in Hampton Roads in Hampton Roads - Eastern Virginia Medical ...

alumniGrad scales new heightspursuing interest in wilderness medicineAs Jefferson Livermon, MD, stood at the summitof Mount Kilimanjaro earlier this year, the altitudewas so great he could see the curve of the Earth.“It’s humbling,” he says. “It really shows you yourplace in creation.”He was there as part of a medical conference.Far from the typical meeting space, the conferencebrought together doctors studying the field ofwilderness medicine.“Wilderness medicine is all about improvising withwhat you have to deal with emergencies in the wild,”Dr. Livermon says.Dr. Livermon is a 1983 graduate of Eastern VirginiaMedical School now in family practice in Winchester,Va. At age 58, his love of the outdoors has taken himfrom hunting trips with his father while growing up inHampton Roads to the mountains and caves of centralVirginia to the top of the world in Tanzania.“My Dad exposed me to hunting and a respect forthe outdoors,” he says. “Now on family vacations I’mthe guy saying ‘What kind of tree is that? What’s thatmushroom?’ ”His love of the natural world grew during his timeat Virginia Tech, where he explored the mountainsaround him.Jefferson Livermon, MD, at the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.“Blacksburg was a whole new area — mountains,caving, the Appalachian Trail,” he said. “I couldn’tget enough.”Dr. Livermon continued his explorationsthroughout his time at EVMS and his early jobs.Later, he shared his love of the outdoors with his sonthrough Boy Scouts and through that involvement,discovered the field of wilderness medicine.Dr. Livermon learned much firsthand — fromsuturing himself without anesthetic after a fall duringa hike in Virginia to dealing with mountain sicknessContinued on page 392005 graduate startup is a winnerPitou Devgon, MD Class of 2005, enjoyed a rarehonor recently when he rang the closing bell at theNASDAQ stock exchange.The event was the result of his role as a cofounderof the company Lumina Diagnostics.Dr. Devgon completed his training in internalmedicine at the University of Pennsylvania inPhiladelphia. “Since finishing residency in 2008, Iwork part-time as a hospitalist and decided to getback into my entrepreneurial ventures,” he says.“I am currently half way through my MBAin healthcare entrepreneurship at the WhartonSchool (part of Penn). I formed a team with twoother Wharton graduate students and a scientistand started Lumina Diagnostics — a medicaldevice startup company commercializing a newnear infrared diagnostic technology that candramatically improve chronic wound care,” Dr.Devgon reports.“My team and I won the Wharton Business PlanCompetition this year and as part of the 1st placeprize our company was able to ring the closing bellat the NASDAQ stock exchange in NYC on August11th,” he says.Dr. Devgon says major news networks coveredthe event — “for all of 10 seconds!”His team took home the Michelson Grand Prizeof $20,000 cash with an additional $10,000 worth ofPitou Devon, MD, second from left, on Wall Street.legal and accounting services. Dr. Devgon alsoreceived the most votes in the People’s ChoiceAward, securing an additional $3000 prize for beingthe audience’s favorite.34 Fall 2009 www.eVMS.EDUALUMNI