictions of aging—some wear blindfolds or earphones transmitting loud
static. Others put on goggles covered with semi-opaque plastic wrap or
tape Popsicle sticks to their fingers above the knuckles to hinder dexterity.
For two hours, the students wear their prosthetic impairments through
a series of exercises: from buttoning coats to walking with a cane, while
carrying two bags of groceries and attempting to unlock a door.
“By simulating experiences related to aging, we’re hoping students
gain a sense of empathy for their older patients,” says Deborah Meyer,
Ph.D., R.N., administer and assistant professor for OU-COM’s
Department of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.
These future physicians will have more elderly patients than they may
realize, according to an Institute of Medicine study released in April. By
2030, the IOM reports, roughly one in five Americans will be 65 or older
(now it’s about one in ten). The senior population will reach 71 million in
that year, making them the fastest growing national age demographic.
Despite the impending demand, there will be only about 8,000
geriatricians (up slightly from the 7,100 in practice today) in 2030. The
Alliance for Aging Research estimates that the nation will need 36,000.
There are a number of reasons for the discrepancy. According to
a 2006 study by the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic
Programs (ADGAP), geriatricians are the lowest paid physicians in
the United States—and the only medical specialists who are actually
paid less after completing additional training.
“Geriatric medicine is largely exempt from the usual supply-demand
economics, since Medicare reimbursement is set by the federal
government,” says Wayne Carlsen, D.O., chair of geriatric medicine and
gerontology. “When all other expenses in the practice go up and Medicare
reimbursements either stay the same or get cut, physician salaries go down.”
Meanwhile, medical students typically incur between $120,000
and $160,000 in educational debt, as reported by the Association of
American Colleges of Medicine reported in 2007.
“With the rising costs of medical school, students are worried about
repaying loans, which can deter even very interested students from
becoming geriatricians,” says Katie Wehri, OMS III, who served as
president of the OU-COM Geriatric Medicine Club last year.
Wehri adds that because elderly patients often have multiple chronic
conditions and can present symptoms differently, medical students
may find it overwhelming to care for this population.
It doesn’t help that few American medical schools actually require
geriatric coursework. In 2006, the New York Times reported that of the
145 U.S. medical schools at the time, only nine percent had a distinct
department of geriatric medicine.
“We’re pretty far ahead of the game at OU-COM in terms of what
we offer,” says Meyer, pointing out that the college’s former Geriatric
Medicine/Gerontology Section (then in the Department of Family
Medicine) gained departmental status in 1998. The three-week
intensive geriatrics block of coursework began one year later.
OU-COM students received distinctive geriatric medical training
long before that. The Sensory Changes Lab dates back almost as far
as the college itself, as does the required two- to four-week geriatrics
rotation, which can be completed through any site in the Centers for
Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE) system. And for 23
years, OU-COM medical students have chosen to study international
policy issues related to geriatric medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland,
through the Charles J. Cannon Edinburgh Geriatric Tutorial.
Meyer adds that OU-COM students begin thinking about geriatric
medicine from the start. In 2007, geriatric medicine faculty facilitated 350
hours in small-group, case-based studies; 80 hours in classroom and lab
time and another 432 hours supervising students’ early clinical contact, all
of which takes place within the first two years of medical school.
“This is so important, because (physicians) will encounter more and more
elderly patients in every area of medicine,” Meyer says. Especially in primary
care, she adds, the field of choice for 54 percent of OU-COM graduates.
An unexpected calling
Sarah Snyder, D.O. (’06), wasn’t exactly looking forward to her
required geriatric medicine rotation three years ago. “(The rotation
is) perceived as somewhat sad—not exciting like sports medicine or
cardiology,” she says. “I thought I wasn’t going to like it.”
Snyder originally planned to go into pediatrics. But that changed
when she began her geriatrics rotation.
“There was one patient I interviewed, a female in her 90s, very frail,”
Snyder says, “She talked to me for about an hour about how her life is,
how it used to be.”
When Snyder stood to go, she says the patient began crying. “She
just thanked me for listening to her. She said a lot of docs are in and
out, and that I really made her feel listened to. Right there I thought,
wow. This is it. This is my calling.”
Snyder is currently a family medicine resident at Firelands Hospital
in Sandusky, Ohio. She has completed three additional geriatric medicine
out-rotations as a resident: at Akron City Hospital, the Mountain Area
Health Education Center in Asheville, N.C., and Christ Hospital in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Snyder also received eight weeks of hospice training this year.
Next she plans to pursue a fellowship in geriatric medicine, followed
by another in palliative care (non-curative medicine aimed at relieving
pain and suffering) before becoming a full-time geriatrician.
“That (initial required geriatrics) rotation is the whole reason I’m
choosing geriatrics. It gave me a new respect for the field,” Snyder
says. “I really thought the experience was much more in line with the
osteopathic philosophy than a lot of my other rotations in terms of
treating the whole patient, physically, mentally and emotionally.”
To illustrate the holistic approach to treating older adults, Snyder
describes how, upon starting her residency in Akron, she was given
a five-page questionnaire to go over with each new patient. It covers
everything from medications, sleep patterns and diet to social habits,
mood trends and living space.
“I found that I really love home visits, seeing people in their own
environment,” Snyder says. “Now I can’t imagine practicing medicine
without understanding how patients function in their everyday lives.”
8 ohio university medicine Winter 2009
9

Embracing end-of-life care
In addition to holistic care and human contact, Snyder’s passion for
geriatric medicine is fueled by concerns about how the U.S. manages
chronic illnesses and palliative care.
“I think that particularly end-of-life issues are where we, as a medical
profession, fail,” Snyder says. “We’re taught to do everything possible at
all times—that people aren’t supposed to die, which is ridiculous.”
Snyder recalls a patient from her internal medicine rotation—for a
month and a half he couldn’t breathe without a respirator, and he showed
no signs of improvement. Snyder asked her attending physician at what
point he planned to suggest hospice, an organization that helps patients
with terminal conditions—and their families—to cope with the process.
“He looked at me like he was insulted. He just said, ‘I’m not giving
up,’” Snyder says. “No one would talk to this dying patient about
hospice. I think a lot of docs feel like a failure when a patient dies—
even with older patients. They’re just not willing to face it. As a result,
patients suffer—and so do physicians.”
Snyder believes that the inability of physicians to accept and cope
with death contributes to the low popularity of geriatric medicine,
where death rates are relatively high. She suggests that all medical
schools provide training in death and dying.
“There’s surprisingly little medical school preparation in this area,”
says Tracy (Thompson) Marx, D.O. (’92), assistant professor of
family medicine. “But (at OU-COM) we offer a range of classroom
and clinical training on death and dying, hospice and palliative care.”
The curriculum integrates interactive and multimedia approaches,
including a simulated patient lab on breaking bad news and the reading
of Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver, written by playwright Merri
Biechler, M.F.A., evaluation assistant in the Office of Academic Affairs.
Marx has noticed that patients increasingly expect better end-oflife
care, and she expects that trend to continue. “As baby boomers get
older, they’ll demand better palliative care… We’re trying to dispel
fears and myths about death and dying among our students.”
Kyle Allen, D.O. (‘86), speaks with
patient Gene Phillips at Cuyahoga
Falls General Hospital.
Advocating for change
Kyle Allen, D.O. (’86), believes that the nation’s delayed reaction
to the impending geriatric medicine workforce crisis reflects a “collective
denial of aging and mortality.”
“There’s still this fountain of youth concept, a kind of belief that
death may actually be optional,” says Allen, medical director of post
acute and senior services for the Summa Health System Division of
Geriatric Medicine.
“Every airplane has its own flight plan—each one must descend
at a different slope,” he says. “We all have our own way to land, so to
speak, but we don’t do a good enough job of managing these natural
trajectories of older patients or patients with chronic illnesses.”
At any given time, one or two OU-COM students work with Allen
in Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, an affiliate hospital of Summa
Health and a CORE teaching hospital, where Allen serves as clinical
associate professor of geriatric medicine. Summa has increased the
geriatrics rotation from two to four weeks because of its robust
teaching programs for aging and geriatric medicine, reflecting how
much value Allen and his colleagues place on the field.
“Training in the care of older adults must be more emphasized
in medical and other allied health professions,” Allen says, adding,
“I believe OU-COM is ahead of most medical schools in that area.”
Allen teaches students that the role of the geriatrician, and any
doctor dealing with chronic conditions, is to optimize the “glide path.”
This can be tricky business with elderly patients, as they frequently
suffer from multiple, ongoing conditions.
A 2000 survey found that nearly 70 percent of adults over the age
of 65 report at least one chronic condition, with the highest numbers
coming from Medicare beneficiaries. This creates a major problem
when it comes to physician payment, Allen says, considering how
Medicare reimbursements work.
Medicare, like most third-party providers, pays physicians to
perform procedures, such as colonoscopies, bypass operations or hip
replacements. It won’t pay for preventive or ongoing managed care,
that is: the time physicians spend assessing patients’ needs or talking
to them about improving lifestyle trends.
Summa
“We need to realize that aging is a process, not an event, and we
need to reform how we train—and how we compensate—physicians
and other health professionals so that they can manage that process
proactively, not respond to events,” Allen says. “At Summa, we’re
finding innovative ways to do that.”
Summa Health System, a not-for-profit that includes six hospitals
and eight medical centers in Northeastern Ohio, offers its own
insurance plan, SummaCare, to patients. This cuts out the thirdparty
provider system, so instead of paying an insurance company’s
administrative costs and additional fees—which factor in a 20 percent
profit margin for stakeholders—extra money can be reinvested directly
into the health system to improve medical service.
As a result of this innovative provider model, Summa was one of
just four hospitals out of 3,700 nationwide picked by MedPAC, the
Congressional advisory panel for Medicare, for further study on cost
and quality.
Allen, who also serves as chief medical officer for the Area Agency on
Aging board of directors, devotes a great deal of professional energy toward
reforming health care policy, particularly for older adults. He directs the
new geriatric medicine fellowship at Summa Health, and he recently
began a fellowship of his own. He was accepted into the Practice Change
Fellow Program, designed to expand and improve leadership in promoting
quality care to older adults. These efforts help to inform his research; he is
currently the principal investigator for two National Institutes of Health
grants studying innovative care models for older adults.
“I’m motivated by being an agent of change,” Allen says. “I think
that my training at OU-COM reinforced that. It’s what osteopathic
medicine is all about. Dr. (Andrew Taylor) Still was an advocate for
change because he saw that the current system didn’t work. When
geriatricians are paid less for more training; when insurance creates
disincentives for higher quality care—we need to recognize what
doesn’t work about the current system and work toward change.”
AIDS and aging
People with HIV or AIDS are living longer,
and now with higher rates of diagnosis among
those over 50, Timothy Heckman, Ph.D.,
realized that “we need to assess the psychological
needs of older adults (with HIV/AIDS).”
To do so, the professor of geriatric medicine/
gerontology secured a four-year NIH grant in
2006. Heckman recently published the results
of a study on the benefits of telephone support
groups for older adults with HIV or AIDS who
suffer depression.
About 35 percent of older adults with HIV live
alone. Many “don’t feel connected to the older
community because of their HIV-positive status,”
Heckman says. Telephone support groups
provide community with anonymity.
“By 2015 half of all new (U.S.) HIV cases will
be in people over 50.” Heckman says, citing
higher divorce rates, erectile dysfunction
drugs, increased vaginal tearing in older
women, and often misinformed attitudes
toward safe sex.
Heckman’s next study will involve 200
participants nationwide. His goal: “identify
intervention programs that work, and help
communities implement them.”
OUM
Read the full story at
www.oucom.ohiou.edu/oum.
10 ohio university medicine
Students interview Parkinson’s
simulation patient caretaker
Rosemary Huntsman.
11

Feature
“Whenever possible we want
to keep someone in practice or
restore them to practice, while
ensuring public safety first and
foremost… It’s in everyone’s
interest to rehabilitate and retain
qualified medical professionals
when we can—as long as we’re
sure the public will be protected.”
–Rick Whitehouse, Esq., executive director
of the State Medical Board of Ohio
First: Do no harm
OU-COM teams up with State Medical Board to train ethical physicians
By Anita Martin
Photos by John Sattler
“This is an example of how
proactive OU-COM is in its
instruction. They really want us
to be aware of all the aspects of
the medical profession.”
Soon after receiving their short white coats, the class of 2012 will
do something they had hoped to avoid throughout their careers: appear
before the State Medical Board of Ohio (SMB).
Each month, as part of OU-COM’s Partners in Professionalism
Series, a small group of first-year students attends a Columbus board
meeting, where they observe errant physicians defending their licenses.
The partnership—the first of its kind in Ohio and among few
nationwide—was launched in fall 2007.
“It’s all about professionalism,” says Dean Jack Brose, D.O.
“Students should know policies and requirements so they can avoid
violations. But we also want them to understand that the board is there
to help physicians and improve public health care.”
This exercise in real-life ethics offers moments of poignant,
unscripted education. At one recent meeting, a probationer stood
before the board. To fuel his workaholic lifestyle, the physician—
who managed emergency medicine full time at one hospital and
moonlighted at three others—began abusing the prescription drug
Ritalin. During his statement, he turned to speak directly to the whiteclad
OU-COM students at the back of the room.
“This has been an essential education for me,” he said, referring to
his probation and rehabilitation. “I still love the ER, but life is not only
about being a doctor. That job is to be taken seriously, but you have to
live a balanced lifestyle.”
The State Medical Board hopes to expand educational partnerships
in Ohio. With limited seating at meetings, the SMB is looking into
electronic resources, such as videotaping sessions, for distribution
among state medical schools.
Medical students may be years from licensure, but board member
Anita Steinbergh, D.O., insists it’s never too early to think about
professionalism and ethics. “We’re very focused on the needs of young
people in medicine and preventing them from getting into trouble. This
(partnership) is a great opportunity to make a difference in their lives.”
Top right: (From left) Rick Whitehouse, executive board director;
Joan Wehrle, executive board staff coordinator; Anthony Posevitz,
OMS II; Diana Haninger, OMS II; and Steven Baird, OMS II.
Left: Board member Anita M. Steinbergh, D.O., and
Board President Nandlal Varyani, M.D.
Bottom right: Joan Wehrle, SMB staff coordinator, speaks to
first-year OU-COM students about the State Medical Board.
–Anthony Posevitz, OMS II
12 ohio university medicine

Amesville Elementary students
Feature
Fit kids, fit
communities
Through education and perspiration, OU-COM
tackles the intricacies of childhood obesity
By Mary Reed
Photos by Kevin Riddell
Several kids, aged 12 to 17, stand in the dairy aisle of the Athens
Kroger grocery store. Four kids grab a different half-gallon of milk:
whole, two percent, one percent and skim. They read aloud nutrition
labels to compare similarities (vitamins, mostly) and contrast fat
content. Skim is pronounced the winner.
Andrew Wapner, D.O., assistant professor of pediatrics, points out
that whole milk is packaged under the name “fortified milk”. “Every time
you get smarter, [food corporations] try to get smarter than you,” he
says, encouraging them to keep reading labels.
It’s week four of the eight-week Take Action program, OU-COM’s
supervised intervention study to teach healthy diet and exercise habits
to Athens County children diagnosed as overweight or obese—and
their parents, who are in a separate group on the other side of the store.
Participants meet twice a week for two-hour sessions, the first hour
focusing on nutrition—food choices, nutrients, serving sizes—and the
second on aerobic and anaerobic exercise at the Athens Community Center.
“As a doctor, I often see people with complaints that are a result of an
overall unhealthy lifestyle,” Wapner says. In his Athens and Belpre, Ohio,
practices, Wapner gets frequent referrals of overweight and obese children
at risk for diabetes. As someone passionate about nutrition and exercise,
Wapner jumped at the opportunity to more actively engage families. “ We
know that just hearing a doctor say, ‘eat right and exercise,’ doesn’t work.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity
rates for children 12-19 rose from five percent between 1976 and 1980 to
17.4 percent by 2003-2004. For children 6-11, that figure went from 6.5
percent to 18.8 percent in the same time. Although recent figures show
rates leveling off, childhood obesity is still an epidemic. And according to
Thomson Medstat research, national childhood obesity costs about $11
billion for insured children and $3 billion for those with Medicaid.
To assess the local situation, Karen Montgomery-Reagan, D.O.,
F.A.C.O.P., visited 11 Athens County elementary schools between May
2005 and May 2006 to measure the body mass index (weight divided
by height) of 1,600 children 6-12. Her study, funded by the Centers for
Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE), provides a baseline for
local childhood weight studies.
Children at or above the 95 th percentile of weight for their age and
height are considered obese. Those at or above the 85 th percentile are
considered overweight. Only three of the 11 schools had obesity rates
lower than the national average; not one had lower overweight rates. To
take an extreme example, at Federal Hocking Elementary School, 30.7
percent of students are obese. The national average is 19.4 percent.
With obesity comes higher risk for type 2 diabetes. According to the
Appalachian Rural Health Institute, 11.3 percent of adults and children
in ARHI’s Southeastern Ohio coverage area have diabetes. Compare that
to the Ohio rate, 7.8 percent, and the national rate, 7.2 percent.
What explains the dramatic rise in obesity, especially in Appalachian Ohio?
Wapner lists a few causes: lack of ballfields, playgrounds and other safe places
for kids to play, car-centered transportation, crop subsidies that encourage
high-fructose corn syrup, sedentary lifestyles, fast food … the list goes on.
Wapner says his research and his practice inform his pediatrics
lectures to OU-COM students. “I teach a lot more about screening for
weight-related issues and nutritional concerns, mostly based on what I
have seen,” he says.
Finding what works – and what doesn’t
Results from last year’s inaugural Take Action program were
promising: fitness levels (measured by exercise tests) increased in
all participants, waist circumference decreased in adolescents, and
triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood) decreased in adults.
But challenges remain. For parent Vivian Taylor, who talks about
Take Action as the group walks from Kroger to the community center,
fast food is the problem. “I love eating out,” she says, counting the Wendy’s
Baconator as her favorite fast food. “(The researchers) said it was probably
the worst thing you can eat.” Now she buys the chicken wrap.
“I wanted to lose weight, but the program is not geared toward
that,” Taylor says, repeating the mantra of Take Action physicians,
nutritionists and exercise physiologists. Almost everyone today says it
at some point: Take Action is a healthy lifestyle program, not a weight
loss program. But Taylor has enjoyed many benefits of the program,
Trans-Atlantic ties
According to Gabriel Martos-Moreno,
M.D., Ph.D. (above), visiting professor and
Take Action co-investigator, childhood
obesity in his native Spain has tripled over
the last 20 years from five to 15 percent.
After meeting John Kopchick, Ph.D., Goll-
Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of
molecular and cellular biology, Martos-
Moreno secured a grant from the Spanish
government to research childhood obesity
and diabetes at OU-COM for ten months.
“I came here with one project proposal: to
identify potential biomarkers for obesity,”
he says, adding with a laugh, “But there is
so much going on here; now I’m involved
with four related projects.”
Martos-Moreno is comparing three sets of
blood samples: those of obese and healthy
Spanish children, those of obese children
with and without insulin resistence, and
those of children before and after weight
loss. For the last set he uses samples from
his Spanish patients and from Take Action
participants. He also works with Kopchick
to study differences in surface fat tissue
across the human body.
In November, Martos-Moreno returned
to Spain, where he will continue
collaborating with OU-COM.
OUM
Read the full story at
www.oucom.ohiou.edu/oum.
14 ohio university medicine Winter 2009
15
Teresa Stamplis, OMS II

Molly Malone-Prioleau, OMS II,
and Jay Shubrook, D.O. (’96).
Follow-up
including weight loss. “I can fit into my wedding band (again).”
Taylor’s daughter, Riley, is walking with a pedometer. She’s taken
2,190 steps today—or at least since the last time it fell off, she says.
Researchers have tracked the average American at 5,000 steps a day;
10,000 is recommended. Take Action participants get pedometers as
homework, along with a food log and a portion plate. Most participants
were surprised to learn about their own “portion distortion,” including
how much sugar and sodium was in their diet.
Participants take home more than just tips and tasks—they receive
vouchers for gas and for the Athens Farmers Market and passes to the
community center gym. But in the case of the Taylor family, a 60-mile
round trip from their rural Athens County home drastically reduces
the value of those vouchers.
Take Action researchers attribute 2008’s faltering recruitment
primarily to high gas prices. Another challenge is child care. Today,
some parents have brought children who are not part of the study,
which is not allowed, but it’s either that or don’t come.
“There are cracks at every level,” says Wapner, whose goal is as simple
as it is daunting: “Fit a healthy kid into a healthy family into a healthy
community.” Wapner and his colleagues hope this year’s program—
funded by OU-COM’s Research and Scholarly Affairs Committee and
the Department of Family Medicine, as well as the Athens Foundation
and the American Association of Family Practitioners—will draw
funding for a school-based prevention program modeled on Take Action.
“I think the prevention of obesity is much more effective than the
treatment of obesity,” says Jay Shubrook, D.O. (’96), co-principal
investigator of Take Action and assistant professor of family medicine.
Shubrook adds that long-term sustainability will be the ultimate test.
The researchers have given this year’s participants yearlong passes to the
Athens Community Center and will monitor whether they continue their
workouts without supervision. “It works as long as you do it,” he notes.
Involving families and schools
Fredrick (Fritz) Hagerman, Ph.D., professor of physiology, never
sits for long. The 70-something seems to exude more energy than the
seven- and eight-year-olds from his study titled “Exercise and Nutrition
Intervention Study of Rural Appalachian Schoolchildren”.
Hagerman and his colleagues—professors and students—completed
the 16-week study at two Athens County elementary schools between
January and May 2006. The control school, Coolville Elementary,
received no intervention. The experimental group, Amesville
Elementary, engaged in supervised exercise and nutrition lessons.
(Montgomery-Reagan’s study showed 22 percent of students at both
schools were overweight.)
The researchers brought rowing machines, donated by Concept2
Rowing, to the school. Students used their physical education class period
to row, and both they and their parents received nutrition lessons.
The outcomes were dramatic. By the end of the study, children in the
experimental group were making better food choices and exercising with
more strength and efficiency, measured by power generation and oxygen
consumption. Most strikingly, over the course of 16 weeks, body fat in
the control group increased from 8.8 percent to 10.1 percent. In the
experimental group, body fat decreased from 8.4 percent to 7.8 percent.
It turns out that intervening with younger children might be a key to
success. As Montgomery-Reagan’s figures show, many kids are already
obese by the time they’re 11 or 12. At that point, it’s too late for prevention.
The question remains whether short-term interventions can have
long-term effects. Hagerman’s colleagues plan to annually retest the
students’ body mass index and body fat until they graduate from high
school to find out. But the obstacles are daunting. Hagerman points out
that physical education is often inadequate; many students no longer
walk to school; and, of course, school lunches and vending machines
make it difficult for students to make good food choices.
“Are schools trying to do something about it? Sure,” Hagerman says.
He points to California’s ban on vending machines in its public schools.
But where did much of the proceeds from the vending machines go? To
the schools. “You’re sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
But on Hagerman’s office door hangs a sign of hope. It’s a twopaneled
poster hand-drawn by one of the children in his study. The first
panel, titled “Old Travis,” shows a boy with a frown standing by a table
with a box of donuts. In the second panel, “New Travis” is smiling, and
the table next to him, laden with fruits and vegetables.
18
20
21
22
23
24
Going to extremes
Stephen Augustine, D.O.
Dr. Augustine serves motorized extreme sports
athletes through track-side medical care.
Class notes
Bill Burke, D.O., in China
AOA Mentor Hall of Fame
Calendar of events
Gumption and goodwill
Georgenna Riley, D.O.
Dr. Riley and others support OU-COM
with endowed medical scholarships.
OU-COM Construction
then and now
Top left: 1982 construction site of Irvine
lecture halls
Below: Members of the OU-COM Society
of Alumni and Friends Board tour the
Academic & Research Center (ARC) during
their October meeting. The ARC will bring
together researchers from OU-COM, Russ
College of Engineering and Technology, and
other colleges and institutions on campus
for the development of new diagnostics and
treatments.
Development & Alumni News and Features
16 ohio university medicine Winter 2009
17

Georgenna Riley, D.O., with
LaQuita Jones, OMS I
Follow-up
Follow-up
Development Highlight
Gumption
and goodwill
Dr. Georgenna Riley blazed her own trail. Now
she helps others do the same through an
endowed minority scholarship.
By Susie Shutts
Photos by John Sattler
Growing up in the Appalachian foothills of a small Kentucky town,
Georgenna Riley, D.O. (’95), had an uncommon dream.
“I always wanted to be a scientist,” says Riley—though most female
professionals she knew at the time were either secretaries or teachers.
Riley, now head of the radiology department at Kaiser Permenante
in Cleveland, came to OU-COM encouraged by her mother, who
in her late thirties earned her high school diploma and took postsecondary
classes, and her stepfather, a tailor, to whom “education was
very important,” Riley says.
Her path, however, took a few more turns than the typical medical
student. She first earned a degree in dentistry at the University of
Kentucky. Then, after practicing as a dentist for ten years in the
Washington, D.C., area, Riley had a change of heart.
“I’d always had an interest in medicine,” Riley says. “I wanted more
opportunities to help people.”
Riley wasn’t initially drawn to analytical field of radiology, but after
exploring the specialty in her residency at Ruby Memorial Hospital
in West Virginia, she was hooked. The field’s variety and constant
innovations resonated with her personality.
Riley’s ability to adapt to change and overcome adversity helped her a
few years ago, when her mother died of ovarian cancer. Riley channeled
her grief into purpose. “It made me more proactive with encouraging
preventive measures,” Riley said. Her loss prompted an interest in the
relationship among diet, exercise and disease. She constantly tracks
research on the subject, sharing information with patients along the way.
The experience also deepened her commitment to her family. Riley
grew up one of ten children, including three—yes, three—sets of
twins. Riley shares the values driving her twin sister, Georgetta, who
retired last year after working 28 years as a warden at the Federal
Medical Center, a Lexington, Ky., a federal prison specializing in
psychiatric care. “We both work with people to help them better their
lives,” Riley says.
To this end, Riley recently endowed the Georgenna Riley, D.O.
(’95), Osteopathic Minority Medical Scholarship, a new OU-COM
scholarship for underrepresented minority students who reflect
leadership skills and/or research activities. Riley hopes the scholarship
will inspire others to pay forward to future generations. She describes
recipients as students “who got into medicine because they really want
to help people.”
To fund her own medical education, Riley “took out loans and
earned scholarships,” says Pat Burnett, Ph.D., director of student
affairs. “She didn’t have rich parents or a lot of savings.”
Burnett describes Riley as a caring individual, who often calls
“to check up on us” in the Office of Student Affairs. “She’s just very
generous,” Burnett says. “She lives by a notion of reciprocity. She’s told
me, ‘I’m making money now, and I want to give back.’”
Riley joined the OU-COM Alumni Board three years ago, where
she has put these words into action through both her endowed
scholarship and generous contributions to the upcoming Academic &
Research Center (ARC), a joint project of OU-COM and the Russ
College of Engineering and Technology.
Early last month, OU-COM awarded the inaugural Riley
Scholarship to LaQuita Jones, OMS I, a Warrensville Heights native
who participated in OU-COM’s Post-Baccalaureate Program, a yearlong
training program focused on increasing medical school access for
both economically disadvantaged students from Appalachian Ohio
and underrepresented minority students.
“Being a first-generation college student, I do not have family
members who can relate to my pursuing a career in medicine,” Jones
says. “It’s great to know someone like Dr. Riley, who has been through
this journey and has been successful.”
Sharon Zimmerman, M.P.A.
Director of Medical Development
Executive Director of Alumni Affairs
Medical scholarships:
Attracting the best and brightest
An investment in scholarships is an investment in the college’s most precious
resource: its students. OU-COM depends largely on private support to attract the
brightest, most promising young people who will be tomorrow’s physicians—our
future alumni—and also to ensure that their dream of becoming a physician is
within financial reach.
Each year, approximately 400 students compete for OU-COM’s 40 scholarships.
Scholarships help narrow the gap between awards requested and those granted.
When we cannot offer enough financial aid, we sometimes lose talented applicants
because they simply cannot afford the expenses associated with medical education
and training.
Our Student Affairs staff members work diligently with our students, advising them
on how to incur the least-possible medical school debt. Still, tuition and fees have
risen more than 100 percent in the past decade, due in large part to steady cuts
in government funding, and living expenses continually increase. As a result, the
average debt of our most recent graduates has increased from $89,182 in 1999 to
$150,868 for the class of 2008, even though our college tuition ranks among the
lowest of all seven medical schools in Ohio.
Scholarships change lives by making medical school financially possible. If you
would like to help, I am always happy to talk about how you can contribute to an
existing scholarship or even start your own osteopathic scholarship in your name or
the name of a mentor or loved one.
Your generosity means a lot to our students. We are pleased to announce the
establishment of these new 2007-2008 OU-COM Scholarships:
Austin-Bailey Health and Wellness
Foundation Gerald L. Meck Osteopathic
Student Scholarship
*Auxiliary to the 9 th District Academy, Ohio
Osteopathic Association Scholarship
*Barbara A. Bennett, D.O. (’84), Osteopathic
Medical Scholarship
*Michael E. (’83) and Ruth Campolo
Osteopathic Medical Scholarship
*Chang Ying-Chien Osteopathic Medical
Scholarship
*Alison A. Clarey, D.O., FACOS Osteopathic
Medical Scholarship
The Cleveland Foundation Osteopathic
Medical Scholarship
*Mae F. and A.R. Harmon Memorial
Scholarship in Osteopathic Medicine
*Robert S. Harris, D.O. (’82), Osteopathic
Memorial Scholarship
*The Holzer Clinic Scholarships
Northeastern Ohio Healthcare Foundation,
Cpl. Joshua Harmon Memorial Osteopathic
Scholarship
*Georgenna Riley, D.O. (’95), Osteopathic
Minority Scholarship
*Geraldine N. Urse, D.O. (‘93), FACOFP
and John S. Urse, Jr., D.O. (‘92), FACOS,
Osteopathic Medical Scholarship
*Endowed scholarships
18 ohio university medicine Winter 2009
19

Follow-up
We want to hear from you!
Follow-up
Class Notes
Please send your career and
personal updates for our next issue.
Fax: 740.593.0761
E-mail: harmanj@ohio.edu
Online form: www.oucom.ohiou.edu/Alumni/
StayingConnected.htm
Alumni Affairs, 203 Grosvenor Hall, Athens, Ohio, 45701
1980
MacGregor E. Poll, D.O., medical director at
Northridge Surgery Center in Madison, Tenn.,
and his wife, Nancy, welcomed their first grandchild
in November 2007.
1982
John J. Koncelik, D.O., is pursuing his
master’s degree in medical management from the
University of Southern California’s Marshall School
of Business. In 2006, Dr. Koncelik became CEO/
president of Western Pennsylvania Anesthesia
Associates in Pittsburgh, Penn.; medical director of
Sheridan Clinical Research, Inc., in Sunrise, Fla.,
and a certified physician investigator (CPI). He
continues his clinical research at Sewickley Valley
Hospital in Pennsylvania.
1983
Michael J. Dobrovich, D.O., was elected chief
medical officer and senior vice president of clinical
affairs of St. John West Shore Hospital in Westlake,
Ohio, in March 2007.
1984
Barbara Bennett, D.O., was appointed president
of the Ohio Osteopathic Association at the 110th
OOA annual convention in June.
1986
Kyle R. Allen, D.O., became a Practice Change
Fellow in 2007. The fellowship works to improve
medical care for older adults.
Gregory Hill, D.O., received a Meritorious Service
Medal in December 2005, during Operation Iraqi
Freedom. He also presented a paper, “Volar fixation
of distal radius function: Comparison of systems,” in
May 2007 at the American Osteopathic Academy
of Orthopedics Postgraduate Seminar.
1987
Doris T. Tan, D.O., coauthored the Handbook
of Emergency Psychiatry in 2007. She is a clinical
professor of psychiatry at the University of
California, San Francisco—Fresno.
1988
Katherine (Toni) Clark, D.O., clinical professor
at Grandview Medical Center, received the 2008
Ohio State Society of American Osteopathic Family
Physicians Distinguished Service Award. She also
helped establish a scholarship for OU-COM family
medicine primary care fellows who choose to enter a
family medicine residency program.
Christopher Loyke, D.O., clinical associate professor
at South Pointe Hospital, is now president-elect of
the Ohio Osteopathic Association.
1989
Sandy Paul Naples, D.O., was re-elected as
department chair of family medicine at St. Elizabeth
Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio, for the
2008-2010 term.
1990
Nicholas Espinoza, D.O., CORE assistant dean
at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center received the
2008 Outstanding Preceptor of the Year Award.
1991
B. J. (Morill) Sidari, D.O., has joined Euclid
Pediatrics in Euclid, Ohio.
1992
Joette E. Greenstein, D.O., joined Geriatric
Physician Associates of Mount Carmel Health
Providers in Columbus, Ohio, as director of house
call services in August 2007.
1993
Todd R. Fredricks, D.O., completed his 2nd tour
of duty in Tikrit, Iraq, in May 2008, and is now an
assistant professor of family medicine at OU-COM.
1994
Michele (Brown) Keller, D.O., accepted a position
in April 2007, with Visiting Physicians, Inc., in
Youngstown, Ohio.
1995
Joseph Looby, D.O., and his wife, Megan Elizabeth,
welcomed their third child, Katherine, in May 2006,
and their fourth child, Joseph, in July 2007. Dr.
Looby is pursuing a fellowship in craniofacial plastic
surgery at Stanford University.
Chau Pham, D.O., and her husband, Frank
Nguyen, welcomed their daughter, Angelina Quynh
Chau Nguyen, in April 2007. She also recently
opened a private practice.
Tuesdae (Rogers) Stainbrook, D.O., was given
the 2007 Award of Excellence at the Pennsylvania
Annual Viral Hepatitis Conference in Monroeville,
Penn., in October 2007.
1996
David A. Burke, D.O., and his wife, Jennifer, welcomed
baby Aidan Thomas in November 2006.
Daniel Culver, D.O., and wife, JoAnna, welcomed
their third child, Josie, in February 2006.
Deborah (Nicklas) Snyder, D.O., published Keto
Kid: Helping Your Child Succeed on the Ketogenic Diet
in 2006. She and her husband, Jeff, welcomed their
third child, Abbey, in 2006.
1997
Sanjiv Amin, D.O., and wife, Seema, welcomed
Reyna Amin to the family. She was born in June 2006.
Larry Witmer, D.O., and his wife, Maria,
welcomed daughter Lana in January 2007.
1998
Anthony Degenhard, D.O., was elected treasurer
of the Aultman Medical Staff in December 2007,
and has been certified by the American Society of
Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology. He and
his wife, Elizabeth, welcomed daughter Ella in
April 2007.
Deborah (Daniel) Harris, D.O., has been named
chief of surgery at Selby General Hospital in
Marietta, Ohio.
Elizabeth North, D.O., and her husband, Robert
Channler, welcomed baby Graham Channler in
September 2006. She also completed a stroke
fellowship at Oregon Health and Science
University in Portland, where she opened a private
neurology practice.
1999
Jeanne (Friedman) Crump, D.O., and her
husband, Donald, adopted an infant son from
Guatemala in September 2006. The baby, Gabriel,
was born in March 2006.
Andrew K. Culver, D.O., accepted a position as
CORE assistant dean at Affinity Hospital in Akron,
Ohio, in 2006.
Joseph A. Rodrigo, D.O., director of regional
anesthesia at Roper Medical Office, became boardcertified
in anesthesiology in 2006.
Provided by Dr. William Burke
Burkes lend a hand in China
Last spring, William Burke, D.O. (’88), associate
professor of family medicine, and his wife, Debbie,
were planning a humanitarian trip to China with Heart
to Heart International. He would continue his recent
work training primary care physicians and she would
assist a school for the deaf and a senior center.
Then, ten days before their departure, the May 12
earthquake struck the Sichuan province, killing or
injuring hundreds of thousands and leaving millions
homeless. The Burkes instead set up tents for displaced
families and distributed food and medical supplies. It
was Dr. Burke’s third trip to China and Ms. Burke’s first.
“It’s more devastated than I imagined,” Ms. Burke
told NPR’s Andrea Hsu during an on-site report.
“But I’ve also seen that the spirit of the people
is incredible.”
Dr. Burke has since returned to China, twice, to
counsel physicians and health ministries on primary
care practices, equipment and training standards.
In July, he presented on family practice residency
training at a Chinese Medical Doctor’s Association
conference in Nanjing. “I’m working to assist the
The Burkes with a local mother and baby,
whom Bill had just treated for mosquito bites.
country’s transformation from a specialty-driven
medical system to one more focused on primary
care,” he says.
Dr. Burke’s efforts are supported by the American
Osteopathic Foundation and the American
Osteopathic Association. Dr. Burke plans to bring a
group of Chinese physicians to Ohio to demonstrate
primary care training at OU-COM and the CORE.
Dr. Burke also notes that his and Ms. Burke’s
experience in May sparked an interest in continuing
relief work. “The people were so welcoming and
grateful. Because of that, we both feel that we got
more out of the experience than we gave.”
Dr. Burke is a family physician with Doctors Hospital, where
he directs the Family Practice Residency Program. He
previously served as president of the OU-COM Society of
Alumni and Friends, an Ohio University Foundation trustee
and an AOA delegate. Ms. Burke graduated in 1985 from the
Russ College of Engineering and Technology. She serves on
the Ohio University Alumni Association Executive Committee
and chairs the Russ College Board of Visitors.
By Anita Martin
20 ohio university medicine
Winter 2009
21

Follow-up
Follow-up
2009 Alumni Calendar of Events
OU-COM alumni make the
AOA Mentor Hall of Fame
The American Osteopathic Association
Mentor Hall of Fame inducts new osteopathic
physicians annually, to recognize their
excellence in training and supporting
osteopathic medical students, interns,
residents and other young physicians.
The Hall of Fame is a part of the AOA’s Mentor
Program, initially conceived in 2003 by then
AOA President, Darryl Beehler, D.O. Last year,
six new OU-COM alumni were nominated for
AOA Mentor of the Year and subsequently
inducted into the Mentor Hall of Fame.
2007 AOA Mentor Hall of Fame
alumni inductees
Shawn R. Kerger, D.O. (’96)
Stephanie V. Oberhelman, D.O. (’96)
Keith U. Smith, D.O. (’86)
Jeffrey A. Stanley, D.O. (’82), FACOS
David N. Stroh, D.O. (’83)
Celeste N. Wallace, D.O. (’02), FACOP
Previous AOA Mentor Hall of Fame
alumni inductees
Timothy J. Barreiro, D.O. (’97), FCCP, FACOI
Imber (Corcoran) Coppinger, D.O. (’97)
Barbara M. Doerr, D.O. (’91), Ph.D.
Paul Entler, D.O. (’00)
Todd M. Friend, D.O. (’91)
Anita L. Showalter, D.O. (’93)
Jay H. Shubrook, D.O. (’96), FACOFP
Gail M. Swarm, D.O. (’89)
Steven M. Takacs, D.O. (’86)
Joan E. Tamburro, D.O. (’94), FAOCD
2000
William J. Dobak, D.O., and Melissa Johnson were
married Nov. 17, 2007, in Atlanta, Ga. Dr. Dobak is
an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology
at Florida State University.
Trinetta D. Masternick, D.O., and husband,
William Gerhing, welcomed their third son, Will,
to the family in February 2007. Dr. Masternick
accepted a new position as pain management
specialist. Her sister, Janeen, is a second-year student
at OU-COM.
2001
CORRECTION: Steve Chandler, D.O., completed
his orthopedic trauma fellowship at Grant
Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. He moved to
Chicago, Ill., and works in two hospitals: one in Oak
Lawn, Ill., and the other in Evergreen, Ill.
Michael Gerardo, D.O., M.P.H., was appointed to
a three-year term on the Ethnogeriatrics Committee
of the American Geriatric Society. Dr. Gerardo also
published seven chapters in The Practical Guide to
the Care of the Geriatric Patient, published by Mosby,
Inc., in 2008. He presented “Quality, language,
and culture: Hispanic nursing home and care,” to
the medical faculty at University Health Sciences
Center in San Antonio, Texas, and again at the
Center for Health Care and Policy Research, Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio,
both in July.
Rachel Zevallos, D.O., and husband Carlos
Zevallos, D.O., have two children: Lillie, born in
2005, and Charlie, born in 2006.
2002
Gregory K. Applegate, D.O., completed a sixmonth
Army deployment in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007,
where he served as a combat anesthesiologist.
Dawn Dillinger, D.O., accepted a position at Child
Care Consultants in Columbus, Ohio.
Brooke Lampl, D.O., is pursuing a fellowship
in pediatric radiology at New York Presbyterian
Hospital-Columbia.
Thomas Smith, D.O., is pursuing a fellowship
in adult reconstruction at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn.
Kamini Trivedi, D.O., published three abstracts
in 2007: two in the Journal of Cardiac Failure and
one in Circulation. She presented the abstracts at
the 2007 annual meetings of the American Heart
Association and the Heart Failure Society of
America.
2003
Joel W. Anders, D.O., and Kathryn Anders
were married in 2006. He accepted a new position
at Licking Memorial Health Systems in Newark,
Ohio. The couple has two children, Declan
and Camille.
Christopher J. Dennis, D.O., has completed a
fellowship in pulmonary/critical care medicine at
the Lackland U.S. Air Force Base in San Antonio,
Texas, and is practicing at the Wright Patterson Air
Force Base Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio.
Jennifer L. Gwilym, D.O., is now medical director
of the sexual health division of the Columbus Public
Health Department in Ohio.
Stephen Scheper, D.O., and wife, Gina H. Y.
Scheper, have relocated to Hawaii, where Dr.
Scheper is completing a physical medicine and
rehabilitation fellowship. He plans to remain in
Hawaii after completing the fellowship.
2004
Derrick Blackwell, D.O., joined Piedmont Family
Practice at Tega Cay in Fort Mill, S.C., as an
attending physician. He also received a Michigan
State University Resident Teaching Award.
Joshua LeClaire, D.O., married Shoshone
Richardson in 2006. He is currently pursuing
a fellowship in cytopathology at MetroHealth
Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jean (Sheppard) Rettos, D.O., received the
2005 Merck Resident of the Year award from
O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, where she completed
a neuromusculoskeletal medicine residency. In
August 2008, She opened a private practice, Athens
Health Solutions, which offers family medicine and
osteopathic manipulative medicine.
Chad A. Weber, D.O., gave a presentation at the
American Society for Surgery of the Hand in
September 2007. He will begin a fellowship in
orthopedic trauma in Indianapolis in 2009.
2005
Kelly Becker, D.O., accepted a new position with
Strongsville Family Physicians in Strongsville, Ohio.
She and her husband, Brian Jungeberg, were married
in July 2006.
Ron Mallick, D.O., and Bridgette Sims Mallick,
were married May 24, 2008, with classmate
Abelash Reddy, D.O., and his wife, Roopa Patel,
D.O. (’06), in attendance.
2006
Christina Bagby, D.O., is pursuing a pathology
residency at University Hospitals Case Medical
Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Shannon (Claprood) McAfee, D.O., cowrote
“Occipital compression and its potential uses in
obstetrics” with Anthony Chila, D.O., professor of
family medicine. The article was published in the
AAO Journal, September 2007. Dr. McAfee and her
husband, C. Curtis, also welcomed baby Caleb in
November 2007.
Katrina (Jones) Sabur, D.O., and Ibrahim Sabur
were married in September 2006.
2007
Rachel Liptak, D.O., and Ryan Mast, D.O. were
married in October 2008. Dr. Liptak in an internal
medicine residency program at Grandview Hospital,
and Dr. Mast is doing a psychiatry residency program
at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
Kedy Jao, D.O. (’83), and John Koncelik, D.O. (’82),
deliver the toast at the 25 year reunion for the
classes of 1982 and 1983, held in October at the
Baker University Center in Athens.
January 16-17
Cleveland Academy of
Osteopathic Medicine
44th Annual Postgraduate Seminar
Hilton Cleveland East
Beachwood, Ohio
Alumni Reception, January 16
February 21
Society of Alumni & Friends
Board of Directors Winter Meeting
Columbus Hilton at Easton
March 4-8
ACOFP 46th Annual Convention
Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
March 25-29
American Academy of Osteopathy
Annual Convocation
Peabody Hotel
Little Rock, Ark.
April 15-18, 2009
AACOM Annual Meeting
Bethesda, Md.
22 ohio university medicine

Follow-up
Follow-up
Alumni Profile
Above: (Left to right) Lauren Schlacht
(physical therapist), Steve Augustine, D.O. (‘94),
and Eddie Casillas (athletic trainer) at the 2005
American Motorcyclists Association National
Motocross Series
Left: Dr. Augustine taking x-ray of injured BMX
racer at the 2007 Southeast BMX Championship
Lower left & facing page: ASMF Mobile
Sports Medical Unit at the 2007 Florida Winter
AMA Motocross Series
X
Passion drives Dr. Stephen Augustine to
the track—as a national leader in medical
care for motorized extreme sports
By Stephen McKean
Photos provided by Dr. Stephen Augustine
Stephen Augustine, D.O. (’94), like many orthopedic surgeons, is
Going to
eXtremes
a sports enthusiast. He was a four-year football letterman at Denison
University and a club lacrosse player at OU-COM. But his passion for
the new wave of motorized extreme sports—motocross racing, BMX
biking, and the whole range of high-speed, high flying feats epitomized
by the X Games—sets him apart from his colleagues.
Augustine, who grew up racing motocross dirt bikes, says he began to
notice an unsettling difference between how physicians treat action sports
athletes compared to those in “stick and ball sports,” as he calls them.
“If a high school kid is out riding his motocross bike—training
really hard and racing—and he blows out his ACL, he’s [considered]
an idiot,” says Augustine. “But a high school football player who
blows out his ACL—he’s considered some kind of a hero. I think that
dichotomy is ridiculous.”
Augustine co-founded the non-profit Action Sports Medicine
Foundation (ASMF) in 2004 to raise awareness about the unique
medical needs of these non-traditional athletes. While “stick and ball
sports” usually employ both an athletic trainer and a physician at games,
Augustine says that action sports events typically provide little more
than paramedics, who may or may not be familiar with the participants’
particular needs.
“The number one goal [of the foundation] is to improve on-site
medical care for action sports athletes at their events—all levels,
professional and amateur,” he says.
Augustine has a wealth of firsthand experience in this area, having
served as an event physician for American Motorcycle Association (AMA)
supercross and motocross events since 2001—as well as countless other
action sports events around the country. He also serves as chief of the sports
medicine division for the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit and as the medical
director of the Road 2 Recovery Foundation, a non-profit organization that
assists AMA-licensed professional motocross and supercross riders who
sustain career-ending injuries.
So far, Augustine is pleased with the ASMF’s progress. “We have a team
of volunteers—athletic trainers, physicians’ assistants, physical therapists,
doctors—who cover the events on-site. We were able to raise money to
buy uniforms, and we now have our own mobile medical center.”
All told, Augustine devotes more than 40 weekends a year to on-site
medical service for “extreme” sports athletes, including professional and
amateur motocross and supercross, as well as non-motorized sports
such as skateboarding. Although he mostly serves east of the Mississippi,
Augustine frequently travels west to help out at major professional events.
In the long term, Augustine would like to extend the reach of his
foundation beyond the Southeastern U.S., where it has had so much
early success. He would also like to see more general research on action
sports athletes, in the same way that traditional athletes have been
studied for decades.
Perhaps most importantly, Augustine hopes to break down negative
stereotypes in the medical community surrounding action sports
athletes. “Doctors in general just blow them off because they don’t
understand them,” he says.
But Augustine, who still occasionally races in enduro, motocross and
harescramble events, most certainly does. “When you race motocross,”
he says, “it’s like hitting a home run ten times in one game.”
Jill L. Harman, M.Ed.
Director of Alumni Affairs
Helping our students find their path
The number of physicians choosing to specialize in sports medicine
is rising nationwide. According to Lori A. Boyajian-O’Neill, D.O., 2007
president of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine,
“We are witnessing the development of a field about to explode.”
The practice trends of OU-COM graduates reflect that statement. The
number of our alumni practicing sports medicine has more than doubled
in the last five years. Although that figure remains relatively small,
graduates like Steven Augustine, D.O. (’94) are definitely making a
big impact within the specialty. And given the popularity of the OU-COM
Surgery and Sports Medicine club, this trend shows no sign of slowing.
To expose our students to this and other specialties, the Office of Alumni
Affairs works with student organizations to coordinate our annual Career
Medical Specialties Series. This September, John Walter, D.O. (’00)
kicked off the year-long series by speaking to first- and second-year
students on the related specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Participating in our Career Medical Specialties Series is a terrific way
to reengage with OU-COM and meet your future D.O. colleagues. Please
contact your Office of Alumni Affairs to learn how you can return to
campus and speak about your specialty or mentor students interested
in your field. I look forward to hearing from you!
Practicing sports medicine alumni physicians
367% increase
1998 2008
24 ohio university medicine Winter 2009
25

Across the divide
Final stages of cell division, taken
with a flourescence microscope
Mark Berryman, Ph.D., associate professor, received a twoyear
$221,250 NIH award in June for his grant proposal, “Role
of CLIC in epithelial morphogenesis.” To better understand
how CLIC (chloride intracellular channel) proteins affect
cell development, Berryman is studying how they interact
with other proteins in fruit flies. In this image, cell parts are
stained: DNA is blue, microtubules are red and CLIC4 proteins
are green.
College of Osteopathic Medicine
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