Fall 2019: Annual Report (Issue Two, 2018-19), Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine

LIBERTY MEDICINE Annual Report

Issue Two, 2018-19 in Review

GUATEMALA 2019

Teaching Guatemalan medical students OMM

GRAND ROUNDS

Special guest lectures & presentations

RESEARCH

Data that makes a difference 1

ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS LUCOM sponsors Crossfit Krypton’s Compete for a Cure in Chesapeake, Va., on Aug. 18, 2018. Liberty medical students offer osteopathic manipulative treatments to competitors.

LUCOM partnered with local organizations for annual Lynchburg community clinic on April 13, 2019. Over 200 patients were served and connected to local resources for care.

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Virginia Senator Steve Newman and two legislative assistants visited LUCOM on April 24, 2019. Pictured with Liberty medical students, Dr. Peter Bell, and Kenny Craig.

LUCOM graduated its second class of osteopathic physicians, the Class of 2019, on May 11, with annual Hooding Ceremony; another milestone for Liberty University.

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ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS Liberty medical students march in White Coats and visit the nation’s Capital to advocate for osteopathic medical profession on March 5, 2019.

LUCOM Grand Rounds featured LU President Jerry Falwell and medical experts, Jim Thompson, MD, FACC, FAAP, and Prof. Anthony Nobles on Oct. 3, 2018.

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LUCOM Student National Medical Association awarded Lynchburg resident Jacqueline Coles with first-ever Lynchburg Advantage Scholarship on March 29, 2019.

LUCOM third-year student-doctor Tahsin Choudhury met with Delegate T. Scott Garrett, MD, in Richmond, on Monday, Jan. 21, to advocate for cancer rehabilitation.

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LIBERTY MEDICINE Annual Report | 2018-19 in Review Lead Designer and Editor Christopher Breedlove Lead Writer Asa Keimig Contributing Writers Mitzi Bible Christopher Breedlove Carl R. Hoegerl, DO, FACP Tobi Walsh Laukaitis Photographers Christopher Breedlove Joel Coleman Caroline Cummings Jonathan Giles, MPH, DHSc, CHES, CTC Asa Keimig Kevin Manguiob Leah Stauffner Andrew Snyder

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP Jerry Falwell Shawn Akers, JD David Corry Scott Hicks, PhD Ron Kennedy Ian McCaw David Nasser Randy Smith Laura Wallace

LUCOM ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP Peter A. Bell, DO, MBA, FACOEP-dist, FACEP Chad K. Brands, MD, CPE, SFHM Joseph W. Brewer, PhD Kevin D. Corsini, PhD Amber Fedin, DO, FAAFP, FACOFP David F. Klink, DO Timothy O. Leonard, MD, PhD Gary L. Patton, PhD, LPC, NCC Michael B. Weigner, MD, FACEP Jason E. Wells, PhD

ON THE COVER LUCOM Class of 2022 medical students Evangel Panicker, Wilfred Njemanze, and Kristen Bernas teach osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) techniques to Guatemalan medical students during annual summer international medical outreach trip in Guatemala.

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In this ISSUE 08

Message from the Dean

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LUCOM Welcomes its Fifth Class of Students

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We the Advocates

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Sponsorship Highlight: Crossfit Krypton

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Special Guests During the Academic Year

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Medical Library Hosts Annual Symposium

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Grand Rounds

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Faculty Spotlights

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LUCOM Adds Two More Rotation Sites

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Match Day 2019

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On a Mission to Provide Care and Healing

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Osteopathic Merry Melodies presents: A Vaudeville Christmas

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Center for Research

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First International Summer Elective

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LUCOM Graduates Class of 2019 7

PETER A. BELL

DO, MBA, FACOEP-dist, FACEP Dean Professor of Family and Emergency Medicine Health Policy Fellow

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DEAN’S MESSAGE It is with great pride and humility that this second annual report, focusing on the 2018-19 academic year, is released. This issue features several highlights of our incredible osteopathic medical students. On their own initiative, they have traveled throughout the East Coast as advocates for their profession, establishing positive networking opportunities to build solid connections. Our very own chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) was able to provide a scholarship gift to a local resident. I am very proud of all their hard work.

This past academic year, 2018-19, over 60 student-doctors traveled to countries such as Honduras, Perú, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala for medical outreach, once again, to further the mission of Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Over 1000 lives were impacted for the better as we continued to develop a continuity of care with our international affiliates and partners. This summer marked the fifth summer in a row that LUCOM has returned to Guatemala serving the impoverished people in the villages of San Antonio in Teculutan within the province of Zacapa, El Ingeniero, and Shororaguá.

Dr. Bell pictured with LUCOM academic leadership and members of Admissions.

This year LUCOM also welcomed its first international exchange student from the Royal Academy of Surgeons in Scotland. As LUCOM maintains its growth, it is imperative that we expand beyond our horizons to learn and increase our circle of influence as well as provide new opportunities for our student-doctors and their intentional counterparts.

LUCOM’s Center for Research continues to grow with several of our students presenting their work at some of the top medical meetings across the country. In addition, several of our faculty have achieved great success in approved grants to continue their own research projects.

Dr. Bell pictured with Dr. Carl Hoegerl and two LUCOM students during ED to MED, national advocacy campaign by AACOM.

My wife, Irene, and I, continue to remain blessed and privileged to live in this great City of Lynchburg.

We look forward to working collaboratively with the University to help make Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine a well-known name in osteopathic medical education and research. As we close 2019 and shortly begin 2020, I am eager to see what will happen next for LUCOM. The amount of support from our affiliates and clinical partners around the world as well as in our own backyard of Liberty University is tremendous. This is why we are here and here’s to continued success.

Dr. Bell pictured with Sen. Steve Newman and members of Liberty University Executive Leadership.

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LUCOM WELCOMES THE FIFTH CLASS OF OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS

The Class of 2022

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Each year, Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) welcomes a new class of medical students. On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 160 new individuals all hopeful of becoming Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) took their first steps as the Class of 2022.

Addressing the fifth class, Peter Bell, DO, dean, said, “At LUCOM, we look at character (integrity), capacity (the composition of what you’re capable of), and motivation.

Based on decisions made by the admission committee, we believe that you can succeed. This is a marathon. You’re here because we believe based on your information and personal statements, that each of you have integrity and have a passion to serve others. Always remember, it’s about the patient and serving others, not yourself.”

During the 2017-2018 application cycle, the LUCOM Office of Admissions and Student Services received more than 3,000 applications from individuals interested in attending Liberty University’s medical college.

From the applications received, LUCOM’s Admissions team interviewed over 700 candidates with 160 new students in the coveted seats that many others had once hoped to fill.

“While at LUCOM, we will work with you every step of the way. One of our academic counselors is here for each of you; the faculty and staff, as well. We believe in celebrating success. This week, orientation, we celebrate with you on what you’ve accomplished so far,” Dr. Bell added.

That same morning, the Class of 2022 also heard from Scott Hicks, MBA, PhD, provost at Liberty University, who shared an encouraging message.

“One of my favorite and most used verses is Philippians 4:13;

a verse talking about the body of Christ, the church. As a new class, you are coming together as the body of Christ to achieve success. Make it as a team of one - one body,” Dr. Hicks said. “I encourage each of you to lean on Him and lift each other up in the tough times; medical school is a marathon. Surround yourself with those who you can partner and team and fellowship with. Always remember to love your neighbor as yourself.” With a prayer Dr. Hicks blessed their first week and prayed for success.

“Orientation is better than what I had originally thought it would be,” said Lokesh Pendyala, Class of 2022. “I’m really excited to be here.”

As with tradition, LUCOM hosts the first convocation of the year with the new academic class. Speaking on the importance of a person’s testimony, the students heard from Delegate Scott Garrett, MD. “It is such an amazing path that you are on and I want to encourage you, from this day forward, to share your story.

Share your story with your peers, faculty and staff, and in the future with your patients. That is my plea of you,” he said.

Dr. Garrett reminded them that at the end of the day they are human, people will look up to them and that is the true importance of living out their testimony.

It wouldn’t be orientation without a day of service to the community – a heart of service is a trait that LUCOM’s Admissions team looks for when interviewing applicants. The new class spent an afternoon hosting the local Jubilee Family Development Center and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg. It was a day filled with fun activities building relationships with future patients.

The week concluded with LUCOM’s traditional White Coat Ceremony with keynote speaker,

William Burke, DO, dean of the Ohio University (OU-HCOM) Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Dublin campus.

“Liberty University’s philosophy correlates remarkably well with the osteopathic philosophy and its focus on the dynamic interaction of mind, body and spirit, and the body’s innate ability to adapt and heal itself,” said Dr. Burke. “It is my hope that as you begin your journey here at Liberty, a journey that will lead you to places you never imagined, you too will expand your knowledge and wisdom with each experience and every encounter, and that you will grow to love your profession, your colleagues and the patients who turn to you for guidance.”

Receiving the white coat for the very first time is a visible symbol of a student-doctor’s new role on the path to becoming an osteopathic physician. The white coat comes with the expectations of a medical professional.

“Putting on the white coat is one of the easiest actions you will take during your medical school career.

One of the most challenging, however, is being worthy of the honor,” added Dr. Burke.

He encouraged the class to never forget who they are, where they came from or the values that led them to where they are today and to which they hold so dearly.

He left them with three pieces of advice to remember during their journey through medical school and beyond.

“Be prepared, take care of yourself, and enjoy the journey; you are here for a reason,” said Dr. Burke. “When you have those moments of self-doubt and you question your worthiness, remember the reason you decided to become a physician in the first place. And always take the time to celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how big or how small.”

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Admissions

BY THE NUMBERS

81 males and 79 females 5 reported Military Service 30 states represented with 1 student from Canada 24 as reported average age with 20 as youngest and 42 as oldest 152 students entered with a Bachelor’s degree and 19 with Master’s 6 ethnicities represented 3166 applications submitted, 2774 invited to complete secondary application with 1878 completed, 552 interviewed and 159 accepted

Top Four States Represented

Virginia New York

California

Pennsylvania

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ADVOCATES Students and Faculty Champion Together for the Osteopathic Medical Profession

LUCOM Dean and student-doctors attend AOA Policymaking Meeting Every summer, the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) hosts its Annual Business Meeting to gather its House of Delegates (HOD). Members from all over the country gather to consider proposed resolutions and enact new AOA-policies. Over 500 Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) as well as medical students met last July to elect new officers and celebrate the osteopathic profession.

For LUCOM student-doctor Hannah Thompson, Class of 2021, this was her first visit to an AOA House of Delegates meeting. “I was pleasantly surprised at how informative the meeting was. I was able to not only interact with leaders from other osteopathic medical schools, but also numerous physicians across the nation,” she said. “We were able to attend sessions with both the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association and the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents and hear ideas from various COM’s across the nation as well as issues that are affecting us as future physicians at the state and national level.”

During each AOA HOD meeting, hundreds of resolutions are discussed with numerous osteopathic medical student delegates in attendance. At every meeting, they are given the opportunity to address leadership and offer their personal input. “One resolution that stood out to me the most was on encouraging education and advocacy about sexual assault [prevention] and misconduct. Alongside students from numerous DO schools, we stood in support of this resolution passing and told stories of

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colleagues and friends that had encountered these issues in the past. It was incredibly moving to then see state societies stand in support of the students and their amendments to the resolution,” Thompson added.

LUCOM leadership encourages student participation in advocacy and advancing osteopathic education as well as the profession. Commenting on medical student attendance, LUCOM Dean Peter A. Bell, DO, said, “It’s important to engage our students early in the profession. They need to appreciate the broad scope of challenges faced in the delivery of high quality health care. It is our responsibility to train them to be competent leaders.”

The week-long event is packed with meetings, networking events, special dinners, keynote presentations, and bill proposals/resolutions.

LUCOM student-doctor Antipas Marati, Class of 2021, also attended with Thompson for the first time, left feeling encouraged. “I would highly recommend other student delegates attend next summer. Being at the conference really impressed upon me how important it is to be politically active. The broad spectrum of issues covered at the conference is an eye opener as to how much that goes on in our world affects our (future) profession,” he said. “Our voices and opinions as medical students have a platform and the AOA just recently made changes based on our interests.”

“My hope is that students will continue to represent LUCOM and be involved in shaping and advocating for health policy and reform,” Thompson also said.

AOA Osteopathic Political Action Committee hosts evening reception, LUCOM student-doctors pictured.

LUCOM student-doctor Janae Fry pictured with Lauri Ann Maitland, DO, and LUCOM Dean Peter Bell, DO.

LUCOM-SOIMA president appointed to serve on ACP Virginia chapter Alli Dews, Class of 2021, was appointed to serve on the Governor’s Council of the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) this past August. This leadership position makes her one of only two students statewide to represent all medical students on the ACP Council.

ACP was founded in 1915 and promotes the practice as well as science of internal medicine. With a diverse member base, it is the largest medicalspecialty society in the world with over 150,000 specialists.

“I’m involved with ACP because it is the largest national organization for internal medicine, the largest medical-specialty society in the world, and I love the resources and benefits that it provides to medical students,” said Dews. “As students we are also involved in extensive networking opportunities which often leads to quality mentors in the field. It is a fantastic organization and I’m so excited to be part of it.”

Under the guidance of Carl Hoegerl, DO, FACP, associate professor of neurology, Dews was introduced to William Fox, MD, FACP, the current president and governor of the ACP Virginia chapter.

It was this introduction that led to Dews new appointment. “I am very proud of Alli for making this two-year commitment and I know that she will represent LUCOM well,” said Dr. Hoegerl. “She will be working on educational and advocate programs geared towards medical students as well as student research. I am extremely proud of her.” Dr. Hoegerl also serves as a faculty member on the ACP Virginia chapter (ACP-VA).

For Dews this new position is unique in that ACPVA, till this year has not yet worked with LUCOM. Her current role as the president of the LUCOM chapter of the Student Osteopathic Internal Medicine Association (SOIMA) allowed her to become directly involved with ACP due to their sponsorship of SOIMA. “A personal goal of mine as a member of

LUCOM student-doctor Hannah Thompson brings topic on Ethics and Sexual Harassment for discussion.

the council is to set an example that puts LUCOM students in a positive light. I also want to learn more and become more involved in health policy since I was inspired by LUCOM’s Humanities and Medical Ethics and Jurisdiction courses.”

Dews will hold this position on the ACP governor’s council for two-years with a primary responsibility of assisting in the planning of the ACP-VA annual chapter conference meeting next spring.

While LUCOM student-doctors come from all over the world to learn osteopathic medicine at Liberty, Dews felt called by God to go into medicine, specifically by applying to LUCOM. “I fell in love with LUCOM’s Christian views. When I arrived for my interview, I sat in the parking lot the afternoon beforehand and felt this overwhelming peace like I was where I needed to be, and that feeling stayed with me throughout the day,” she said. “I love LUCOM’s mission. We are a family that encourages one another and I love all of the opportunities and resources that are made available to students.”

She chose osteopathic medicine because of the desire to learn as much as possible about the human body. “I want to treat dysfunction safely, effectively, and efficiently while encouraging the body’s natural healing process,” Dews added.

“I aim to provide my patients with well-rounded care that addresses not only their physical needs by helping their cardiovascular systems, but also their mental and spiritual needs, so that their treatments will be more successful.” Dews plans to become a cardiologist.

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Virginia Academy of Family Physicians selects LUCOM student-doctor to be student representative This past fall, LUCOM student-doctor Morgan Jeffreys, Class of 2021, was selected to serve as the student representative to the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (VAFP) Board of Directors.

She was voted into the position through an election conducted by students from medical schools throughout Virginia.

For the past year, Jeffreys fulfilled her role by representing medical students, both MD and DO, from the six medical schools in Virginia. On occasion, she was able to travel and participate in the quarterly meetings for the VAFP Board of Directors, held at different locations around the state. In this position, she is responsible for making herself available to Virginia medical students, carefully listening to their concerns or ideas, and inform the MDs and DOs on the board of those needs and work with the group to help facilitate those needs.

Prior to accepting the role, Jeffreys was approached by LUCOM professors Raena M. Pettitt, DO, and Sigmund P. Seiler, MD, both already involved in the VAFP. They told her about the opportunity and encouraged her to apply. “I was already involved in American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the osteopathic counterpart of the AAFP, and was interested in the mix of allopathic and osteopathic opportunities that the VAFP offered,” said Jeffreys. “Family Medicine serves so many Americans, especially those with limited access to health care, and expanding LUCOM’s representation and involvement in the VAFP was another way to raise awareness about family med and give more professional and service events to LUCOM students.”

Jeffreys is committed to raising awareness of and attention to the osteopathic perspective in the importance of family medicine. “In light of the merging match between allopathic and osteopathic residencies, I am very excited to tell our allopathic counterparts about our perspective and to link LUCOM students to the allopathic family medicine community in Virginia,” she said.

Her goal is to take student concerns and turn them into action

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steps that benefit the medical students of Virginia, ultimately encouraging medical students to get excited about primary care.

“LUCOM as a whole, is incredibly lucky to have family medicine faculty that are so enthusiastic about their area of medicine, that believe in it and spend many extra hours supporting student clubs and giving ideas or expertise for events that promote family medicine,” Jeffreys said. “LUCOM has garnered the interest of the medical schools in Virginia so visibly, with many talented and dedicated faculty representing it and my hope is that our students can continue to move into leadership roles and contribute to our profession. As believers, it is a chance to represent Christ and to bring attention to Him, to make people curious about our source of joy and reason for serving patients.”

Jeffreys will serve on the board until the Fall of 2019 until another medical student is elected to replace her.

Tahsin Choudhury meets with elected officials, advocates for cancer rehabilitation Tahsin Choudhury, Class of 2020, met with Delegate T. Scott Garrett, MD and Delegate Jason S. Miyares in Richmond, this past January in an effort to advocate for cancer rehabilitation. The American Cancer Society established appointments for Choudhury to speak directly with the elected officials about the importance of quality care for cancer patients. “I was at a conference for physiatry back in October and learned about cancer rehabilitation,” he said. “I was moved by the passion the physical medicine and rehabilitation community had towards making a difference in the lives of cancer patients; especially because I recalled my father struggling with pancreatic cancer.”

Choudhury strongly believes that there needs to be more advocacy work done for a cancer survivor’s quality of life after treatment for cancer. “As physicians we must not only treat the cancer; we must treat the whole patient and prepare them for

life after cancer,” he added. After he presented to the delegates, they asked him to speak during their House of Delegates meeting later that afternoon, where he gave a brief synopsis of why lawmakers should be focused on cancer rehabilitation from an economic stand point. “If people are unaware of the struggles that cancer survivors deal with from a functional standpoint, there will be no change,” he said.

For Choudhury, advocacy is important because it raises awareness. He believes and hopes that advocacy changes medicine from a macroscopic standpoint so that the lives of cancer survivors can get better physically from a microscopic standpoint. “I hope to inspire [my] future patients by helping them see that physicians view them as individuals and not simply as disease processes – to inspire them by making them feel cared for, and by working to improve their quality of life,” said Choudhury. “I have learned that as physicians and future physicians, we have an obligation to advocate for our patients, so that their lives may be better tomorrow than it was today.”

as well as two delegates to discuss proposed health policy changes. “My first engagement with advocacy was as a medical student at the University of New England when we were presented the opportunity to advance the benefits of Osteopathic medicine to public officials, interested citizens and local businessmen,” said Dr. Bell. “We are training the next generation of Osteopathic physicians to be patient advocates. The expectation of ‘it’s about the patient; applies inside and outside the exam room.”

One of the bills that the LUCOM group showed support for aimed to amend Step Therapy requirements. Step Therapy is the process by which insurance companies minimize their costs by only covering cheaper drugs until all of the pre-approved, less-expensive options have been shown to provide no/little therapeutic benefit to the patient.

LUCOM student-doctors visit Virginia’s State Capitol, participate in White Coats on Call Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) faculty members and studentdoctors were in Richmond this past week to participate in the White Coats on Call program Lobby Day sponsored by the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV).

White Coats on Call is an annual event that the MSV hosts. Two days are planned for Virginia physicians, physician assistants, and other healthcare professionals during which time they advocate for their patients, their profession and their colleagues.

The MSV also plans several medical student-specific lobby days so that small groups of students get handson experience in health policy and advocacy.

On Wednesday, Feb. 6, LUCOM Dean Peter A. Bell, DO, along with seven student-doctors from LUCOM attended Lobby Day in Richmond where, after a debriefing with MSV staff and physician members, they met with each of Virginia’s senators

An example of that would be a patient is given a free trial of a new diabetic drug and this new drug really works for them. Once the trial period is over, however, they have to start the process of getting their prescription covered by their insurance. Since it’s a new and expensive drug, the patient’s insurance company denies coverage of that drug until the patient has tried multiple, cheaper options that have all failed to produce the same effect. This means that the patient does not receive efficient, effective treatment for sometimes months. If the bill is passed, patients would have better access to the drugs they need.

“I have learned from traveling to conferences for the Student Osteopathic Medical Association, as a delegate and advocate, that even one voice can implement the waves of change,” said Jessica Swavely, Class of 2021. “I have seen votes for resolutions flip due to student testimony. I have heard the passion and persistence in wanting change for physicians and patients, not only by current physicians, but greatly from the voices of the medical students.” Swavely believes there is a lot of work to do in healthcare and that by being knowledgeable in the opportunities to advocate and write resolutions is a great first- >>>

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>>> step into the future. While student-doctors advocated for the Osteopathic profession in Richmond, they were also able to learn from delegates, state senators, and colleagues about the issues tackling the state and the country as a whole.

now I’ve seen that even as a student, I can make a difference by speaking directly to the legislators who have been chosen to represent me and tell them my story and my beliefs. I can influence change by showing up.”

“Hearing stories of those affected by the legislation that we were advocating for was incredible,” said Swavely. “We can read a reform on paper and think we truly understand it but at the end of the day it affects the patients. The testimony given by those truly affected taught me more than anything ever will about the nature of these reforms and the realistic effect they have on patients.”

Carl R. Hoegerl, DO, associate professor of neurology at LUCOM, attended Lobby Day in January because he views advocacy as an important piece in impacting the lives of those around him.

“Physician means ‘teacher’ and if we aren’t teaching our legislators how to best form health policy then who else will? We are delivering health care on the front lines and we should be there to fight for our profession and especially our patients. I view being a physician as a profession and not just a job.”

Swavely, Bulthuis and Dews, like many LUCOM student-doctors, hope as future osteopathic physicians that they can serve their patients to the best of their ability. They all plan on continuing to advocate, working with legislators to ensure patients are protected and have access to the drugs and procedures they need to maintain their health.

Liberty medical students, through a commitment to lifelong learning, aspire to be patient advocates rising up to meet the needs within society. “Alli Dews, as a second-year student-doctor, really spearheaded the opportunity for first-years at LUCOM to advocate for the osteopathic profession,” said Anneke Bulthuis, Class of 2022. “At first, I was a little intimidated because I wasn’t aware of which senate bills were current and how to approach a Senator. Then I realized that it was something too important to let fear keep me back.”

Bulthuis served as a caregiver for her mother while she suffered from debilitating illness for over a decade. It was during that time she realized the system was deeply broken and desperately needed reform. “Too often, the mechanism of healthcare is stacked against those it is supposed to help. This is something that needs to change and physicians are uniquely positioned to push transformative initiatives forward,” she said.

“The main thing that I took away from Lobby Day is that it’s important to really get involved,” said Alli Dews, Class of 2021. “One of the physicians I work with on the ACP-Virginia Governor’s Advisory Council, Dr. Stuart Henochowicz, told me that the most important thing you can do is to show up. I had always avoided politics because I avoid conflict, but

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Emergency Medicine Interest Group networks with program and residency leaders at Emergency Physicians Conference LUCOM was well represented during the Virginia American College of Emergency Physicians (VACEP) annual conference this past February. The VACEP’s Annual Conference attracted 180 attendees; 60 attendings, 60 residents, three nurse practitioners and 30 medical students at the Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va. Past ACEP’s President Paul Kivela, MD, MBA, FACEP delivered the keynote address on the challenges of emergency medicine. Members of the LUCOM Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) were also present.“Talking to the program directors offered an amazing chance for them to get to know us while we learned more specifically about their programs,” said Michael Cox, Class of 2021,

president of LUCOM-EMIG. “One question that came up was about what extracurricular activities you can participate in to improve your odds and many program directors agreed that attending conferences like the VACEP conference and meeting the directors and residents is one of the most efficient ways to improve your chances of matching.” The VACEP conference included various presentations, including research-based, that offered great insight into some of the unique work taking place in the emergency medicine field. “If there were student-doctors on the fence about emergency medicine as a career option, this conference was a great opportunity for them to learn more about the field,” he added.

LUCOM-EMIG has been working very closely with the VACEP leadership throughout the past year in order to provide student-centered presentations and activities at the annual conference. This year’s conference, for the first time, had student-specific events and a total of 30 medical students attending from LUCOM, Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. LUCOM was represented by 15 of the 30 students.

The biggest draw for medical students was the residency director panel. The program directors for the emergency medicine programs at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, EVMS, and the Carillion Clinic were in attendance to field questions. “With LUCOM being a new program and an osteopathic program, many students feel unsure of what to do to improve their chance of matching into emergency medicine, especially with the single accreditation system coming soon. This provided an amazing opportunity to have questions answered and meet the directors for each of these programs, face-to-face,” said Cox. LUCOM-EMIG has hosted residency directors at LUCOM over the last several years, but the opportunity for LUCOM students to meet with them all at the same time and have their questions answered provided a unique opportunity for them to compare programs and understand exactly what they can improve on their applications for residency.

“Emergency medicine is applicable to your patients’ lives only in a time of despair and great need for care. Many situations when people come into the ER require fast decision making and lifesaving choices, which may sometime cloud the humanistic aspect of medicine a bit. The desire to provide that level of sympathy to patients and their families during what may be one of the scariest days of their life is what draws me into emergency medicine,” Cox added.

Liberty medical students visit nation’s Capital, wear white coats to advocate for Osteopathic medicine LUCOM faculty members and student-doctors spent two days in Washington, D.C., this past March, advocating for the osteopathic medical profession in support of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA)’s annual DO Day on Capitol Hill.

LUCOM representatives arrived in the nation’s capital early Monday evening for a private dinner with Representative Roger Marshall, MD, who spoke with LUCOM Dean Peter Bell, DO, and LUCOM students about the importance of political advocacy and the privileged role a physician has as an advocate. “I have a great platform as a physician that I never thought I would’ve had,” he said. “Build relationships with your elected officials and be honest with them that there is a physician shortage in this country and that we need residencies.” Prior to entering the political scene, Rep. Marshall practiced medicine for over 20 years.

Later that evening at private reception in the National Osteopathic Advocacy Center, Carl R. Hoegerl, DO, FACP, associate professor of neurology at LUCOM, was inducted as an honorary member into Omega Beta Iota; the National Osteopathic Political Advocacy Honor Society. Omega Beta Iota was founded to emphasize the importance of the work medical students do within the United States political system. Dr. Hoegerl is the only LUCOM faculty member to be recognized for such an honor.

DO Day on Capitol Hill activities began early Tuesday morning with a legislative debrief for participants to learn about important issues where they heard from William S. Mayo, DO, president of the AOA. “It’s important that we share with elected officials why we as DOs treat patients holistically.”

There were over 550 participants representing 44 states and 35 osteopathic colleges/schools.

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At the conclusion of the debriefing, all participants marched to Capitol Hill in their white coats to draw attention to the Osteopathic profession. Liberty medical students had scheduled meetings with elected officials based on where they were registered to vote. A majority of the group had meetings with Senator Mark Warner’s staff, Senator Tim Kaine’s staff, and Representative Ben Cline.

“DO Day allowed for us to meet with congressional leaders - senators, house representative and legislative affairs staff - to promote medical education and residency training expansion from a unique patientcentered perspective,” said Hannah Thompson, Class of 2021. “I think that it is crucial that we are active and informed participants shaping healthcare and health policy that will affect our future medical practice. I have always believed that the best leaders are informed leaders.”

Thompson, who was pleased with the outcomes of her meetings, knows that political advocacy is an important component shaping her future as a physician. “DO Day provides a unique opportunity for you to share your personal story about the important of federal funding and medical education and how crucial this is to patient care. As a resident of a small town with poor healthcare options, I was particularly passionate about advocating for community-based residency programs to ensure that underserved and rural areas would receive excellent osteopathic medical care.”

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For Tahsin Choudhury, a third-year medical student in LUCOM’s Class of 2020, he has come to realize through working in the hospital setting that simply practicing medicine isn’t enough. “We as future physicians must strive to create a better future through advocacy work so that doctors and patients alike can strive for a better future,” he said. “I have come to realize that we as healthcare professionals have a unique opportunity to share with legislators what we see on the front lines in the medical field.

Participating in events such as DO Day on the Capitol Hill is me simply fulfilling my responsibility to create a better tomorrow for our patients.”

While Choudhury believes that being in the medical field is an honor, he also knows at the same time that he has a responsibility to speak up to improve overall healthcare. “Today we were able to put faces and stories behind things our legislators will be voting on and as such when it comes time to vote on important matters, our legislators will not simply see laws; rather they will see doctors and the patients whose lives they will affect.”

Second-Year student-doctor, Kevin Thomas, describes DO Day on Capitol Hill as a sea of white coats ascending on the Capitol showing physical support and expressing verbal support for the Osteopathic profession. “Before one of my meetings with a senate staffer, a faculty member from Ohio University shared a quick acronym to encourage and remind us as to why we were advocating

action, Americans with Health Savings Accounts will be denied access to this new practice model.

“The issues that are being discussed now are the issues that will not only affect us as we go into practice but, more importantly, our patients,” said first-year student-doctor Jinjoo Lee. “It’s important to remember that it is our job to advocate for our profession, for ourselves, and for our patients.”

today: IATP, It’s All About the Patient,” said Thomas.

“Healthcare policy is more than a way to promote legislation that would benefit our profession.

It ensures that the millions of individuals that osteopathic physicians will treat have access to the care they so desperately need.”

Thomas had the opportunity to be the lead advocate for his final meeting of the day with his group as they met with a representative’s advisor. “To be able to be in a position to speak on behalf of not only our group, but Osteopathic physicians as a whole was a great feeling.”

DO Day on Capitol Hill is an opportunity for physicians, student-doctors and advocates of the Osteopathic profession to have their voices heard and educate congress on important pieces of legislation that affects their profession.

The first issue was the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program, a community-based medical residency training program, which fills vital primary care gaps in rural and underserved communities. Funding for the program expires every two years and is set to expire in September 2019. Advocates lobbied for congressional action for the reauthorization of funding for this program and to extend the life of the program from two years to five years. “Next week there are forty-five thousand student-doctors entered in the match and only thirty thousand residency slots, it’s going to be a disaster,” added Dr. Bell. “The continuation of this program is critical! It ensures that high-quality health care can continue to be provided to underserved communities that need it most.”

The second issue that advocates lobbied for was to encourage elected officials to support patient access to Direct Primary Care (DPC) by allowing patients to use Health Savings Account (HSA) funds for DPC. The DPC is an innovative practice model that is designed to improve access to high-quality health care. The most important element of the DPC is ensuring a trusted relationship between a patient and his or her primary care physician. For a monthly fee, patients have direct access to their primary care physician, ultimately resulting in better health outcomes with lower costs. Without congressional

Tahsin Choudhury elected to Public Relations Committee Co-Chair AOCPMR As if meeting elected officials and advocating for cancer rehabiliation wasn’t enough, Tahsin Choudhury was also elected to Public Relations Committee Co-Chair for the American Osteopathic College of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AOCPMR) this past March.

The AOCPMR is an association dedicated to providing leadership for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and provide a home to osteopathic physicians. The Public Relations Committee works to promote the awareness of the AOCPMR student council and the college as a whole. The committee is responsible for organizing networking events at national conferences such as the Osteopathic Medical Education (OMED) conference, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR) conference, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) conference, as well as, mid-year meetings.

“As public relations co-chair, I will be responsible for the visibility and strategic representation of the AOCPMR council and its impact on the way students, residencies and professionals understand the osteopathic world and how it impacts physiatry,” said Choudhury.

The Public Relations Committee that Choudhury will be serving on also helps reach out to residency directors to extend invitations to national meetings, while also educating them on how osteopathic physicians are not only a natural fit for the field of physiatry, but how they offer unique insight and application in the field.

“Physiatry is a field that is geared towards optimizing function and having a holistic approach to improve function and subsequently, the lives of patients,” he added. “Through exposure, understanding and communication the medical world will see more examples of DO physiatrists making an impact on the profession, I believe it is important that I use my role as PR Co-Chair to inform others about how osteopathic medicine is a natural fit for physiatry.”

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LUCOM student-doctor appointed as Air Force representative for AMOPS Whitney Briggs, Class of 2021, was elected the Air Force representative for the Student Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (SAMOPS) at the AMOPS 2019 Annual Conference and Meeting in Orlando, Fl., earlier in March.

“As someone entering into military medicine with the Air Force, the Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons is a great place to receive mentorship on my career ahead, both as a student now and as a junior physician in the future,” said Briggs.

Briggs will be responsible for providing servicespecific information to the SAMOPS membership body, she will attend all meetings of the SAMOPS Council in addition to providing guidance and oversight of proper military training, customs and courtesies to student-doctors. “My hope is to gain experience on the national board this year so I can continue to serve with AMOPS in years to come,” she added.

Briggs is excited to use her experience as an Air Force Academy graduate to provide Air Force specific guidance for the organization, since many of the students in the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) will be their first experience with the military.

Osteopathic physicians have been serving in the military with full recognition since the 1960s and for Briggs, she believes that osteopathy has an important role in military medicine.

“AMOPS does phenomenal job advocating for the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment in military medicine—even with single accreditation system, because it is vital that we care for our nation’s service members” said Briggs. “It’s incredible how much each person I’ve met through this organization is invested in helping you make sure your career gets off on the right foot.”

Briggs was also awarded Junior Officer of the Year for the Eastern United States for her work as a chapter president with LUCOM-AMOPS.

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LUCOM staff receive AACOM national appointments Advocating for the osteopathic profession is not just for the students and academic leadership. This past spring two staff members were elected to national positions serving within the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM).

LUCOM Director of Marketing, Chris Breedlove, was appointed to serve as the secretary for the AACOM Marketing and Communications Advisory Council (MAC), and LUCOM Associate Director of Student Services, Troy Burnett, was appointed Vice Chair of the AACOM Council of Student Affairs (CSA).

AACOM MAC meets annually to discuss ideas pertaining to marketing and communications efforts for the member institutions of AACOM as well as assist new and developing colleges of osteopathic medicine in implementing sound communications and marketing programs. “It is certainly a privilege every year to travel and attend MAC meetings let alone serve on the committee,” said Breedlove. “This is a great opportunity for me to network on behalf of LUCOM and discuss with additional osteopathic colleges and schools on how we can partner together and advance the osteopathic profession.”

For Burnett, in his role as AACOM CSA Vice-Chair, he will support the committee chair in discovering the best practices for all colleges of osteopathic medicine. “I have benefited immensely from being a member of the council for the past five years. CSA has done a great job of fostering a family environment that seeks to develop and educate its members. I hope I can continue to carry that torch so that the new and current members can profit from this council the same way that I have,” he said.

Breedlove and Burnett have been serving at LUCOM since its early days even before provisional accreditation.

SNAPSHOTS

Interprofessional Education, Flu Shot Clinic LUCOM student-doctors receive hands on training with Liberty University School of Nursing students for interprofessional education. The annual fall afternoon session focused on flu vaccine injection with the medical students providing flu shots on one another as well the faculty and staff.

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Sponsorship Highlight

LUCOM sponsors annual CROSSFIT KRYPTON competition, provides OMT to athletes

LUCOM was a major contributor in the 2018 CrossFit Krypton Compete for a Cure competition, held early in the year. The annual athletic event was held at the Chesapeake Convention Center, in Chesapeake, Virginia, with all proceeds benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. LUCOM held a key sponsorship role in the competition while also providing Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) for competing athletes. The treatments were performed by student-doctors under the supervision of LUCOM faculty.

“By exposing LUCOM students to events where people give of themselves to benefit a community organization, especially one that benefits children with cancer, it is our hope that we can instill that same kind of heart in our students,” said David F. Klink, DO, senior associate dean of clinical affairs. “If we can instill a servant’s heart in our students, where they give of themselves, it is our hope that they will continue to give of themselves beyond medical school making tremendous contributions and an impact in communities across the country through osteopathic medicine.”

LUCOM had over 21 student-doctors on-site.

“Participation in an event like this provides positive

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exposure for Liberty University and the COM in an area where our students currently rotate,” added Dr. Klink.

“Athletes are competing in order to raise money for a really good cause and for us as student-doctors, we are here to support them and help them perform their best,” said Tori Diedring, Class of 2020. “The athletes have been really welcoming for us as far as OMM is concerned. We’ve had people come back, sometimes two times, before they compete, after the compete, just to get looked at and treated. And I really think that they’re glad that we’re here and trying to give back to them and they’re really making use of us, as well.”

LUCOM was also represented by a team of OMSIII student-doctors competing in Krypton’s Compete for a Cure. Angela Tseng and Hillary Baker, Class of 2020, took advantage of the opportunity to participate and represent LUCOM. The duo competed under the team name The Squatting Dead.

This was CrossFit Krypton’s third year hosting Compete for a Cure with all proceeds going directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and with significant growth seen each year. “Our event has grown dramatically over the last three years. First year,

we raised $14,000. Second year, we raised $41,000. This year, our third year, we have raised over $70,000,” said Adam Klink, head coach of CrossFit Krypton and event coordinator for Krypton’s Compete for a Cure. “It’s fantastic that the amount of organizations that want to partner with us, especially LUCOM. We have big companies, like Reebok involved too. It means the world to have this kind of backing from these organizations that share the same vision as we do.”

Klink was excited that LUCOM students had the opportunity to be involved in treating athletes as he saw it as very beneficial for both the patient and the student-doctor. “It is a fantastic opportunity for all the athletes to come to a local competition to get worked on and treated with OMM. It’s a good experience for all walks of life, from those with no athletic background to those with.”

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Student National Medical Association impacts community through academic scholarship The LUCOM Student National Medical Association (SNMA) awarded Jacqueline Coles, a member of the Lynchburg community, the first-ever Lynchburg Advantage Scholarship, on March 29, 2019.

Victoria Johnson, president of LUCOM-SNMA, and Daryl Turner, vice president of LUCOM-SNMA utilized connections they had made in the community to promote the scholarship. The duo connected with Treney Tweedy, mayor of Lynchburg, who provided them with the contact information for members on the board of the Lynchburg City Schools.

After several meetings with the influential leaders, the scholarship information was then distributed to local high schools.

The scholarship was developed by LUCOM-SNMA student-doctor leadership specifically to expand the opportunity for high school students, in need of financial assistance, that are interested in the healthcare field.

“We felt that providing this opportunity would be a good way to show that LUCOM is for the community, and to further develop a relationship between the medical school and the underserved areas of Lynchburg,” said Victoria Johnson, Class of 2021.

“Students that show interest in this field, should be praised

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and not dissuaded from their goals. The scholarship is to be used for standardized tests, preparation materials for those tests and college applications.”

Johnson believes that LUCOM-SNMA, as an organization that promotes cultural humility, should demonstrate said humility through service towards their fellow man. “As we serve, we can create change in this world by giving others the opportunity to positively change their lives – which hopefully leads to that person changing the world in which they live in and others around them. Bringing people from different backgrounds into a field that could always use more diversity, allows for a better chance of developing personal relationships with communities that feel as if they’ve been forgotten about,” she said.

Based on the developed requirements of the scholarship application, LUCOM-SNMA leadership reviewed transcripts, community service hours, reference letters and personal essays to make their final decision to select a winner.

“As president, it was important to make sure the mission and vision of SNMA was clearly demonstrated to the board, the members, and demonstrated through every program and service opportunity we took part in,” said Johnson. “One of our

goals in the beginning of the year was to land a scholarship recipient and I am proud that we fulfilled this goal and many more. I wanted us to really know the community we serve, and make connections that we could impart to the new board. I wanted us to make a real impact at the school and in the Lynchburg community, inspiring those around us, particularly the youth showing them that they can do anything they set their minds to!”

For Turner, as vice president of LUCOM-SNMA, he was committed to creating a relationship between the underserved areas of Lynchburg and LUCOM. “My aim was to promote the understanding of humility, to

promote service, to educate and show others that being in this field is possible – no matter your background,” he said.

The LUCOM chapter of SNMA is a student organization created to produce sensitive, qualified physicians to serve minority and indigent communities.

SNMA focuses on providing its members with avenues that help foster an obligation to practice medicine within minority communities, instituting programs for the dissemination of health care information and the empowerment of minority communities, as well as, serving the fraternal needs of minority medical student-doctors.

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>>> relationships beginning. Still, LUCOM needed a captain. A leader to help maintain the college’s strategic trajectory toward accreditation and graduating its first class.

After serving a short while as an associate professor of Ophthalmology and chair of the Department of Specialty Medicine, David F. Klink, DO, was asked to navigate the waters as Interim Dean. Serving a little more than a year as LUCOM’s captain, Dr. Klink always found time to participate in medical outreach trips, both locally and internationally, and he was often seen at student-doctor events inside the COM.

SPECIAL GUESTS

Lectures & Utilizing Carter Baldwin, a professional search Presentations team to initiate a national search for a new dean, Dr.

Klink manned the helm and just before his interim dean status was complete, the COM’s faculty and staff awarded him with the Captain’s Anchor Award in grateful appreciation of his dedication and leadership.

On April 10, 2017, the search for LUCOM’s next dean was complete as Peter A. Bell, DO, MBA, HPF, FACOEP-dist, FACEP, took his first steps inside the Center for Medical and Health Sciences.

Coming from Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM), Dr. Bell would maintain the course for LUCOM in achieving accreditation, graduate its first class of osteopathic physicians, and move forward in the next chapters of its strategic plan.

Dr. Hawkins was part of the hiring process in bringing Dr. Bell to Liberty. “I believe that Dr. Bell incarnates all of the traits that I envisioned finding in a new dean. He combines a passion for osteopathic medicine with the depth of experience, knowledge, and spiritual sensitivity required for leading LUCOM forward into what I believe will be a very bright future.”

Much like Dr. Martin, Dr. Bell has also been recognized for his outstanding contributions throughout his academic and medical career such as receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 for his contributions to emergency medicine from the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP).

In 2017, he received the Ohio Osteopathic Association’s (OOA) Legacy Award. He also served as Chair of the Board for the Centers of Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE) at OU-HCOM. When Dr. Bell first joined LUCOM, he said, “I’m ready to serve God’s greater purpose as a steward of the college. Together we shall pursue excellence with a servant’s heart.”

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Virginia governor discusses state’s opioid crisis with Liberty medical students Kicking off the 20182019 academic year, LUCOM welcomed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Sept. 5, 2018. His presentation focused on ways that future physicians could lead the way in stopping opioid addiction.

The visit to Liberty’s Center for Medical and Health Sciences was part of a lecture tour to all medical schools in the Commonwealth; the governor closed the tour at LUCOM. Northam expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to speak to student-doctors about the growing opioid crisis and called Liberty a “great university.”

“It wasn’t that long ago that I was in your shoes and in your seat as a medical student,” said Northam, who served as a doctor in the U.S. Army and spent years in the private sector as a pediatric neurologist at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Va. “You are in medicine at an exciting time. …

These diseases that I was taking care of in my career, I really believe that in your careers, cures will be found.”

Northam introduced Ryan Hall of Covington, Va., a 25-yearold recovering heroin addict, for a discussion from a patient’s perspective. Hall was a prominent high school athlete until a serious football injury led him to be

placed on heavy pain killers, which started him down the path to addiction.

“They tried to take me off the liquid (opioid painkillers) because every time I could get it, I wanted it,” he said. “I started taking prescriptions for the pain, but once everything was healed, I still wanted to take prescriptions from time to time.”

Mostly, he said, it was to help with the intense withdrawal symptoms. When a co-worker introduced Hall to heroin, he became addicted and began selling drugs to support his habit.

Eventually, he was arrested and served 18 months in prison.

finding out your patient’s medical history.

“We don’t want our patients in pain, but pain can be helpful,” he said. “It can lead you to where the problem is and help you make a diagnosis. To have your patient every day at a No. 1 (on the pain scale) is probably not the best approach to take.”

In closing, Northam encouraged students not to give up on their patients.

“Don’t ever take someone’s hope away,” he said. “Up until you actually lose one of your patients,

“You feel so ashamed of who you’ve become,” Hall said.

“People used to look up to me in the community, and I was very involved in the community. I went to college on a full academic scholarship. I felt like everyone was disappointed in me. … That fed the addiction for a long time.”

Northam asked Hall to give the students advice on how to best handle a patient struggling with addiction.

“You have to sympathize with the patient,” Hall said. “Most of the time, these drug addicts do want help. They just don’t know how to do it or have the support.”

In 2017, 1,227 Virginians died from opioid addiction. Northam said as physicians, Liberty’s osteopathic medical students must realize that opioid addiction is a chronic disorder that will not just go away and providers must be careful with how they treat acute and chronic pain. Better treatment comes not by simply adding a higher dosage of pain medicine but by asking questions and

you can help them. That’s what people come to see you for.”

First-year student-doctor Rachel Zielinski said the lecture was a great experience, especially in the early stages of her medical career. A former EMT, Zielinski said she saw firsthand how deadly addiction can be.

“We got to hear from the patient’s perspective about how we can do better,” she said. “The opioid crisis isn’t something that’s just happening in Virginia. It’s something that is happening everywhere. Hearing Ryan’s story just reminded me that we can prevent (addiction) at the prescription stage.”

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NBOME president visits LUCOM to encourage second-years LUCOM Office of Medical Education hosted John R. Gimpel, DO, MEd, FACOFP, FAAFP, president and CEO of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME), in October.

His visit was to give updates on the NBOME and COMLEX exams.

“I’m really here because I want to hear from you, as students, and the concerns and questions that you have,” said Dr. Gimpel. He spoke to Liberty’s second-year medical students about important changes that are coming to the COMLEX-USA and how it will affect student-doctors and residents alike. He also answered students’ questions and concerns.

“Taking tests are important,” said Dr. Gimpel. “You have to take

tests to get your degree, to become a DO, to get into a residency; test-taking is important.” He answered questions that studentdoctors had in regards to taking the COMLEX exam, The Match, residency programs, and the single accreditation system for GME. He discussed requirements for taking COMLEX and shared a master blueprint for preparation for the exam. COMLEX-USA is an examination for Osteopathic medical practice, and it is a maturation linked exam with two levels, and each level must be passed before a student-doctor can take the next level. Passing both Level 1 and Level 2 must be done before a student-doctor can earn a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Degree.

“COMLEX is a licensing exam that is required,” said Dr. Gimpel.

“The importance of COMLEX is that you can’t get into a residency without taking it.”

He encouraged LUCOM students to register and schedule their exam early, to be prepared, be professional, and to be proactive.

LUCOM student organizations host prominent health policy advocate Two LUCOM student organizations, the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA), hosted B. Cameron Webb, MD, JD, on Thursday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Affordable Care Act. The LUCOM-SNMA leadership reached out to Dr. Webb after hearing him speak at

a national conference last year in San Francisco. “I thought the student body, faculty, and staff could all benefit from hearing about the Affordable Care Act, which impacts every one of us, and to hear it from a physician lawyer who actually spent time in the White House working under both the Obama and Trump administrations,” said Victoria Johnson, Class of 2021.

In attendance for Dr. Webb’s seminar were LUCOM faculty and student-doctors, LU School of Nursing students, LU School of Law students, LU Master of Public Health students and LU undergraduate students.

“It is important for us to hear a nonbiased presentation from a very knowledgeable physician

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with a lot of experience in this particular field,” said Johnson.

“I hope those in attendance now have a better understanding of the ACA and its significant impact and relevance to us as student doctors, lawyers, and nursing students so we can best care for our future patients.”

Dr. Webb’s presentation broke down the evolution of the ACA and its modifications that are currently in place with the Trump Administration.

Dr. Webb has worked in the White House under both President Obama and President Trump, and he is passionate about advocating for health equity and the health needs of underserved and marginalized communities.

Retired Vice Admiral Speaks to LUCOM Medical Students The LUCOM Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (AMOPS) student organization hosted Vice Admiral David J. Venlet, Ret., on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Vice Admiral Venlet is a retired 3-star Admiral and a former navy fighter pilot and test pilot. He served as the Commander of the Naval Air Systems Command before finishing his career as the Program Executive Officer for F-35 Lightning II Program. His presentation highlighted his life in the military, how he incorporated his faith throughout the entirety of his service in the United States Navy, and how he stressed the importance of keeping a firm grasp on fundamentals, reality, and transparency.

“As a Christian and as a believer, I reflect on those traits and want to make certain they have root in my life and my faith in God,” said Vice Admiral Venlet. “I think we are to keep a firm grasp on the fundamentals that Jesus gave us.”

He also made important mention that one should have a foundation in their own belief system. “To be an effective leader, you need to have a firm grasp on your fundamentals,” he said.

in difficult places, but you have to consider what God wants you to do,” he said.

He encouraged Liberty’s osteopathic medical students to integrate their faith in the workplace by promoting transparency, modeling it and demonstrating it.

Venlet also discussed difficult decisions that he had to make throughout his career and the strict time frames though it was his faith that he held firm to. “God gives us opportunities in preparation for other opportunities that we might not know of. You’re going to be

CMDA guest event brings director of recruitment for SIM The LUCOM Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education (OCCE) partnered with the student chapter of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) to host Andrea Wilson of SIM this past March.

SIM, formerly known as Sudan Interior Mission, is an international mission organization with over 4,000 workers that serve in over 70 countries, committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ in communities with little or no access to the Gospel.

Andrea Wilson, director of Recruitment for SIM, first developed a passion for medical missions in Bolivia in 2003 during a medical outreach trip where she was able to share hope with patients through physical

and spiritual care. “I have a passion for medical missions and connecting others with the same opportunities,” she said. “There is a lot of variety when it comes to medical missions and plenty of opportunities for you to get involved.”

The organization has healthcare workers in approximately 50 countries, serving in 35 facilities and in community health. Wilson discussed the options available to LUCOM students to participate in medical missions with hospitals, clinics, mobile units, and through Medical Education. “Everything we do, we want to see a long-term sustainable impact,” said Wilson.

with SIM through Whole Person Care Preceptorships and postresidency training. “I would love for many of you to submit an application with SIM, and I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I would really challenge you to consider coming on rotation with us. I would encourage you to pray and see where the Lord leads you.”

She encouraged LUCOM medical students to consider participating in medical missions

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The Annual Medical Bioethics Symposium hosted by the medical library

The Medical Library at Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) hosted its annual Medical Bioethics Symposium on Saturday, March 9. The topic this year was The Concept of Medical Futility and the Virginia Medical Futility Law with featured keynote speaker Alva B. Weir III, MD, FACP, president of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA).

Medical Futility is the continuation of providing medical treatment or care to a patient even when there is no hope of cure or improvement. There have been several components of evidencebased medicine that suggest discontinuation of any treatment that hasn’t provided a significant, measurable benefit. In a recent survey, top medical ethical decisions posed the question, “Would you ever recommend or give life-sustaining therapy when you judged that it was futile?”

PHYSICIANS’ RESPONSES Yes – 23.6%, No – 37% It Depends – 39.4%

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“This is a topic where physicians, lawyers, and patients are all going to have different responses,” said Eugene S. Patterson, PhD, professor of pharmacology at LUCOM. “All three groups do not look at the world the same way, and that’s part of the reason as to why there is this law.”

Dr. Patterson introduced Dr. Weir, who, as a physician, presented on the topic What Constitutes Medical Futility.

“I’m going to talk to you today about Medical Futility and I’m going to speak to you as a physician, as a healthcare professional,” he said. “You’re going to have to learn how to think about this yourself because I have patients all the time who reach the point of their lives where there may be nothing that is really beneficial for them anymore. From there I have to make decisions in community with the family and the hospital with the intent of how do I best manage this patient.”

Providing his own definition of Medical Futility, Dr. Weir also said, “An intervention is medically futile when it cannot reasonably improve the quality of life for the patient or prolong a life that fulfills the patient’s goals for living.” He views it as his inability to make the patient live longer or improve their overall quality of life. “It’s critical that we’re talking about the value of intervention, not the value of life, and the big question is who decides the value,” he added.

The major issue behind Medical Futility is the principle of proportionality. One must compare the burden of the intervention, which would be the cost to the patient, the well-being of the family, and the cost to society, with the potential benefit to be achieved to the patient in front of you. “You have to compare the burden of intervention versus the benefit to be achieved,” said Dr. Weir.

In regards to Medical Futility, there are three parties involved:

patients, clinicians, and society.

Patients are receiving care consistent with their values and preferences, clinicians are acting within their best understanding of their professional obligations, and society is protecting individual rights by fostering clinician professionalism, which insures fair allocation of medical resources.

“Our responsibility to our patients is excellent medical care that entails beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, autonomy in decision making, whole person medicine, wisdom, and a covenant relationship,” said Dr. Weir.

Dr. Patterson followed after Dr. Weir’s presentation with a breakout session on The Medical Ethic Response – Virginia’s Medical Futility Legislation.

“The Virginia Medical Futility Law took effect on the first of July in 2018 and is modeled after the Texas Directives Act passed in the state of Texas in 1999,” Dr. Patterson said. “It is legislation that has been established to where a physician may stop providing healthcare that is medically or even ethically inappropriate for a patient.” He referenced four distinct categories of Medical Futility: Physiological Futility, Imminent-Demise Futility, Lethal-Condition Futility, and Qualitative Futility, recently published by Baruch Brody, PhD, and Amir Halevy, MD, in a medical journal.

“The definitions from Drs. Body and Halevy are descriptive and useful for discussion from an academic standpoint, but they

fail to provide the simplicity needed for a satisfactory and useful legale t h i c a l definition,” Dr. Patterson added.

“These types of decisions need to be made in community with the family, not solely by the physician.”

The recently passed Virginia law protects the interests of the hospital, the physician, and the patient. It maintains for the right of conscience of a physician not to provide life-sustaining therapy that the physician believes to be medically or ethically inappropriate.

A physician’s medical decision is reviewed by a second physician and an interdisciplinary medical committee, and the interdisciplinary committee’s decision is entered into the patient’s medical record.

To conclude the event, Philip Kline, JD, assistant professor of law at Liberty University School of Law (LUSOL), spoke on the Legal Pros and Cons to Virginia’s Medical Futility Legislation. “As you’ve probably learned there’s a legal concept that is being elevated to the highest level of medical ethics called autonomy,” said Kline. “Patient Autonomy, it’s been around a long time and it’s why you have to get a patient’s consent before you perform a procedure. There is another legal concept that has been around a long time, and it’s your right to refuse and it’s if you feel that your services violate your ethics or morals.”

“It’s difficult to talk about refusing to provide life-saving medical treatment without understanding how we got here to begin with?” asked Kline.

He provided a legal history that involved a philosophical framework integrated with a theological belief. “Is it possible that our fears and prejudices limit our compassionate outreach to the disabled?” Kline asked.

Throughout his presentation, he shared that by statute, states allow individuals to express their desires for treatment or nontreatment in living wills and advanced medical directives.

Generally, that care may be refused by the newly incompetent, if they’ve previously expressed a desire to refuse care in the present medical condition. The respect for autonomy often clashes with a moral obligation to recognize the intrinsic value of every human being and to not weight that value based on “quality of life.”

The Medical Bioethics Symposium was attended by Liberty osteopathic medical and nursing students, law students, public health students, practicing physicians, medical professionals, and assistants. This year marked the fourth year of presenting indepth medical and ethical topics.

In 2016, a panel of experts convened to address a question: Is the U.S. working towards dual/parallel medical delivery systems - ethical vs. legal?

In 2017, the theme for the symposium was Made in God’s Image: The Implications for Law and Medicine. Last year, the focus was on The Necessity and Limitations of Right of Conscience in Healthcare Delivery.

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Southeast Regional Student American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine Conference held at LUCOM Awarded National Chapter of the Year LUCOM closed the month of March by hosting the 2019 Southeast Regional Student American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (SAOASM) conference. This was the first sports medicine conference to be held at Liberty’s osteopathic college and coordinated by members of LUCOM-SAOASM. Registered attendees heard from Bradley Haupricht, MD, a sports medicine physician for Liberty University’s Department of Athletics, who spoke on overuse conditions of the upper extremity; David A. Titcomb, PT, DPT, EP-C, director of the Undergraduate Exercise Science Program at Liberty University Department of Health Professions, who spoke on bridging the gap between physicians and physical therapists; and Del Bolin, MD, PhD, a professor of Family Medicine, OMM, and Sports Medicine at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), who spoke on osteopathic considerations of common running problems.

“By hosting conferences for national organizations and opening our doors to other osteopathic students from across the region, we can show that though the school may not have been around long, we are staffed with an incredibly knowledgeable and caring faculty, equipped with cutting edge technology and filled with students who are invested in lifelong learning,” said Megan Boyer, Class of 2021.

For Graham Mann, Class of 2020, the experience was just to invaluable to miss. “Having the regional conference here at LUCOM demonstrates how far this club has come, and with no ceiling in sight, we can only predict the unfathomable heights we will reach. As a medical student interested in sports medicine, this conference was an opportunity to get more exposure in sports medicine on an interprofessional level.”

The student chapter was also awarded the National Chapter of the Year during the annual AOASM Conference held this past May. The award is given to a chapter based on quality of student activities, community service, and student involvement.

“It’s a huge honor for our chapter at LUCOM to be recognized on the national level and to have the things we’re doing with LUCOM-SAOASM be considered exemplary by our peers from other osteopathic medical schools,” said Boyer.

Moving forward, Boyer hopes that LUCOM-SAOASM can continue to host standout speakers who are excited about teaching and improving student education, but to also host another Regional SAOASM Conference at LUCOM next Spring. Next year she’ll be in charge of the student section of AOASM, which includes planning

SAOASM sponsored webinars that run throughout the year, helping regional representatives plan their respective regional conferences and working with the vice chair in planning the student section at the 2020 AOASM Clinical Conference.

For SAOASM as a whole, one of the biggest projects that Boyer is working on is developing a mentorship program for SAOASM members.

“At LUCOM we are particularly blessed to have access to sports medicine physicians working for Liberty University Athletics who have welcomed students on the sidelines and in the clinic,” she said. “Unfortunately, not all of the other osteopathic medical schools have the same privilege. With this in mind, I would like to create opportunities for students at COMs across the country to find local sports medicine physicians who are willing to teach, mentor, and allow students to shadow with them during their medical training.”

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GRAND ROUNDS

LUCOM welcomes Liberty University President Jerry Falwell with two medical experts on groundbreaking surgical device for special Grand Rounds Grand Rounds, an important part of medical education, is primarily used as a teaching tool for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. Often a formal gathering to discuss medical advancements or clinical scenarios or even patient situations, Grand Rounds offer a unique opportunity to disseminate and advance the medical profession.

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This past fall, LUCOM was privileged to welcome not just the University president, but two influential and skillful medical specialists leading the way in a new-innovative heart procedure.

As an added bonus, the event was streamed live to the student body as a “Convo Select” on Liberty’s main campus inside the Center for Music and the Worship Arts, Concert Hall, as well as streamed live on Facebook.

The first guest to present was Jim Thompson, MD, FACC, FAAP, a surgeon and medical director of Child Cardiology Associates.

Dr. Thompson outlined the case of a patient he had treated shortly before visiting Liberty’s campus, utilizing a new-innovative heart procedure that is less invasive than direct heart surgery. He highlighted the NobleStitch™ device, which uses a long suture catheter to close the

patent foramen ovale (PFO) in the heart.

The patient he spoke of was none other than Jerry Falwell.

According to Falwell, he had two minor strokes in 2016 and several issues with migraines throughout his life. Connecting with United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, MD, prior to last year’s graduation, Falwell credited him with recommending the procedure with the new NobleStitch™. “It’s just a miracle that it happened the way it did, and it’s because of this medical school [LUCOM]. If Ben Carson hadn’t come to speak here I never would’ve found the problem; he said I’m very fortunate that I didn’t have a major stroke.”

Dr. Thompson is the only surgeon in America who currently does the NobleStitch™ procedure, recently approved by the FDA and performed on more than 160 people in the United States (over 1500 worldwide). For Falwell, he underwent the procedure in Fairfax, Va., the only location in the United States currently available for this procedure.

The second guest to present was the inventor of the NobleStitch™, Professor Anthony “Tony” Nobles, CEO of HeartStitch®.

The NobleStitch™ procedure involves running a device to the heart through a vein in a patient’s leg and stitching it closed, leaving behind a suture rather than a metallic device embedded in the heart. The minor surgery takes less than an hour to complete.

“This is a collaboration between engineers, scientists, physicians, and patients, and the procedure is pretty straightforward,” Nobles said.

Nobles has invented more than 150 medical devices, secured more than 70 patents, and has presented at a wide array of global conferences and universities, including the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Vascular Surgery, and Harvard Medical School.

“When I look at things from a biomedical perspective, I try to think about what can be done in surgery percutaneously without cutting someone open,” Nobles said.

“Why would you do >>>

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Grand Rounds Focused on Diabetes

>>> something that is less effective? That was the whole premise to the start of creating the NobleStitch™.”

Dr. Thompson also said that “the patent foramen ovale is so common it affects 20 percent of people.

The condition isn’t problematic for many, but others experience migraines and strokes, as Falwell reported.”

To end Grand Rounds, Nobles mentioned that there’s a unique collaboration that exists. “Engineers, physicians, and scientists; if we can learn to speak the same language, that’s how we solve all these problems.”

Falwell also shared his hopes to see Liberty’s osteopathic medical students take their knowledge to underserved markets so they can help more people in need of procedures like the NobleStitch™.

“The technology is already there, but we need to get them into the smaller hospitals and do things that people at smaller hospitals don’t think about.” Falwell said.

Liberty first-year medical student Hannah Owen said hearing from experts on this new procedure was encouraging. “It’s good to know that Liberty has contacts at different hospitals who can get us connected and help us collaborate with other experts in the field,” she said.

“We don’t have to have the monopoly on knowledge on an issue. We can reach out to others who might be better equipped to grow technology in medicine.”

Afterwards the three guests received a guided tour of Liberty’s Center for Medical and Health Sciences, with Dr. Thompson and Prof. Nobles providing a PFO demonstration in LUCOM’s state-of-the-art anatomy lab.

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Later that fall, LUCOM hosted Nanette Steinle, MD, associate professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She spoke to the faculty and student-doctors about trends in Diabetes, specifically the human gut microbiome and metabolic health, while providing practical implications for practice. She presented information that could be applied in a practical manner in an effort to help manage wellness and disease in medicine.

Dr. Steinle focused on the human gut microbiome, with most of the data provided focused on that particular area. “When we think about ourselves from a cellular model, a genetic model, our persons, ourselves are made up more of in terms of the number of cells from microbes than we are human cells. It’s important to consider what is the contribution of these cells along with human cells,” she said.

The gut microbiome produces a synthesis of vitamins, aids in digestion of harmful compounds, fermentation of non-digestible substances and creates energy production in regards to the metabolism. It also acts in a form of protection in stimulating the immune system, creating an antimicrobial effect and acting as a physical barrier against pathogenic bacteria.

General characteristics of the gut are that it remains generally stable over time, “If you live in the same environment or eat the same diet, our microbiome isn’t changing dramatically day to day,” she said. Factors such as dramatic change in one’s environment and age can both impact the microbiome.

SNAPSHOTS

A collection of images from the fall semester.

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Key: (1) LUCOM Student Services hosts mental health break by asking students to color butterflies for kids with cancer and (2) host a bonfire night with hot dogs and smores at Camp Hydeaway, (3) Student Osteopathic Surgical Association hosts Mark G. Shrime, MD, MPH, PhD, FACS, (4) student-doctors pictured together to celebrate Women in Medicine, (5) Class of 2021 hosts annual Donor Memorial Ceremony, a symbolic reflection designed to honor the men & women who donated their bodies for medical education, (6) student-doctors volunteer to distribute water for runners during Genworth Virginia 10 Miler, (7) Dr. David Klink shares philosophy of osteopathic manipulative medicine during Diamond Hill Baptist Seniors Expo, (8) Student American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine assisted in preparticipation sports physicals to students at New Covenant School, (9) student-doctors learn puncture techniques during Sports Medicine fair, and (10) LUCOM Convocation features B. Keith Faulkner, JD, dean of the Liberty University School of Law.

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Faculty Spotlights A Few Highlights from the 2018-19 Academic Year

Grad Talk on Stress & Resiliency

Team-Based Learning

Linda S. Mintle, PhD, chair of behavioral health and the director of strategic development for clinical affairs, spoke to Liberty University’s graduate students about personal resiliency during Liberty University Graduate Student Life’s November GradConnect.

John R. Martin, PhD , interim chair of integrative physiology and pharmacology, was recognized by the Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC) as a Featured Resource for Osteopathic Medicine.

“To become resilient, you have to become selfaware and learn to deal with failure,” she said.

Grad Connect invites LU graduate students to congregate on Friday nights to discuss issues related to graduate school. She spoke about her professional journey through schools and jobs, and the stress that came with both.

“Graduate school, like medical school is a stressful time, and balancing life and school is always a challenge,” she said.

Her discussion focused on stress and the importance of moving forward in one’s education and training. She offered encouragement to keep moving forward from her own life stories.

“School and work is a great adventure with God — He takes you on a number of unexpected paths, but you need to be willing to listen and follow open doors and opportunities,” she said.

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The module focused on the Pathophysiology and Pharmacology of Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Asthma.

The module is used in the first of four Pharmacology courses presented in sequential order to approximately 60 students. The course presented introductory anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of the pulmonary system, and the pharmacology of the medication groups used to treat pulmonary diseases.

The topics are presented at an introductory level with the goal of having the students understand the basic concepts and relationships between anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology.

The course prepares students for their following therapeutics course, during which students learn greater detail about the use of the medications as to dosing, frequency of dosing, drug interactions, and use of the medications in special patient populations (such as pediatric and geriatric populations).

The module would work equally well for medical students in a “spiral curriculum.” This was one of 20 modules presented in a one-semester course (15week course meeting two times a week for 2.5 hours).

Top 2018

National Induction OMEGA BETA IOTA National Osteopathic Political Advocacy Honor Society

Congratulations to LUCOM faculty recognized

by Lynchburg Living magazine as “Top Docs” of 2018. Peer-to-peer surveys were conducted this past fall to identify local physicians who demonstrated excellence within their respective medical specialties.

Emergency Medicine Laura J. Potter, MD, FACEP Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

Pediatrics Ashley R. Toler, DO Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Family Medicine Sigmund P. Seiler, MD Associate Professor of Family Medicine

Sports Medicine Mark E. Rolfs, DO, PharmD Assistant Professor of Family Medicine

On Monday, March 4, Carl R. Hoegerl, DO, FACP, associate professor of neurology, was inducted as an honorary member into Omega Beta Iota (OBI), during the annual American Osteopathic Association (AOA)’s sponsored event – DO Day on Capitol Hill. OBI was founded to emphasize the importance of the work medical students do within the United States’ political system. Dr. Hoegerl is the only LUCOM faculty member to be recognized for such an honor.

In an email to LUCOM Dean Dr. Peter Bell from Alixandria Fiore Pfeiffer, Dr. Hoegerl was inducted due to “his dedication to the osteopathic profession and leadership modeled to students in political activism.” Pfeiffer serves as the National Director for Omega Beta Iota and is a fourth-year osteopathic medical student at Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“Dr. Hoegerl has been our advocacy champion and I look forward to maintaining our circle of influence in health policy and in all areas of medicine,” said Dr. Bell.

Osteopathic Neuromuscular Medicine James W. Kribs, DO Associate Professor of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine

Pfeiffer is pictured above with Dr. Hoegerl.

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Chesapeake Regional Medical Center

LUCOM ADDS TWO NEW ROTATION SITES FOR CLINICAL EDUCATION LUCOM reached an educational partnership last summer by adding two clinical rotation sites, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, in Chesapeake, Va., and SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital - Mt. Vernon, in Mount Vernon, Ill. The locations play a vital role in the training of Liberty osteopathic medical students.

“Lots of credit belongs to the Office of Clinical Rotations, the deans involved with rotations, and everyone who put the effort in

making this happen. It takes time to develop a relationship with a common vision of educating medical students as well as meeting the medical needs of the surrounding community,” David F. Klink, DO, senior associate dean of clinical affairs.

These two new rotation sites strengthen LUCOM’s third- and fourth-year opportunities by expanding specialty training and broadening LUCOM’s preceptor base. “The first thing we look for in a site is one that aligns

with Liberty’s and LUCOM’s mission and vision. Second, we look for a site that can provide all our core rotations so that our students do not have to be displaced to receive their training.

If the student can receive training in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Rural Underserved, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Women’s Health, and General Surgery all in one location, that is the most ideal situation for our students,” said Teresa Henderson, director of site development.

SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital - Mt. Vernon

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WE ARE THANKFUL

FOR OUR PARTNERSHIPS

LUCOM welcomed Dr. Jean Bennett from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) along with Dr. Carole Pratt of the Virginia Department of Health on Oct. 25. SAMHSA is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that leads public health efforts to advance behavioral health throughout the nation.

Their mission is to reduce the impact of substance use and mental illness within American communities.

LUCOM faculty have been developing partnerships as well as collaborating within the HHS Region III to bring together all Virginia medical schools to work on addiction and pain management.

Pictured left to right: Chad K. Brands, MD, CPE, SFHM; Timothy O. Leonard, MD, PhD; David F. Klink, DO; Jean Bennett, PhD, MSM, MSN, RN; Peter A. Bell, DO, MBA, FACOEP-dist, FACEP; Carole Pratt, DDS; Linda S. Mintle, PhD; Michael D. Lockwood, DO, FCA; and Kevin D. Corsini, PhD. Dr. Bennett serves as the Regional Administrator (D.C., Del., Md., Pa., Va., and W. Va.) for SAMHSA and Dr. Pratt serves as the Senior Advisor and Confidential Assistant for Policy in the Office of the Commissioner, Virginia Department of Health.

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MATCH DAY 2019

Impacting Tomorrow’s World

Liberty osteopathic medical students celebrated along with thousands of other fourth-year studentdoctors across the country as they received their residency placements during Match Day this past March. A rite of passage for graduating medical students, Match Day is an annual event where the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) informs applicants of where they’ve been placed for their postgraduation residency training for the next three to seven years.

The results are kept under lock and key until they are released nationally on Match Day. This year, 115 LUCOM student-doctors participated and had a match rate of 98.7 percent, higher than the national average. The top residency placements were in the areas of internal medicine, family medicine, and emergency medicine. Medical students placed in cities such as Chicago, Tulsa, Honolulu, Newport News, San Antonio, and Lynchburg. “We are all proud of our graduates and wish them the best as they enter this next phase of their training,� said Dr. Peter Bell, dean of LUCOM.

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ON A MISSION TO PROVIDE CARE AND HEALING The Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education (OCCE) collaborates with domestic and international partners for continued medical outreach opportunities.

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

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FACULTY LEAD SMALL GROUPS ON SPRING BREAK The Return to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Perú

LUCOM sent three small teams abroad this past Spring Break continuing and strengthening partnerships that began last year.

Each team consisted of nearly 15 student-doctors and one primary faculty member with the trips lasting a full week.

Kathleen P. Bogacz, MD, FACP, assistant professor of internal medicine, led the team that returned to the Dominican Republic. “Participation in a spring medical mission trip in the second year of medical school is one more part of the long pipeline that we have created at LUCOM.” Both domestic and international medical outreach trips organized by LUCOM-OCCE are designed to expose students to patient scenarios outside the classroom, allowing for oneon-one patient interaction, and hopefully encourage them toward international medical needs.

“For those students who are interested in pursuing care of the underserved, we have the Community Care Collaborative events to introduce students to local and regional medical needs, and the medical mission trips at the end of first-year and then in spring of second-year to introduce them to international medical needs,” said Dr. Bogacz.

By their fourth year in medical school, if LUCOM medical students are more serious about the pursuit of caring for the underserved, a

four-week international rotation is available to provide an even more in-depth experience. “As students prayerfully go through these events and missions, they will discover more about whether the Lord is leading them into this kind of medical career – whether part time or full time,” Dr. Bogacz also said.

With the assistance of Tammy Weigner, clinical director of health records and outreach, they were able to lead a team of 13 student-doctors providing care in the village of Pontezuela.

The impoverished village has a large Haitian population that is often overlooked. This was Dr. Bogacz’s second time leading a small team to this location.

“The local church, Iglesias Communidad Multicultural (ICM), is the foundation of our collaboration. By praying for and advocating for the neediest of the needy in Pontezuela for over five years, they have led the way which provides us with a great spiritual foundation,” she said.

for the patients,” said Dr. Bogacz.

The Dominican Republic team saw 400 patients, which included 250 adults and 150 children.

The LUCOM team focused on a feeding program for children in Pontezuela, evangelism, worship, and Bible distribution in the village.

“I would like to use the DR model of collaboration everywhere we send our students.

The spiritual and medical support is outstanding,” added Dr. Bogacz.

Additionally, LUCOM-OCCE has established a relationship with a missionary family on the ground, who are members of ICM, and developed key relationships with the director of the local medical school, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). The school has fostered additional support with the involvement of their students. “This is an incredible group of local providers overall who offer great follow-up care

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

serve through medical missions back when she was a Family Medicine resident. “I have been obedient in this call for several years and have served on trips with various organizations. One of the factors that attracted me to LUCOM was that, as a faculty member, I am encouraged to participate in medical outreach every year,” she said.

Dr. Bogacz believes each trip is unique and provides key instructional pieces for LUCOM’s medical students. “With each patient and his or her unique circumstances, we can teach – everything from how to ask questions to performing a physical exam with accuracy and praying for the patient and their family. At night, with case presentations and more time to process the day, we can teach how to handle the hard things and how to rely on Christ for all that you need,” she said.

Returning to Clinica Esperanza, an established clinic on the island of Roatán, Honduras, Liberty osteopathic medical students were able to work one-on-one with local clinicians providing medical care to every patient that visited the clinic. Such care included observing and treating young children and providing general medical care to men and women.

Under the supervision and guidance of Lauri Ann Maitland, DO, MPH, associate professor of family medicine, the team saw 200 patients, 165 adults and 35 children. The team was also able to distribute Bibles to the patients they treated.

“I’m always thankful to have the opportunity to minister through medicine – to be the hands & feet of Jesus,” said Dr. Maitland. “I was blessed by seeing medical students catch the ‘medical mission bug’ and hearing them remark that they plan to serve again in this capacity.”

Dr. Maitland felt a calling to

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On another site in Curahuasi, Peru, a team was providing medical and osteopathic care to underserved rural villages in that area of the country. Partnering with Alcanzando la Mano, many villages at high altitudes were visited where the people don’t commonly have access to care of any kind. Like the DR and Honduras trip, the team was also able to partake in evangelism activities and Bible distribution by partnering with local church planting efforts. In Peru, the team saw 165 adults and 35 children during their week there.

“I love having the opportunity to provide healthcare to those with limited access and to be the link that connects them to groups who can help them with future needs,” said Elizabeth Lewandowski, Class of 2021. “Anytime I travel for mission trips, I am reminded of how lucky we are with the access to healthcare and resources where we live. It also always makes me want to keep striving towards my goal of becoming a physician so I can continue to travel to places with limited access to physicians and help in any way I can.”

On each clinic day the team traveled through the mountains to different remote villages.

“For me, one of the best parts of treating patients was being able to give them reading glasses. Many patients had chronic aches and pains from working and walking in the mountains, and it was hard to tell them that there wasn’t much we could do to fix that. But these same patients would light up when we were able to provide

them glasses so that they could sew or read again. It was these daily reminders from patients that the little things really can matter most,” said Lewandowski.

During her first year at LUCOM, Allie Baldwin, Class of 2021, had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala where, after spending countless hours in the classroom and studying, she was able to spend time with patients, an experience she describes as a true privilege. She traveled to Peru to continue her hands-onlearning.

“For me, being able to see children and work on prevention and teaching them about their body and health was the most rewarding,” Baldwin said. “On our last day in the clinic I saw a young mom who was worried about her three-month old baby boy. Having the opportunity to assess an infant and then being able to calm the mother’s fears was especially rewarding.”

OCCE coordinates these weeklong international trips to teach LUCOM students by design.

Leading by faculty example and mentorship, they treat their patients as an integrated whole, incorporating the body, mind, and spirit. This is only year two for these short Spring Break trips; this is truly just the beginning.

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

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RETURNING TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Liberty osteopathic medical students provide care to adults and children on ninth medical outreach trip to Guatemala.

On the first day of June, a team of 62 from LUCOM (consisting of medical students and faculty with members of their families), along with an additional 11 (invited friends and colleagues), traveled to Guatemala for medical outreach. This was the first country that LUCOM visited five years ago and has maintained its presence there every summer since. Including spring break trips, LUCOM has visited Guatemala nine times since 2015.

Under the supervision of LUCOM faculty and staff, the group traveled to three villages; San Antonio in Teculutan within the department of Zacapa and in Chiquimula, El Ingeniero, and Shororaguá. Each village was strategically chosen in an effort to provide quality and patientcentered care that the inhabitants would not otherwise have available, while also maintaining a partnership with local health care

providers of those specific areas.

Throughout the weeklong trip, nearly 870 patients, consisting of men, women, and children, were seen and treated. “The reason I chose LUCOM was because of their emphasis on a servant’s heart,” said Hallie Anderson, Class of 2022. “We have the ability to make a difference, even after just one year of school. This trip allowed us to use our skills to better the lives of others and fall in love with medicine all over again.”

While the term medical outreach is common throughout medical colleges and schools, for LUCOM it’s an annual, yearlong practice of placing its students in local and international regions for a short period of time not only to present opportunities of enhancing their clinical skills, but also (if possible) to bring about a sense of physical, spiritual, and emotional healing to those in need.

LUCOM’s primary partner for this year’s trip was El Centro Universitario de Oriente (CUNORI), a medical school located in Chiquimula, Guatemala. Additional support was provided by several health care providers; Dra. Luna from San Antonio, Teculutan; Pueblo de Salud in El Ingeniero; and the faculty and fourth-year medical students of CUNORI that serve in the Shororaguá Clinic.

According to Kathleen P. Bogacz, MD, FACP, associate professor of internal medicine, the decision was made to return to specific villages where CUNORI had already established a sense of continuity of care and their ongoing interest within those areas. “They (CUNORI) are the source of medical care providers in the area and we always want to have follow up care lined up for those patients who need it. We have developed >>>

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

>>> friendships with the leadership at CUNORI and they are enthusiastic partners every year now when we come. Our students become friends with each other as they learn together.”

One unique staple of the trip was a mid-week afternoon workshop held on the campus of CUNORI that centered on the basic components of osteopathic manipulative treatments (OMT).

LUCOM student-doctors along with faculty were able to teach common techniques to the CUNORI medical students with the hope that they could use them while serving within their own community.

“We were happy to present a workshop for the CUNORI medical students as part of partnering with those who can provide ongoing medical care in Guatemala. Our osteopathic medical students were able to provide hands on training and reinforcement of osteopathic treatment techniques,” said Michael Lockwood, DO, FCA, professor of osteopathic manipulative medicine. “I believe both learners and teachers were engaged and eager to affirm that medical care includes the works of our hands – sometimes as the treatment of choice and always as a tool with the potential for healing.”

Dr. Lockwood also explained that there were two treatment types that were described, demonstrated, and practiced. “One group of techniques, notably, has

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direct effects on organ system function. The second method was taught that is very useful in pain management and restoration of proper mechanical function of spinal segments, extremities, and rib cage motions. In addition to learning techniques, the osteopathic patient-centered paradigm was evident.”

no end to what we can dream and help each community achieve.”

For Blake Thomas, Class of 2022, the experience with the CUNORI faculty and students was very welcoming. “I felt right at home while speaking and working alongside them. I was very grateful to meet many of them and hear about the parallels of medical education for those in Guatemala and those in the United States.

Their campus was very nice and an eye-opening experience for me to experience medical education in another country.”

CUNORI has been a continual support system for LUCOM the past three years.

“Overall, we have had a very positive response from our students in being able to work with Liberty medical students. Every year, our students are very energetic and excited to participate and learn from Liberty medical students and serve alongside them. Their hope is to be able to come to the United States and engage with Liberty students,” added Dr. Retana.

“Truthfully, this experience is one-of-a-kind because most Guatemalan medical schools and students are not able to engage with US medical students at this level. This relationship with Liberty is truly an honor.”

“For us (CUNORI) it is an honor and privilege to partner and participate with Liberty as part of our health initiative in each community,” said Dr. Ronaldo Retana, dean and faculty member at CUNORI. “The hope that we started three years ago was really to continually develop our relationship with Liberty and make it strong. We also have the hope that our students will connect more with Liberty medical students and that each community that has been marginalized will have help longterm moving forward. There is

Dr. Retana also went on to express his appreciation for LUCOM’s medical faculty and their level of coordination. “We are eternally grateful for this opportunity to continually serve alongside Liberty. It’s crazy to think that what started as a conversation three years ago has now developed into a strong relationship and friendship. We are thankful for Dr. Kathy Bogacz for her help in continuing this relationship and carrying on the vision. Thank you, Liberty, for this blessing.”

For three days throughout the weeklong outreach trip, CUNORI medical students worked alongside LUCOM medical students. Together they were able to assess and treat patients while learning from one another.

Dr. Retana also serves his country as an obstetrician gynecologist.

This year, LUCOM was also privileged to welcome back Jonathan Giles, MPH, DHSc, CHES, CTC, administrative dean for Liberty University School of Health Sciences. Through a preliminary research survey sent to the student-doctors prior to the trip, Dr. Giles was able to foster a creative academic approach to working cross culturally in another country. The focus was on Cultural Intelligence (CQ), a study that is designed to help offer assessment tools and sensitivity improvements (awareness) in culturally diverse situations.

“Cultural Intelligence is interpreted as a unique skill for young physicians entering the health care field. As a result of the discussions, the topic of CQ was added to the content for the Guatemalan medical outreach trip to provide real-time training in a practical application of crosscultural work,” said Dr. Giles.

“As a presenter, I hoped that relevant examples of CQ drive, knowledge, strategy, and action could be integrated into the week’s activities, enabling LUCOM students to engage a population that may be different from their own. Students remarked on the trip that the concept of CQ was novel and that the examples and activities made the skills applicable to the work they would like to do in the future.”

Dr. Giles also added that “LUCOM and Liberty’s Health Science partnership is vitally important for both schools. Health Science faculty and students are uniquely poised to offer support to domestic and international outreach programs supporting operations, education, and analytics. Providing CQ training is the first step into building culturally competent health care leaders of the future.”

LUCOM is still a young college with only two graduated classes so far. For Bridget Dillon, DO, a 2019 graduate, this was her third medical outreach trip, but her first as an alumna of LUCOM. “I’ve been fortunate to go to Guatemala with LUCOM twice before and each time I got more out of it than the time before.

When an opportunity came up for me to be a part in this capacity, I jumped at the chance. It’s really wonderful to watch our rising second-year medical students step into a clinical role and thrive. I got to see the power of medical education from a leadership side.”

Dr. Dillon was able to serve as a mentor to the medical students offering OMT techniques and insight from her previous trips.

“For rising medical students, I encourage them to go on future medical outreach trips; take a step, take a chance. All we want for them is to grow as they are capable of so much. Someday I hope they will come back as a resident, like me, and teach the next generation.”

Dr. Dillon begins her residency in pediatrics this year.

For LUCOM faculty newcomer, Brian Kilpatrick, MD, this was his first medical outreach trip with Liberty. “I have worked in other countries like Guatemala in the past and welcome the opportunities that LUCOM provides to continue to do that.

My skill set in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics lends itself to the type of clinics that we provide for the people of Guatemala and I enjoyed working with the students in the entire process,” he said. “Medical Outreach is a way to provide practical medical help to people of other countries and areas where medical care is not readily available. We can show the love, joy, and peace of Christ through this process.”

Dr. Kilpatrick serves as an assistant professor of internal >>>

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

>>> medicine and pediatrics. He was also asked to lead several morning devotionals throughout the week to help spiritually encourage and remind the medical students as to the purpose of the trip.

“I would recommend this trip to anyone that has a heart for reaching people with the Gospel in the context of providing medical care for the underserved.

Sometimes it may take a bit of physical stamina but is well worth it practically (sharpen historytaking and physical exam skills) and spiritually (you will grow in Christ-likeness and have an effect on your colleagues and patients),” he added. “I would like to travel on these trips as often as I am able … they are a worthwhile addition to the curriculum.”

LUCOM medical outreach trips, from start-to-finish, last one complete week. The studentdoctors are immersed into the country’s culture and the schedule is designed to expose them to clinical exposure under less than ideal circumstances. As a side effect, they are often reminded why they chose medicine as their profession.

“The time I spent in Guatemala reminded me of why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. I was able to use the skills I’d developed in my first year of medical school to better humanity in a different part of the world. I’ve become more comfortable with

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talking to patients and developed my physical exam skills in a way I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else,” said Brandon Davis, Class of 2022. “I was able to perform OMT on a number of patients.

They often felt relief immediately and I prescribed quick and easy stretches the patients can do at home to help relieve future pain.”

“Patients were prayed for after every encounter. They often asked for prayers for their family and friends and many left in tears of happiness. This illustrated the importance of the osteopathic philosophy of addressing mind, body, and spirit, while fulfilling the mission of LUCOM to include a Christian component to our health care,” added Davis.

Overall the goal of the trip to Guatemala was to help improve the health status of all the patients that were encountered in the villages. In addition to providing preventative and acute care, as well as osteopathic manipulative treatments, LUCOM was also able to set up eye exam screening stations. The medical students had the privilege of shadowing and learning from Brandt Riley, DO, an ophthalmologist from Iowa, and Dr. Sonia Rosales, an ophthalmologist with her own practice in Guatemala. This was Dr. Riley’s third trip with LUCOM and Dr. Rosales’ second with LUCOM.

A medical outreach trip certainly doesn’t come without its own set of unique administrative and cultural challenges; however, the enhanced awareness of medical symptoms the students receive and their increased capacity to serve far surpasses it all. Traveling to Guatemala each summer, offering osteopathic manipulative treatments to patients, along with the CUNORI workshop, and demonstrating patient-to-holistic care, LUCOM student-doctors become more astute observers and providers. “They (students) are empowered, gifted, and there are eternal rewards for serving in His Name. Medical knowledge is said to be infinite and ever expanding.

Each year our osteopathic medical students and the CUNORI medical students expand their concept of the art of the medically possible,” added Dr. Lockwood.

“God knew each of the people we would come across by name, and He introduced us to their struggles, their joys, and their cares. I had the amazing opportunity to work alongside my classmates, LUCOM faculty, translators, and local Guatemalan medical students in different rural clinics,” said Evangel Panicker, Class of 2022. “I will not forget the sweet babies I got to hold, the hugs that I received from patients, the prayers that were prayed, the medical knowledge and insight I gained from our amazing faculty, and the love and joy of the Guatemalan people.”

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

LOCAL MEDICAL OUTREACH A Community Care Collaborative to serve Martinsville and Lynchburg For the last several years, LUCOM has continued a partnership with local organizations to serve the neighboring communities of Lynchburg and Martinsville, Va., through the Community Care Collaborative. The full-day event, annually coordinated by LUCOMOCCE, is designed as a local medical outreach opportunity to hopefully impact lives for the better and improve the overall health of those residents. The organizations that contribute within those surrounding areas all share the same mission of increasing access to various services and connecting their residents with access to care regardless of insurance or income status.

The past fall, the Martinsville location welcomed just under 200 patients, and the spring Lynchburg event impacted the lives of 220 patients.

As with each event, Liberty osteopathic medical students work in pairs: one as a patient scribe and the other performing the examination. With each new patient, the pair rotates responsibility. Following their initial assessment, the students present their findings to a LUCOM faculty member and then return to the patient to offer additional care and, if needed, a response from the faculty member is provided.

“These type of events give students firsthand experience with real people and the mentoring of student-to-student is incredibly valuable,” said Sig Seiler, MD, associate professor of family

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medicine. “Students also see the sometimes-hurting people of society. This teaches empathy and compassion and I hope the students, especially first- and second-year [students], take home that working hard has its rewards and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. That prayer and spirituality are important parts of people’s lives. That we all work together as a team for the good of Lynchburg.”

As with most community events, LUCOM-OCCE has to limit the number of volunteer positions available within the medical clinic due to an overwhelming response from students, some purely sign up to volunteer wherever additional help was needed. The invitation also extends to Liberty’s School of Health Sciences and School of Nursing.

“This event provides a rich educational experience for our students and is a great inter-professional educational experience as well,” said Kathleen P. Bogacz, MD, FACP, chief medical officer. “This benefits LUCOM students as well as the nursing and PA students who are participating. It also benefits the university as a whole in accomplishing its mission of educating compassionate and competent students. It’s an opportunity for our students to serve, which grows them in both character and skill. We want to send forth doctors with exemplary compassion and servant leadership.”

LUCOM student-doctors also provide osteopathic manipulative treatments (OMT) when needed and also gain experience offering eye exams under supervision.

This past spring, LUCOM was privileged to have Robert B. Vogel, MD, JD, retina specialist with Piedmont Eye Center, led the eye clinic.

Often during these events, LUCOM’s third- and fourth-year students mentor the first- and second-year students. “It’s an amazing feeling to be able to work with our fellow students. I had a case where a third-year was able to help me and teach me a [OMT] technique while with the patient and was a great outcome of release in the patient’s shoulder.

He was able to move it a lot better and decrease the pain,” said Vijay Veerula, second-year studentdoctor. “It’s a great experience to be able to work together with everyone.”

For LUCOM-OCCE, these medical outreach events are designed to serve as a bridge for

MARTINSVILLE PARTNERS connecting patients for followup care within their area. “A crucial component of the event is that patients get connected to someone who will provide ongoing care,” said Dr. Bogacz.

“All the hours of planning and preparation are worth it if even one person walks away having experienced the love of Jesus.

As a Christian university, that is the underlying foundational goal of all we do.”

This past spring, the City of Lynchburg’s mayor stopped by during the event. “The opportunity to have this number of community resources, assets, programming, students, and services in one location for folks in our community is tremendous. Because they have the opportunity to come to one site, they can receive medical, eye, vision, dental services … they are also connected to community resources and can enroll to receive follow-up care,” she said.

Referencing the aspiring medical professionals at Liberty University and the University of Lynchburg present, Mayor Tweedy also said, “It makes me feel we are in a blessed city.

Because, to have this many

medical resources that are able to come into the community and not just serve on their campuses, but to serve within the community and engage with our citizens, engage with our other nonprofits and agencies, is huge … it is wonderful.”

Erika Spearin, second-year student-doctor, was in a unique position as she had several Spanish-speaking patients visit her with a provided translator. “I volunteered at the Community Care Collaborative because I wanted to give back to the community. I’ve seen a lot of patients come through including a lot of Spanishspeaking patients that might not have easy access to care and I’ve just been really happy to help them resolve some of their problems and leave with better health than when they came in,” she said on Saturday. “Using a translator can be challenging in health care; I have been able to use translators before so I am familiar with that dynamic. The important thing to make sure is that all the comments you are making, you are addressing them to the patient and looking the patient in the eye. That way they know they are being seen and acknowledged.”

• Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge • Court Appointed Special Advocates • Community Dream Center • Community Recovery Program • Department of Social Services • Disability Rights and Resource Center • Grace Network • Hope Center • Martinsville-Henry County Family YMCA • Martinsville Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness • Piedmont Autism Action Group • Piedmont Community Services • Pregnancy Care Center • Reflections Salon and Day Spa • Salvation Army • Southern Area Agency of Aging • Southside Survivor Response Center • United Way of Henry County and Martinsville • Veteran’s Association • Virginia Employment Commission Commonwealth of Virginia • WIC Program

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

The most valuable gift you can give anyone is time. Time together, time to think, but most importantly, time to listen. During the Community Care Collaborative events, LUCOM provided behavioral health care with a psychologist and student-doctors providing real-time counseling.

“I thought that given where they are at in their medical education, I was really impressed by how well the students did, how well they stepped up, and how much they cared about the patients,” said Linda S. Mintle, PhD, chair, LUCOM Division of Behavioral Health. “I think the patients really benefit from people who take the time to listen, one of the problems of modern medicine is that people don’t get a lot of time with their doctor, and in an event like this we took a lot of time to listen to them and hear their story, to find out more about their lifestyles, not just medical symptoms, but how their whole life is being impacted by the things they came in here for.”

“Being able to step out of the classroom really showed me why I chose to be a doctor,” said Michaela Gartman, first-year student-doctor. “I really like how we benefit the community and not doing ‘drive-by’ medicine, but doing the connections afterward.

Being able to set patients up with resources in the community to overall better their health. We

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really take in the osteopathic model of body, mind, and spirit, and we’re really working to develop that in every patient.”

Liberty University is a Christian, faith-based institution, and during events such as the Community Care Collaborative, Liberty osteopathic medical students are able to place their faith into action.

“It’s amazing to see what God is doing here. It reminds me of Luke 10:27, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.’

What we’re doing at LUCOM is going out to the community, and serving people where they are,” said Liberty University Provost Scott Hicks, PhD. “It’s amazing to see how students at LUCOM, our faculty, our physicians, our clinicians, and our residencies all coming together to create value not only regionally in our city but nationally and even globally.”

This year, the date for the Lynchburg event was decided well as it coincided with Liberty’s annual Serve Lynchburg, a two-day service blitz that dispatches students, faculty, and staff members across the city to serve at more than 100 organizations and nonprofits.

“I think one of the most powerful components of a day like this is that Liberty

University becomes more than just a community in one particular region, there’s a sending out,” said Liberty University Senior Vice President for Spiritual Development David Nasser.

“Our students aren’t just coming to LU from 70+ different nations, they’re really coming to Lynchburg. Whether it’s the Tobacco region or downtown Lynchburg, we get to partner with other organizations and nonprofits and we get to do together what we could never do alone. Our [medical] students don’t want to become just great doctors, they want to become great care-givers.

They actually want to change the world, they want to use their talents to foster the fruit of the Spirit in and through their lives.”

LYNCHBURG PARTNERS • Aetna Better Health of Virginia • Anthem HealthKeepers Plus • Centra Congregational Health • Central Virginia Alliance for Community Living • Central Virginia Community College • Central Virginia Health District • The City of Lynchburg • Community Connected • DMV [Virginia] • Hill City Pharmacy • Horizon Behavioral Health • HumanKind • Johnson Health Center • LACIL Disability Services • Liberty University School of Health Sciences • Liberty University School of Nursing • The Lighthouse • Lynchburg Daily Bread • Lynchburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority • Park View Community Mission • The Salvation Army • University of Lynchburg (Physician Assistant Medicine) • Wholesome Informed Choices/ Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

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ANNUAL

HELPING HANDS

MEDICAL OUTREACH GALA

Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

LUCOM hosts fourth fundraiser with returning alumni, proceeds support medical outreach Continuing an annual tradition of raising funds to support LUCOM medical outreach events, the Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education (OCCE) hosted the Helping Hands Gala this past spring on Saturday, Feb. 16. All proceeds raised support domestic and international medical outreach. The event was held inside the Montview Student Union, Alumni Ballroom, on the campus of Liberty University.

Alex and Shannon Hamilton, DO, were featured as the keynote speakers. The Hamiltons met their first year at LUCOM and were part of the first-graduating class (2018).

“OCCE is an integral component to the mission of Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Much of our work is dependent on building partnerships throughout the community as well as overseas and in 2016, we decided to host an annual formal event, a gala, to foster and strengthen those relations,” said Eric P. Miller, DO, FACS, FACOS, assistant professor of surgery. “Every dollar raised goes directly into the operational and outreach budget of OCCE to help continue our goal of reaching those communities that would normally have little to

no access to medical care as well as to connect them to those who are able to continue the care after we leave. We believe the best way to fulfill the mission the Lord has placed in our hands is to share the Gospel and reach out to those who need the most assistance – and our commitment to Liberty University affords the opportunities to both serve patients and train medical students.” This year, LUCOM welcomed 130 guests and was able to raise over $16,000.

“For us, medical outreach is not just about providing a great medical service for a week and then returning to the states afterwards.

While in those countries, our partnering organizations work directly with local providers to establish a continuity of care.

They maintain records of all the patients seen with hopes that when the time comes, they are able to assist even further and improve their quality of life for the better,” said Dr. Miller.

That evening LUCOM-OCCE also recognized local partnerships that helped contribute to a successful Community Care Collaborative (CCC) event in Martinsville in the fall of 2018.

It was announced that the CCC event in Lynchburg would be

held later in the spring with over 20 community organizations committed, including Centra Health Systems and Johnson Health Center, who were both present at the gala.

Another accomplishment that LUCOM celebrated was the recently instituted international elective rotations available to fourth-year medical students through a partnership with Samaritan’s Purse/World Medical Missions. The rotations provide exposure to unique clinical situations encountered in less developed regions of the world.

Working with Samaritan’s Purse, Liberty osteopathic medical students are able to rotate in areas such as Kenya, Togo, and Rwanda.

LUCOM also sends clinicians to three of these sites to mentor the students.

“This is what we do and tonight, this is why we are here – to reflect on our accomplishments working together and to cast our vision forward,” added Dr. Miller.

The theme verse for the evening was Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at His disciples and said to them, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

Drs. Alex and Shannon Hamilton were graciously welcomed back as the keynote speakers for the event. Addressing the guests, they shared an overall theme for their remarks, “Our goal is to make much of the Lord, and to ignite a spark in your hearts for what He is doing globally.”

Sharing their story before coming to LUCOM, Alex mentioned that he and Shannon both felt called into mission work prior to medical school. “I heavily debated between going into fulltime ministry versus working as a physician. I was keenly aware that the spirit is eternal and that the body is not. When I was a senior in high school, however, my youth pastor showed the testimony of Dr. David Thompson, which opened my eyes to the great value for missions that treating people’s bodies held. This was incredibly formative to me, and greatly influenced my choice of a school that incorporated the belief in treating a patient’s mind, body, and spirit.”

Shannon spent time with a ministry based in Jerusalem.

“I witnessed firsthand how the Lord can use medical missions in extraordinary ways. Children from Syria, Kurdistan, and Northern Africa with congenital heart defects brought to Israel with their medical bill already funded received life-saving surgeries

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and then lived alongside ministry volunteers during their postoperative course. Their parents who would accompany them saw how ministry workers would care and love their children, and I saw how treating the pediatric population created a connection to share the Gospel that spanned culture and language.”

Alex spent a few moments addressing God’s instructions on missions through Scripture.

“I’d be remiss if I failed to mention Matthew 28, where Jesus commands (not suggests) his disciples to ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’ Or I’d like to call to mind another famous verse in Romans 10:14, ‘How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?’”

Alex also referenced Philippians 2:4-7, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be

grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

During the summer of 2015, Alex and Shannon were not able to join their classmates on the first international trip due to their wedding. They were quick to sign up for the following spring trip when LUCOM collaborated with Hope of Life International.

“Medically, the primary focus of the trip was actually in women’s health. So, apart from taking care of orphans, preparing packages of food for the poor, or meeting the president of Guatemala, most of the days, we would leave the comfort of the facility where we were staying very early in the morning for a several hour drive up into a village in the mountains,” said Alex.

During that trip, the Hamiltons and their classmates were escorted by local military every day, and often rode standing in the back of pickup trucks through the mountains next to military personnel. They would then set up several tents, most of which were dedicated to OB/Gyn-related work, including Pap smears or ultrasound. The other tents focused more on primary care, with one dedicated to osteopathic manipulative therapy.

“I cannot describe the impact this had on us as second-year

Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

medical students, when we were suddenly thrust into hot, dusty tents, trying to take histories and perform physicals on reallife patients, often through some combination of translators and charades,” said Alex. “The medical need was eye-opening, as well as understanding the limitations to medical care, that they did not have access to simple over-the-counter drugs that we take for granted. There was also an overwhelming lack of medical education, which for me seemed to be the biggest opportunity for a lasting impact on my work.”

Alex also shared a story on developing a friendship with one of the military personnel, Martin.

He took time to get know him, speaking what little Spanish he knew, and at the end of the trip, Alex was able to give him a Bible in Spanish. “I remember how deeply he looked back and forth at the Bible and at me, and told me, ‘This is the first Bible I have ever actually owned for myself.’

For me, that was it. My eyes were open to not only physical healing, but spiritual healing as well.”

For the Hamiltons, the next chance to travel abroad came about during the Global Missions Health Conference, an annual event hosted by the Christian Medical and Dental Association. There they learned that Samaritan’s Purse was just beginning to look

at starting a rotation program with medical students. They expressed sincere interest, shared contact information, and moved on not knowing what would happen next.

Shortly, thereafter, they received a call from Samaritan’s Purse asking if they would be willing to go as the first medical students in the program, figuring out the details as they went. This led to their second international trip during medical school to Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya.

For Shannon, there is one specific patient from Tenwek that she would never forget. His name was Abdi, a 16-year-old who had been in the hospital for about 160 days by the time she and Alex arrived. He was in the intensive care unit for GuillainBarre Syndrome, a rapid onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system. As Shannon recalls, the 16-year-old boy who should be at school or playing with friends was wasting away in a hospital unit. She learned that Abdi had required ventilator support on and off for weeks. Unlike Western medical facilities that have resources available to help shorten the clinical course of this condition and reduce poor outcomes, there was no IV immunoglobulin or plasmapheresis to aid him in recovery.

“At first, I thought, this is so unfair. Just because this teenager is living in another part of the world, he may likely have a worse clinical outcome. I bet we could fly in the necessary medical equipment to help him. And on and on I thought about how to fix him,” said Shannon. “But God brought ultimate restoration to Abdi—what I didn’t know was that during his 8-month hospital stay, Abdi gave his life to Jesus.”

“The Lord redeems and uses even the worst circumstances to draw others to Himself. During daily rounds in the hospital, our medical team stood beside Abdi’s bed daily, praying for not only his recovery, but for his mother to know the love of Jesus Christ in her own life,” she said.

During the evening of the gala, Alex said, “We’re just one couple, and we’re so grateful that we could share our perspective.

However, LUCOM is doing so much more than just what you see in our lives.”

“For us, there are lots of exciting things ahead, but the main goal is to continue to share the love of Christ and keep Him the focus,” added Shannon. “We are to live as lights in the world.”

Currently, the Hamiltons are in residency training in Indianapolis at St. Vincent Hospital.

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Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education

Shannon serves in pediatrics at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital and Alex in general surgery.

They considered themselves fortunate to have found a mission-minded church to plug into, with numerous physicians who are interested in or a part of missions, including one of their program directors.

Near the end of the event, Drs. Kathy Bogacz and Eric Miller presented LUCOM’s annual awards to briefly recognize individuals and organizations who partnered with OCCE in supporting medical outreach all over the world.

The Salvation Army of Lynchburg, Samaritan’s Purse, and First United Methodist Church-Martinsville all received the Ecclesiastes 4:12 award.

This specific award, inspired

by Scripture, was given to

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those have helped advance the mission of LUCOM and shown dedication to excellence in the practice of service toward their fellow man, lifelong learning, and the advancement of medical knowledge.

year who made a tremendous impact in serving others in the spirit of fellowship and kindness; their actions refresh and revive.

It is the highest award from the Office of Clinical Collaboration and Education.

Sigmund P. Seiler, MD, received the Ronnie B. Martin Award, given on behalf of his work as a student-doctor mentor and within Family Medicine as well as portraying discipleship, knowledge, and love in the work of medical outreach.

Special recognition was also provided that evening to local businesses who provided donations for the annual silent auction, such as Andy Dyson: Reflections of Nature Photography, Benjamins, Emerson Creek Pottery, Farm Basket, Freedom Aviation, Isabella’s Italian Trattoria, Joe Bean’s Express Espresso, LaHaye Recreation and Fitness Center, Liberty Station, Rookie’s, Sage Tryall Salon, and the Craddock Terry Hotel and Event Center.

Cathy Burleson was awarded the Onesiphorus Award inspired by 2 Timothy 1:16. The illustration used in this passage is of a mother cooling her baby’s fever by blowing on his/her forehead.

The house of Onesiphorus was that refreshment to Paul during his imprisonment. This award is given to only one recipient per

Plans for the fifth Helping Hands Gala are in development for next February. View images at Facebook.com/LibertyMedicine.

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Osteopathic Merry Melodies presents

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Osteopathic Merry Melodies Returns for Greatest Show Show three brings faculty, staff, and students together to celebrate the season and spread Christ’s message.

What once began as a one-time Christmas production in 2016 only continued for the sequel in 2017.

This past winter, LUCOM faculty and staff along with Liberty osteopathic medical students joined together once again for a continuation of Osteopathic Merry Melodies (OMEL). This time with a unique twist to the show; the cast and crew of OMEL took audience members on a whimsical journey of Vaudeville-style acts.

The idea for this year’s show was to take a step back in time to the early 20th century where folks would go to a theater to watch a live variety show. A typical American Vaudeville spectacle commonly included a series of separate, unrelated acts such as singers and musicians, comedians and dancers, trained animals, magicians and ventriloquists, strongmen, impersonators, acrobats, jugglers, athletes, and minstrels, all grouped together on a common bill.

With lights, special effects, snow, choreographed routines, a “ringmaster,” a special appearance by Elvis Presley, and so much more, OMEL was a night to remember.

As a new staff member, Jodi Mayo, administrative director of medical education, chose to be a part of OMEL to get to know her co-workers better. “I wanted to be a part of providing our students with a fun show and I absolutely

would recommend others be a part of the show. It creates a fun shared experience. These experiences deepen our relationships and help us see each other in new ways, not just as our positions or roles.”

Since members of the inaugural Class of 2018 were accepted and began their osteopathic education at LUCOM, the faculty and staff, year-after-year, pour into the lives of the student-doctors. While most medical schools have their own distinct culture to benefit students and employees, the culture at Liberty’s osteopathic medical college goes beyond the expected academic environment.

Through weekly prayer gatherings, Convocation services led by the students, academic counseling, meal trains, tailgating, off-campus community events, distinguished speakers and experts, end-of-theyear celebrations, maintaining a Christian environment, and even Osteopathic Merry Melodies … there is a unique, family-like culture at LUCOM that only gets stronger every year.

One of the random acts in the show was a witty performance from Yingguang Liu, PhD, and Joseph Brewer, PhD. Using “magic” to capture the audience, they portrayed two unforgettable characters (Drs. Mac and Cheese) and offered a component reminiscent of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. “I wanted to

contribute and be a blessing to the LUCOM family. The show targets people inside the LUCOM family and is one opportunity to bring the gospel message to our students,” said Dr. Liu, associate professor of microbiology.

With tickets to the show only costing a suggested donation of $5, the one-night performance this year maintained its record of welcoming over 500 guests.

This year, the OMEL planning committee opened up auditions and roles to the students. Angel Stevenson, Class of 2021, played a huge role as Dance Captain, assisting the director and her fellow classmates achieve a dramatic choreographed opening that featured the hit song “The Greatest Show” from the film “The Greatest Showman.”

“The first time I saw the show, I fell in love with Kristen Breedlove [director] and her passion for the theatre arts. Her creativity was just amazing and I knew I wanted an opportunity to work with and learn from her,” said Stevenson.

“The show encourages teamwork, creativity and the use of talents/ gifts that are commonly placed out of mind due to the rigors of medical school.”

“Dancing has been a part of my life ever since childhood, but since starting medical school, I hadn’t even so much as practiced some of the routines I had learned since childhood,” she added. “But Osteopathic Merry Melodies gave me an opportunity to use my talent for Christ’s glory! No other medical school, to my knowledge, would’ve ever afforded me such an opportunity. The best part is

that I made good friendships with many students and even some of the faculty as a result of Merry Melodies.”

Other acts within the show included dance routines that featured snowmen and Christmas sharks, a Christmas cookie skit, and live student musical performances featuring hit tracks from the film “Frozen.”

A traditional favorite that has been included every year is the unforgettable live pop/ hip-hop performance that features the Anatomical Sciences department; each year they showcase a one-ofa-kind music video which is behind them on the projector screen.

To incorporate LUCOM academic leadership, an extraordinary skit was written that brought Star Wars to the stage. LUCOM Jedi Deans battled epic foes such as Darth Boards and COMLEX Ren – names resembling required medical exams for student-doctors. The defeat of such villainous characters encouraged the students to always remember the holistic osteopathic philosophy of body, mind, and spirit.

Guests laughed, cried, and even danced their way through a night filled with song, slapstick comedy, and incredible memories, but, the show would not end that fateful winter’s night without a creative reminder of the real Christmas story.

This year, students portrayed a familiar scene from “A Charlie Brown

Christmas” and to bring it all together, Thomas Road Baptist Church Worship Pastor Scott Bullman sang “We Are The Reason” and led the audience in familiar Christmas songs.

“Each show we have done, we have never failed to give God all the glory and praise – it’s all done for Him! The late Dr. Jerry Falwell always said to reach out to all the people using whatever means necessary to bring the Gospel to them and this is just another way of accomplishing that great commission,” said Teresa Henderson, director of site development. “Each show has always had a wonderful message and heartfelt theme that ultimately pointed everyone to the true meaning of Christmas – the blessed Christ-child. All the laughs, the singing, the dancing, the costumes, etc. are great – but, in the end, it’s all about Him.” Osteopathic Merry Melodies featured 14 crew members and a stellar cast of 38 faculty, staff, and students of LUCOM. “I think the most memorable moment was singing Christmas carols with all of the faculty, staff, and student members before the doors opened on the night of the production,” said Hannah Thompson, Class of 2021. “The LUCOM culture is one of faith, family, and fun. This show is just another reminder that our faculty and staff care about the wellness of the students.”

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A very merry Student National Medical Association Christmas On Dec. 7, over 80 Liberty osteopathic medical students took a break from the rigors of studying to give back to the Lynchburg community during the second annual Very Merry Gift-Mas. The event, hosted by LUCOM’S chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), was held at the Jubilee Family Development Center, a nonprofit organization that helps at-risk youth to develop academically and socially.

Parents from all over the City of Lynchburg were invited to bring their children for a warm, cheerful holiday celebration with catered food and games. While LUCOM student-doctors played with the children, their parents were able to shop for Christmas gifts. New toys and games were donated by LUCOM students, faculty, staff, as well as the community, and were sold for only a nickel each.

LUCOM-SNMA vice president Daryl Turner, Class of 2021, said the event was a great way to help those in need during the holiday season without making them feel embarrassed.

“I think it’s incredible that as student-doctors we can give back through an event like this. Not only do we get to bring holiday cheer, but we also get to uplift our fellow man and care for them.”

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LUCOM-SNMA president Victoria Johnson, Class of 2021, said the club frequently seeks out opportunities to partner with area organizations. SNMA members often tutor students at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg.

“All of us come from different cultural backgrounds and have different experiences. As future physicians, that’s something that we need to take into account,” said Johnson. “As health care providers, we should be exposing ourselves to the communities we serve because it will help us care for our patients better.”

Angie Tseng, Class of 2020, agreed. “I think it can be so easy for us to hide behind our white coats and forget about the responsibility we have. We need to be out in Lynchburg bridging the gap and talking with the people we treat.”

Lynchburg Mayor Treney Tweedy also stopped by the celebration to visit with families.

She praised Liberty’s osteopathic medical students for wanting to be involved in the community.

“We are so blessed to live in a community where our college students want to give back to the city they live in most of the year.”

Tweedy said she welcomes more chances to partner with LUCOM. “Whatever they want to do, we want to be there to help.”

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Key: (1) LUCOM student-doctors host an Open Mic Night welcoming the New Year at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre on the campus of Liberty University, (2) LUCOM American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians Gynecologists host Carrie Champine, DO, discipline chair for obstetrics and gynecology at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, (3) LUCOM American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians host an Autism Panel featuring medical providers and parents of children with Autism, (4) LUCOM Student Services hosts “Sunshine and Snacks� for mental break, (5) LUCOM Student American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine hosts Joanna Thomas, MD and Caroline Wesley, ATC, to speak to students about their experiences as women in the field of sports medicine, (6) LUCOM Student American Academy of Osteopathy hosts Dean Gionakos MD, FACP, director of medical education at Centra, to present on having crucial conversations with patients, (7) LUCOM Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG) hosts Nathan Lewis, MD, FACEP, clerkship director at Virginia Commonwealth University, to speak on emergency medicine residencies, (8) LUCOM student-doctors wear green in support of DO Day of Wellness, (9) LUCOM Student Osteopathic Medical Association hosts a pancake fundraiser to support Relay for Life, (10) LUCOM hosts Pastor Alton Mosley Jr., to speak on the topic of black history and reconciliation, (11) LUCOM hosts David Baggett, PhD, professor of apologetics at Liberty University, for weekly convocation service, and (12) LUCOM-EMIG hosts service day at Providence Veterans Farm.

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Student Organization Highlights

Trained to Stop the Bleeding

Dodge a Ball for Hope of Life

The LUCOM student chapter of the Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (AMOPS) hosted a Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) workshop earlier in the year to help prepare them for military service.

The Medical Outreach Interest Group hosted its annual Dodgeball fundraiser earlier in the year with all proceeds sent to Hope of Life International Child Rescue in Guatemala.

TCCC is now used by all services in the U.S. Military and has quickly become widespread in the U.S. civilian sector as well. Research has shown that military units that have trained all of their members in TCCC have documented the lowest incidence of preventable deaths among their casualties in the history of modern warfare.

There are three phases of TCCC: Care Under Fire, Tactical Field Care, and TACEVAC Care.

Casualties, both military and civilian, with a severe wound can bleed to death in under three minutes.

LUCOM-AMOPS focused on the importance of using a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and how good first responder care is critical.

The student chapter of this national organization is open to all LUCOM studentdoctors in the military or public health service. The chapter serves as liaison between on-campus military students, those on rotations, military alumni, and organizations.

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Teams consisted of LUCOM student-doctors, spouses of students, and Liberty University students. Teams competed in a double elimination style tournament, all with their sights on the golden trophy. This year’s event also included a costume contest with prizes going to the most creative costumes.

Child Rescue by Hope of Life International is a trained team sent into some of the most remote communities of Guatemala to find children weakened by malnutrition and disease that need emergency care.

Monetary donations are used to help rescue children by rescue teams sent in to carry sick children to the hospital. Rescue teams make sure children receive urgent medical care while other teams work in the village to eliminate disease and hunger with clean water and food.

ShaDOw Day gives inside look in the day of a Liberty osteopathic medical student Gary L. Patton, PhD, assistant dean of admissions and student services. Over 40 non-medical students were in attendance.

LUCOM student organizations, American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP), and Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA) hosted their annual “ShaDOw Day” this past spring. The goal behind the event is to showcase the life of a studentdoctor and their daily experiences to undergraduate students from Liberty University as well as the University of Lynchburg and Randolph College.

The target audience was medically interested and medical school bound undergraduate students. Participants received a lunch with LUCOM students along with a detailed tour of the Center for Medical and Health Sciences, an osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) explanation and demonstration, a question-and-answer panel, and an admissions presentation by

“I think getting exposure into what an actual day of medical school is like was something that I never really had as an undergraduate,” said Reid Mitchell, Class of 2021 and LUCOM-ACOFP representative.

“It can be nerve wracking not knowing what is ahead of you and anything that can settle those feelings can be beneficial. Being able to get advice from people who meet all the requirements to get into a medical school is so important and LUCOM can be a great blessing in that way.”

Chris Garnett, Class of 2021 and LUCOM-SOMA representative, led the planning efforts for the event alongside Mitchell. “During my undergraduate years, I did not feel as if I received adequate advising from the advisors at my university and I felt unprepared when it came time for me to start the process of applying to medical schools,” he said. “For this reason, after getting to LUCOM, I decided to pursue a position in a club that would allow me to get involved in events like this and provide undergraduate students with information that I wish I had when I was in their shoes.”

A significant piece of advice that Garnett often shares with others is that anyone seriously interested in attending medical school should speak with current medical students and ask

them how they managed to be successful in gaining acceptance to medical school.

“Applying to medical schools is a long and difficult process and current medical students are more familiar with this process than most university advisors.

This makes medical students an invaluable source of information when it comes to advising premedical undergraduate students,” Garnett said.

For Mitchell, he believes that physicians get to be a part of peoples’ lives like no other

profession while using one’s talents to uncover your patient’s issues and build a relationship at the same time.

“My advice would be to make sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. It is such a long road just to get into medical school let alone complete it,” Mitchell said.

“If you don’t have a passion for hurting, broken, or sick people then you’re not in the right field.

If you do have that passion then take every opportunity during school to encounter them.”

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DATA that makes A DIFFERENCE LUCOM Furthers Research Programs

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The practice of medicine is ever-changing due to advancements in biomedical and clinical research. Every year, doctors solve problems and make new discoveries that have the potential to cure disease, promote health, and improve the lives of patients.

At LUCOM, the Center for Research opens new doors to research possibilities as faculty and student-doctors work together to tackle significant challenges for human health and wellbeing. This has been the focus since 2014, when Liberty’s osteopathic college opened with a focus on research in order to advance medicine for the future of patient care. When it opened, the Center for Research had only five LUCOM faculty members involved in projects using the lab facilities. It has now grown to include over 15 faculty members, along with eight investigators who utilize the labs. Additionally, Liberty osteopathic medical student involvement in research has significantly grown to more than 45 students within the last few years.

The Center for Research is led by Joseph W. Brewer, PhD, associate dean of research and associate professor of immunology. The space is 8,500 square feet and features five molecular and cellular research labs, a dedicated animal facility, and one large lab for shared equipment. State-ofthe-art instrumentation allows for gene expression analysis, purification and biochemical analysis of proteins, histology and microscopy, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, live-cell imaging, ultrasound analysis, mammalian cell culture, and microbial studies.

“While a new college, we have the ability to make LUCOM recognizable, both nationally and across the world, as an excellent research institution. It takes hard work, and it takes time. However, I am confident that our faculty,

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staff, and students, with God’s help, can make this happen”, said Dr. Brewer.

One of LUCOM’s key efforts centers around the unique lecture series sponsored and coordinated by the Center for Research – the Biomedical Frontiers Seminar Series (BFSS). These special events feature research experts, doctors, and scientists from all over the country who engage and speak directly to Liberty’s osteopathic medical students. Most commonly presented topics focus on physiology, microbiology and infectious diseases, molecular and cellular biology, and osteopathic manipulative medicine.

It doesn’t stop there as LUCOM’s Center for Research offers preclinical research electives each summer for the medical students. These monthlong sessions provide hands-on experience that directly relates to biomedical and clinical research practices and include a mentored research project. Students are able to participate in hypothesis development, designing and performing experiments, collecting and interpreting data, drawing conclusions, and presenting their findings to peers and colleagues.

“All students will learn how research is done, which will help them interpret research findings throughout their careers. Some students will actually learn that they enjoy research, and it will become part of their career,” said R. James Swanson, PhD, professor of anatomy. “Correct medical knowledge, techniques, and prescriptions are all moving targets.

Students need to understand this and apply it to the practice of medicine.”

As research mentors, the faculty members teach students how to use and interpret biostatistics, how to read and critique research literature, how to write scientifically, and how

to maintain a safe laboratory environment.

“They [the students] learn the real nature of biomedical science. Conducting scientific research gives them a more realistic appreciation of the meaning and limitations of science and the significance of science in medicine. Our students have done some great things here,” said Yingguang Liu, PhD, associate professor of microbiology.

LUCOM student-doctors also gain an understanding of required elements in the research enterprise, including, but not limited to, manuscript preparation, grant development, and the regulations that govern the inclusion of animal models and human subjects in research projects. “The goal for LUCOM research is excellence.

We want to do excellent work that can be shared with and respected by the broader academic and medical community. We want to move medical knowledge forward, all while enhancing the educational environment and experience for our students,” said Dr. Brewer. “To this end, the Center for Research continually works closely with Liberty’s Office of Sponsored Programs, the Research Ethics Office, the Institutional Review Board, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Institutional Biosafety Committee.”

“In general, the push for research is a natural arm of any medical school to advance the knowledge base and stimulate thought and curiosity among students and faculty. By pushing the envelope of what is known, better methods of treatment and understanding of disease are realized. As a consequence, prospective students and future faculty are attracted to such an institution. I think all the projects to date have demonstrated creativity and are of interest to their respective fields,” said Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD, assistant professor of physiology.

“ MEDICINE is striving to be EVIDENCE-BASED, which means MEDICAL PRACTICE should be based on VERIFIED CLINICAL EVIDENCE obtained through rigorous RESEARCH. A good physician can CONTRIBUTE to evidence-based medicine by CONDUCTING his/her OWN research. MEDICAL SCHOOL is the BEST – sometimes the ONLY – opportunity for FUTURE PHYSICIANS to learn the ART OF SCIENCE. YINGGUANG LIU, PhD, associate professor of microbiology, pictured with medical student John Lin, Class of 2021

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECT Proviral genes and cancer biology & creation science Expression and role of proviral genes in breast cancer cells

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LUCOM FACULTY RESEARCH PROJECTS

Medical education Osteopathic manipulative medicine education for OMS-III students Amanda Baright, DO Inflammation and GI tract dysfunction Post-operative ileus and Shigellosis using mouse models Anthony J. Bauer, PhD Nutrition and diabetes Dietary habits in Virginia counties with high incidence of diabetes Andrew J. Behnke, MD Cellular stress and immunology Cellular response to stress in the endoplasmic reticulum Joseph W. Brewer, PhD Kidney physiology and diet in disease Role of diet in mouse models of human disease Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD Undergraduate and medical education Development of organic chemistry and biochemistry educational materials Mark E. Hemric, PhD Clinical scholarly writing and neurological disorders Case reports and review articles Carl R. Hoegerl, DO Neurological tests and central nervous system lymphatics in humans Analysis of long-term memory and MRI analysis of brain lymphatics Charles R. Joseph, MD Behavioral sciences Emotional intelligence, addiction, and pain management Linda S. Mintle, PhD Medical education Academic metrics as predictive tools for medical school outcomes Matthew K. Pelletier, PhD Clinical scholarly writing Review articles for family physician publications Raena Pettitt, DO Medical education Factors influencing academic success in medical school Scott M. Severance, PhD Reproductive physiology and embryonic development using mouse models Effect of vaping substances on fetal development R. James Swanson, PhD Medical education Development of an osteopathic oriented anatomical dissection guide Amanda E. Troy, PhD

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SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES 2018-19 The following list of publications provides an extensive look at the scholarly writing of Liberty osteopathic medical students and faculty from this past academic year as well as highlights the continued growth of research programs.

Clifford, P.S., Ferguson B.S., Jasperse J.L., Hill M.A. Arteriolar vasodilation involves actin depolymerization. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2018 Aug 1;315(2):H423-H428. doi: 10.1152/ ajpheart.00723.2017. Epub 2018 May 4.

PMID: 29727217 Gajendran, M., Bauer, A. J., Buchholz, B., et al. Ileocecal anastomosis type significantly influences long-term functional status, quality of life, and healthcare utilization in postoperative Crohn’s disease patients independent of inflammation recurrence.

Am J Gastroenterol. 2018 Apr;113(4):576583. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2018.13. Epub 2018 Mar 6. PMID: 29610509 Liu, Y. DNA barcodes show gaps between species and support recent common bottleneck. Journal of Creation. 2018 Dec;32(3):7-9.

Mintle, L. Opioid abuse and dependence: Update in neuroscience and treatment.

Christian Counseling Today, 2018 21(4):1820.

Mintle, L. Pain Management: What the latest research tells us. Christian Counseling Connection. 2018. 22(2): 14-16.

Mintle, L. Strategies for family conflict. In J.C. Thomas (Ed.). Counseling Techniques.

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishers.

2018 Oct 16.

Mueller, O., Moore, D.W., Giovannucci, J., Etter, A.R., Peterson, E.M., Mudge, A., and Liu, Y. Expression of human endogenous retroviruses in peripheral leukocytes during the menstrual cycle suggests coordinated hormonal regulation. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses, 2018 Nov;34(11):909-911. doi: 10.1089/AID.2018.0059. Epub 2018 Aug 15. PMID: 29978711 Nagalakshmi, V.K., Li, M., Sha, S., Gigliotti, J.C., Klibanov, A.L., Epstein, F.H., Chevalier, R.L., Gomez, A.,SequeiraLopez, M.L.S. Changes in cell fate determine the regenerative and functional capacity of the developing kidney before

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and after release of obstruction. Clin Sci (Lond). 2018 Dec 5;132(23):2519-2545. doi: 10.1042/CS20180623. PMID: 30442812 Pettitt, R.M., Ilustrisimo, T.L., Song, J.Y., and Kim, A.J. Newborn disorders and nutritional guidance, Osteopathic Family Physician, 2018 10(6):20-26.

Skinner, C.R., Gigliotti, J.C., Ku, K.M., and Tou, J.C. A comprehensive analysis of the composition, health benefits, and safety of apple pomace. Nutr Rev. 2018 Dec 1;76(12):893-909. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/ nuy033. PMID: 30085116 Swartz, D., Contributing Reviewer: Wick M. J. Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy (2nd Ed.) USA: Mayo Clinic.

2018.

Wang, T-P., Su, Y-C., Chen, Y., Severance, S., Hwang, C-C., Liou, Y-M., Lu, C-H., Lin, K-L., Zhu, R. J., and Wang, E-C. Corroboration of Zn(II)–Mg(II)-tertiary structure interplays essential for the optimal catalysis of a phosphorothiolate thiolesterase ribozyme. RSC Adv. 2018 8:32775-32793. doi: 10.1039/C8RA05083J Hadfield, M.J, Kota, S.V., Siragusa, S.M., Pettitt, R.M. Skin & soft tissue infections: it’s more than just MRSA. Osteopathic Family Physician. 2019 Jan/Feb;11(1):2832.

Mintle, L.S., Greer, C.F., and Russo, L.E. A longitudinal assessment of medical student emotional intelligence (EI) over the first two years of medical training. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2019 Apr 1;119(4):236242. doi: 10.7556/jaoa.2019.039. PMID: 30907962 Nguyen, T.D., Davis, J., Eugenio, R.A., and Liu, Y. Female sex hormones activate human endogenous retrovirus type k through the OCT4 transcription factor in T47D breast cancer cells. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2019 Mar;35(3):348-356. doi: 10.1089/AID.2018.0173. Epub 2019 Jan 22.

PMID: 30565469

ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTATIONS 2018-19 As a student and as a faculty member, research is an important component of the education process.

The following list features abstracts and oral conference presentations by Liberty osteopathic medical students, faculty, and undergraduate students.

Bauer, A.J. Crohn’s disease: research advances in etiology, treatment and surgical outcomes. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA. April 4-7, 2019.

Behnke, A.J. Closed loop systems in type 1 - sensors versus pumps? Presented at the 4th Diabetes Days in Macedonia Conference, Scientific Association of Endocrinologists and Diabetologists of Macedonia, Krushevo, Macedonia; March 29-31, 2019.

Behnke, A.J. Insulin pumps and sensors. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA. April 4-7, 2019.

Bell, P. OPP in the ER. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA; April 12, 2018.

Beshai, R., and Hoegerl, C. A case of a cervical pannus without rheumatoid arthritis or trauma.

Presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA; May 4-10, 2019.

Bojarski, L.G., Forker, L.M., Bayne, K.A., Illustrimo, T.L., Stevenson, A., and Joseph, C.R. Assessing prevalence of validated risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease: toward developing a risk scale.

Presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Boyer, M.E., and Creighton, S. Advancing ultrasound techniques in Guatemala. Presented at the Osteopathic Medical Education (OMED) Conference, San Diego, CA; October 5-9, 2018.

Carter, J.W., Smith, K.W., Christine, K., Okimoto, R.T., and Swanson, R.J. Vaping condensate intraperitoneal exposure to in vitro mouse embryos.

FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019. Also presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Charles, E.J., Tian, Y., Zhang, A., Wu, D., Mehaffey, J.H., Gigliotti, J.C., Klibanov, A.L., Kron, I.L., and Yang, Z. Pulsed Ultrasound Attenuates the Hyperglycemic Exacerbation of Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury through Vagus Nerve and Acetylcholine Signaling.

Presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON; May 4-7, 2019.

Choudhury, T. and Jensen, Z. Osteopathic manipulative treatment improves recovery from rotator cuff tears. Presented at the American Osteopathic College of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Mid-Year Meeting and Scientific Seminar, Chicago, IL; March 21-24, 2019.

Fedin, A. Challenges and tips for moving from AOA to ACGME. Discussion Table Host. American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Program Directors Workshop, Kansas City, MO; March, 2018.

Fedin, A. Adult health maintenance: decoding the US preventive services task force. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA. April 4-7, 2019.

Ferguson, D.A., Greer, C.F. and Mintle, L. Assessing the role of mobile devices in binge television viewing.

Presented at the National Communication Association Annual Convention, Salt Lake City, UT; November 811, 2018.

Hoegerl, C. Movement disorders. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA. April 4-7, 2019.

Joseph, C.R., Benhatzel, C.M., Hopper, O.M., and Lockwood, M.D. Novel method utilizing arterial spin labeling single acquisition 3d echo planar imaging for determining CNS glymphatic clearance.

Presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA; May 4-10, 2019.

Klink, D. Common pediatric eye problems and examination techniques for the primary care physician. Presented at the Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association (VOMA) Spring CME Conference. Williamsburg, VA; April 12, 2018.

Kribs, J.W., Toler, A., Mintle, L.S., and Dyson, A. Integrating pain management competencies into the osteopathic medical school curriculum. Presented at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.; April 10-12, 2019.

Key: LUCOM faculty are in underlined bold font and LUCOM student-doctors are in bold font.

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Lee, D. H., and Behnke, A.J. Hypercalcemia from orange juice – an unusual presentation of the milk alkali syndrome. Presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Lee, E.H., Lutz, R.M., Brewer, J.W., and Gigliotti, J.C. Determining the physiological interaction between diet and alcohol intake in male mice. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019.

Liu, Y. Integrated regulation of class II human endogenous retroviruses in a breast cancer cell line.

Presented at the 8th International Conference on Creationism, Pittsburgh, PA; July 29-August 1, 2018.

Lockwood, M.D., Benhatzel, C.M., Hopper, O.M., Stern, L., and Joseph, C.R. Novel method utilizing arterial spin labeling single acquisition 3D echo planar imaging for determining CNS waste clearance by the glymphatic system. Presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Lutz, R.M., and Gigliotti, J.C. Re-characterizing the murine chronic angiotensin II model of cardiovascular and renal injury. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_ supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019.

Martin, V.N., Cox, M.D., Thompson, H.R., Choudhury, T., Bantseev, J.A., and Bauer, A. J.M. Exogenous synthetic DNA-based immunomodulatory agonists modulate postoperative ileus. Presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Mintle, L. Preconference workshop: Chronic Pain with Michael Lyles, MD and Workshop: The Neuroscience of Addiction Relapse at the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) National Conference, Dallas, TX. September 27-29, 2018.

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Mintle, L. CME-motivational interviewing. Presented at the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine. Lynchburg, VA; November 2018.

Mintle, L. Motivational interviewing. Presented at the CE Addiction Conference, Lynchburg, VA; March, 2019.

Patel, J., Rose, C., Lutz, R.M., Quan, D., Wiley, K., and Gigliotti, J.C. Determining the effect of diet on liver and renal health in a mouse model of chronic alcohol intake. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_ supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019. Also presented at Via Research Recognition Day, VCOMVirginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Patterson, E., The history of Virginia’s medical futility legislation. Presented at the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity Northeast - Mid Atlantic Region Annual Educational Conference, October 8, 2018.

Pelletier, M.K. and Leonard, T.O. Data-driven approaches to student success at a college of osteopathic medicine. Presented at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.; April 10-12, 2019.

Pogarcic, D., Smith, K., Lutz, R.M., and Gigliotti, J.C. Anesthetic influences outcomes of the chronic angiotensin II infusion model in mice. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019.

Quan, D., Wiley, K., Lutz, R.M., Rose, C., Patel, J., and Gigliotti, J.C. Determining the effect of diet on renal health and function in 2 strains of mice. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019. Also presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Rose, C., Patel, J., Wiley, K., Quan, D., and Gigliotti, J.C. Determining the effect of diet on a novel model of fecal peritonitis in mice. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_ supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019. Also presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Ryu, H., Tawil, B., Deuth, D., Wagner, M., and Behnke, A.J. Dietary differences in Virginia counties with different diabetes rates.

Presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Selwyn, J. Rapidly growing left atrial myxoma with patent foramen ovale, and left-to-right shunt presenting with dyspnea.

Presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine Congress, San Diego, CA; February 17-20, 2019.

Severance, S., McGlauflin, J., and Jones, J. Learning to thrive: learning strategies for medical school and beyond. Presented at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.; April 10-12, 2019.

Severance, S., McGlauflin, J., and Ojuola, O. Identifying unspoken differences and goals in medical school to enhance student learning. Presented at the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Annual Meeting, Roanoke, VA; June 8-11, 2019.

Swanson R.J., Chen X, Chen Y, Jiang J, Miao X, Shao X, Zheng S, Kolb J. Nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) causes instantaneous cellular membrane modulation by altering calreticulin expression. Presented at the 7th International Conference Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology (ICBEB 2018), Nanjing University and Medical University, Nanjing, China; October 17-20, 2018.

Swanson R.J. Nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) cause neuromuscular disruption in rats. Presented at the Hangzhou University and Medical College, Graduate Seminar, Hangzhou, China; October 22, 2018.

Swanson R.J. Design in biology. Presented at the Shandong University, Undergraduate Seminar, Ji-nan, China; October 23, 2018.

Wiley, K., Quan, D., Lutz, R.M., Rose, C., Patel, J., and Gigliotti, J.C. Determining the effect of diet on weight gain and metabolic dysfunction in 2 strains of mice. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019. Also presented at the Via Research Recognition Day, VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, VA; February 22, 2019.

Smith, K.W., Carter, J.W., Christine, K., Okimoto, R.T., Stenlund, K., and Swanson, R.J. In vivo mouse embryo growth with exposure to E-cig vapor. FASEB J, 2019 Apr 1;33(1)_supplement. Presented at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; April 6-9, 2019.

Schuller, C. and Stuhlreyer, M. Growing the next generation of professionals: utilizing obstetric simulation in the women’s health course as a foundation for inter-professional education and collaboration. Presented at the Association for Professors in Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) Martin L. Stone, MD, Faculty Development Seminar, Maui, HI; January 6-9, 2019.

Key: LUCOM faculty are in underlined bold font and LUCOM student-doctors are in bold font.

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FUNDED ACTIVE RESEARCH GRANTS Anthony J. M. Bauer, PhD Type: Extramural grant awarded by InDex Pharmaceuticals AB Status: New Title: TLR-9 oligonucleotide IDX9059 prevention of postoperative ileus Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD Type: Extramural grant awarded by the American Osteopathic Association Status: New Title: Determining the effect of biological sex and therapy on diet-induced alterations in liver and kidney health in mice Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD Type: Extramural grant sub-contract awarded by the National Institutes of Health Status: Ongoing Title: Renal mechanisms of blood pressure regulation and salt sensitivity by collectrin

Anthony J. M. Bauer, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: Ongoing Title: Abdominal focused hyperthermic ultrasound prevents postoperative ileus Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: New Title: Characterizing the physiological and immunological outcomes of the chronic angiotensin IIinduced mouse model of hypertension and kidney injury

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Jeffrey L. Jasperse, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: New Title: Instrumentation for vascular physiology studies Charles R. Joseph, MD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: New Title: Determining possible correlation of cardiac chronotropic incompetence and reduced perfusion/ glymphatic clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease Yingguang Liu, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: Ongoing Title: Effects of antiretroviral agents on HERV-K and on cancerous properties of T47D breast cancer cell line Scott M. Severance, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: New Title: Learning to thrive: learning strategies for medical school and beyond R. James Swanson, PhD Type: Intramural grant awarded by LUCOM Status: New Title: In vitro mouse embryo growth – exposure to e-cig vapor

CONGRATULATIONS Hannah Thompson | First Place Basic Research LU RESEARCH WEEK 2019 Congratulations to Liberty osteopathic medical student Hannah Thompson, Class of 2021, on her achievement of earning First Place Basic Research during Liberty University’s Research Week 2019.

Thompson worked alongside Anthony J.M. Bauer, PhD, associate professor of physiology (left of Thompson), on a research project titled “A Murine Model of Shigellosis: Pathophysiology of Shiga Toxin-2 Secreting Citrobacter Rodentium.” Together, they performed basic science gastroenterology research, studying the pathogenesis of a specific bacterial strain of E. coli, O157:H7, that releases a shiga-toxin, and the use of a decoy membrane receptor as a therapeutic treatment option for Shigellosis.

Thompson recalls that, during her undergraduate studies, she had the opportunity to participate in GI research evaluating the use of IgY antibodies from chicken eggs as a therapeutic treatment option for Rotavirus. “As a student researcher, I was able to present my GI research at a symposium that was attended by Dr. Bauer. After the presentation, we talked and I got plugged into his lab for the following summer.” Dr. Bauer and Thompson collaborated on various projects as she entered LUCOM. After

matriculation, she was able to continue some of the same GI studies and assist in new research projects in Bauer’s lab.

“I specifically chose to study both Rotavirus and Shigellosis, as these are two common infections that claim the lives of many children in developing countries every year,” she said. “The hope was that we would develop a treatment option for these conditions that could one day be used overseas to save the lives of numerous children.” Thompson received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Liberty University. “I knew that the mission-focused and Christian environment was the setting in which I wanted to continue my graduate medical education.

The faculty and staff at LUCOM are what makes the environment so incredible, as they have exemplified compassion and empathy both in and outside of the classroom.”

Research Week 2019 is a multidisciplinary annual event sponsored by the Graduate School, the Center for Research and Scholarship, and the Jerry Falwell Library. This event is designed to highlight excellent research and scholarship produced by Liberty University students.

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Assistant Professor Receives AOA Biological Research Grant, Credits LUCOM Mission for Continued Work and Student Involvement Joseph C. Gigliotti, PhD, was awarded a grant on April 22, 2019, from the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) for his research on “Determining the Effect of Biological Sex and Therapy on Diet-Induced Alterations in Liver and Kidney Health in Mice” – a project based on a personal interest focusing on nutrition and kidney health. With the grant approved this past April, the project officially began this fall.

With an Italian heritage, Dr. Gigliotti credits this project as inspiration from his family. “My father is in the restaurant business, so food has always been a major part of my life. He viewed food not only as a source of energy but as a critical part of life and health. Being interested in health

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and disease, it was easy for me to combine my interests in nutrition, biochemistry, and physiology.”

As a basic scientist (PhD) serving at LUCOM as an assistant professor of physiology, animal models are critical tools for understanding disease processes.

For Dr. Gigliotti, he always had concerns about the diets fed to animals as they poorly represent how most Americans actually eat.

“A few years ago, I began to experiment with different diet formulations to see if we could recapitulate the same complex nutritional inadequacies reported in Americans,” he said. “After several rounds of animal studies and diet formulations, we now have a diet that adequately models the average nutrient intake of

Western societies. Thus far, our studies with this diet suggest that the liver and kidney are significantly influenced by dietary changes, often within the first few months of diet initiation.”

The AOA grant is focused on further describing the longterm effect of diet on the liver and kidney systems and how common therapies to reverse dietinduced diseases influence these outcomes. “We hope the results from this study will highlight the significance of diet in animal models of human disease and that nutrition is more than a causal factor for obesity.”

Dr. Gigliotti joined LUCOM in 2016. For much of his research to this point he credits the results found in several experiments

to the LUCOM student-doctors who contributed their time and willingness to learn. “I have had a wonderful time working with students in the laboratory. The mission and vision of LUCOM has created an exceptional environment full of wonderful students with a sincere desire to serve others,” said Dr. Gigliotti. “I came here with a desire to serve these students and help them accomplish their professional goals any way I can. Although many have limited or no prior experience in the laboratory, all have quickly learned their required tasks and have generated data that was critical for this application.”

Over the last three years, 14 LUCOM student-doctors have worked under Dr. Gigliotti as well as three LU undergraduate students. It is his hope that their experiences will instill appreciation for the work that occurs behind the scenes in developing their medical education and treatment options for their future patients.

“Research is not straightforward,

and the skills to develop a lab, manage it, write for grants, train others, and actually perform research (experimental design, experimental procedures, data acquisition, statistical analysis, and manuscript preparation) only develop with time and focus.

I hope the students who have research experience appreciate this and understand what is required if they ever want to develop a research program of their own.”

LUCOM is a faith-based institution that, as part of its mission, prepares osteopathic physicians who dedicate themselves to lifelong learning and the advancement of medical knowledge. As a Christian, Dr. Gigliotti feels responsible for the resources he has been provided and strives to deliver quality results from his and his student’s efforts. “Research and grant funding create a very competitive environment, and unfortunately predatory mentorship exists where mentors ‘consume’ their trainees in an effort to stay on top. I strive

to have clear boundaries in regard to ownership of material and establishing clear and obtainable goals for trainees to foster their development and have fruitful and productive professional relationships.”

For Dr. Gigliotti, there is no better place in his life right now that allows him to pursue his research goals and teach than LUCOM. “Research is a prime focus at many institutions, and while Liberty is developing a strong research identity, the opportunity and support I have at LUCOM to balance teaching and pursue research interests is a unique blessing.”

“During an uncertain period in my career, I heard about Liberty University, and I found the LUCOM job posting on their HR website, and have thanked God for this position ever since. I love my diverse roles here at LUCOM and the opportunities to assist with admissions, the curriculum, and research,” added Dr. Gigliotti.

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John J. Kopchick, PhD

Stephanie C. DeLuca, PhD

Mark F. Horstemeyer, PhD

BIOMEDICAL FRONTIERS SEMINAR SERIES The LUCOM Center for Research continued another year of hosting invited researchers and scientists as well as practicing physicians as part of its Biomedical Frontiers Seminar Series (BFSS). While the lectures and presentations during the BFSS are aimed at Liberty osteopathic medical students, they are open to those interested in biomedical and health sciences across campus. A majority of the topics covered this past year focused on healthcare data, infectious diseases, osteopathic manipulative medicine, microbiology, and physiology, as well as molecular and cellular biology.

SPEAKERS 2018-19 Brian K. Walsh, PhD, RRT, FAARC ‘07 Professor and Director of Respiratory Therapy | Liberty University School of Health Sciences Doing More with Data. Can Incorporating Big Data Improve Quality of Healthcare Delivery?

Jeffrey L. Jasperse, PhD Professor of Physiology | Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Blood Flow at the Onset of Exercise Phillip M. Gerk, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics | Virginia Commonwealth University – School of Pharmacy Enhancing Oral Bioavailability by Utilizing GRAS/Dietary Compunds David C. Whitcomb, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, & Physiology, Human Genetics | University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Precision Medicine: We did it!!!

Kendi Hensel, DO, PhD Associate Professor of Family Medicine | Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine Osteopathic Research: The Whats, Whys, and Hows John J. Kopchick, PhD Distinguished Professor and Goll-Ohio Eminent Scholar Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Growth Hormone, Mini-mice, Football, Dirty Shorts, and a New Drug Stephanie C. DeLuca, PhD Director, VTCRI Neuromotor Research Clinic | Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine The Future of Pediatric Neurorehabilitation: The Changing Landscape towards Intensive Therapeutic Bursts of Treatment Mark F. Horstemeyer, PhD Dean, School of Engineering | Liberty University Modeling and Simulating Brain Injuries Under Mechanical Loads

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“ “The BFSS provides an excellent OPPORTUNITY to LEARN about the most up-to-date RESEARCH being conducted in the FIELD. The seminar SPEAKERS are careful to use LANGUAGE that makes their research INTERESTING and understandable to a DIVERSE audience.

BARB LUTZ

Research Manager

“ “The BFSS benefits LUCOM faculty, staff, and students by bringing in OUTSIDE EXPERTS to share about THEIR respective areas of RESEARCH, and at the same time allows us to BUILD BRIDGES to other INSTITUTIONS as our guests see who we are and EXPERIENCE what LUCOM is all about.”

JOSEPH W. BREWER, PhD

Associate Dean for Research Associate Professor of Immunology Chair, Department of Molecular & Cellular Sciences

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ELECTIVE LUCOM Clinical Rotations Welcomes First International Medical Student A conversation began two years ago between Peter Bell, DO, dean of LUCOM, and then Liberty University Provost, Dr. Ronald Hawkins. Their discussion was centered on forming international relationships that would introduce, and enhance, international electives, not only for Liberty osteopathic medical students but also for other medical students around the world. Through Health Policy contacts and his colleagues in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Bell was introduced to academic and medical leaders from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Trinity College Dublin.

“Our goal was to begin building a foundation for an academic, clinical, cultural, and health policy exchange program,” said Dr. Bell. “Our office of Clinical Rotations would then partner with other international exchange programs to further advance our mission and develop a regular, planned exchange program for students and faculty.”

Fast forward to this past summer – LUCOM was in a unique position to welcome its first international medical

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student, Mahab Al-Zadjali, from RCSI. Having never heard of LUCOM or Liberty University, Mahab thought that LUCOM would be a great place to do an international elective after reading its mission statement.

“I learned about LUCOM last October as I was applying for external collaborative electives. I had a general idea of osteopathic medicine, but my goal would be to familiarize myself with the practical aspects and differences to allopathic medicine,” he said.

“It was also my hope to get a better idea of how an American healthcare system works, while developing my own skills and knowledge to become a better physician.”

Mahab had the opportunity to shadow Kimberly Combs, MD, a family medicine physician with Central Virginia Family Physicians (CVFP). He assisted her with patient consultations, performed physical exams and minor procedures, and managed patient care plans.

“The experience was wonderful in every way possible. This was an invaluable opportunity to get clinical experience in the United States as well as to live in the

home of a physician. I got right to work in the clinic, and that experience was very fulfilling, especially when patients were satisfied with my consultation,” he added.

Elective programs are designed to provide unique clinical exposure to some of the common medical problems throughout a community. They are chosen and arranged by each student, in collaboration with LUCOM’s Office of Clinical Rotations, and allow students to strengthen their knowledge and skills in specific disciplines and areas of either individual weakness or interest.

There are patient interactions daily, though for Mahab, it was the faculty and medical professionals that completed his experience.

LUCOM Continues “The faculty have been nothing short of extremely committed to better my experience as much as possible. The staff at CVFP did their best to teach me as much as possible from the first day till the last. I was able to form professional relationships with almost everyone at CVFP and all the faculty that I have met at LUCOM.” When asked if he would recommend a summer elective to other international medical students, he said, “Absolutely.

The osteopathic philosophy of treating the patient in a holistic approach shows how greatly patient satisfaction can be enhanced when dealing with more than just the medical issues.”

An area of patient care that stood out to Mahab was the emphasis on good bedside manner.

“My preceptor placed a lot of emphasis on ways to achieve a good bedside manner with all patients, on top of teaching about important guidelines to follow in treating common medical problems in a typical family practice,” he said. “I hope to practice in Family Medicine or Psychiatry, and so far, I have not seen a specialty that places such emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship as family medicine does. The level of trust required to maintain such a relationship is difficult to maintain, yet very therapeutically beneficial.”

The summer elective program lasts 30 days.

Following Mahab’s visit and rotation, LUCOM welcomed two other international students in July, both from Trinity College Dublin.

Talk N Tours

Avoiding the “Mystery on the Mountain” perception, LUCOM Talk N Tours (TNTs) welcomes community guests. The initiative is designed to provide an understanding of the facilities, the osteopathic profession, and the medical education available inside Liberty’s Center for Medical and Health Sciences.

LUCOM welcomed the following guests this past year: The Lynchburg Academy of Medicine, tour provided

by LUCOM student ambassadors Becky L. Martin, administrator of osteopathic integration, at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM) The Free Clinic of Central Virginia John Kopchick, PhD, professor of molecular biology, Ohio University - Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM) Residents from Runk & Pratt Senior Living Communities Mayor Edward Owens and Dr. Nettie Simon-Owens of South Boston, Va. Virginia State Senator Steve Newman and Patti Dempsey and Emily Hasty, legislative assistants

Email LUCOM@liberty.edu to request a Talk N Tour.

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LUCOM GRADUATES ITS SECOND GROUP OF OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS,

The Class of 2019

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Annual Hooding Ceremony recognizes Liberty medical students into osteopathic profession Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) honored its second class of osteopathic physicians through its annual Hooding Ceremony on Saturday, May 11. The Class of 2019 was conferred the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) off Liberty’s campus inside the original Thomas Road Baptist Church sanctuary.

“The past four years of medical school have been momentous, and the future shines brightly with hope and anticipation. You are only the second graduating class at LUCOM, but as a class you exceeded the national match rate for residencies,” said Kevin Corsini, PhD, senior associate dean of operations and external affairs. “Today continues to serve as a reminder of a vision cast over 40 years ago by Dr. Jerry Falwell. Class of 2019, you were chosen to attend LUCOM based on your character, capacity, and motivation, and it was truly a divine appointment that guided you to attend this medical school.”

In a nearly full sanctuary, the faculty of Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine hooded 151 new osteopathic physicians.

“For any student enrolling in a new college of medicine, there is much to be anticipated. The Class of 2019 joined the class ahead of them as pioneers. There was much planned and known, but still much to discover,” said LUCOM Dean Peter Bell, DO.

“The Class of 2019 contributed to the college’s culture, reputation, and functionality. Best plans became better plans due to the collaboration of students.

Many thanks to all who pledged themselves to the vision that has become LUCOM.” Before each student was hooded, Dr. Bell offered a message focusing on patients, milestones, and excellence. He reminded them of a quote from 19th century physician Dr. Rudolf Virchow who said, “Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way to make a living, but to ensure the health of the community.”

From day one, the Class of 2019, much like the inaugural Class of 2018, was held to a higher expectation and higher standard.

“Unfortunately, the entertainment industry is full of factious doctors engaged in misconduct, and the misdeeds of some real physicians are showcased in the media. As professionals, we must strive every day to ascend to the highest expectations of our profession,” added Dr. Bell. “Do not be that physician who loses focus of who they are, what is expected, and where God has called them to serve. By placing the patient first in the patient-physician relationship, you will achieve higher ground.”

Dr. Bell challenged the Class of 2019 by pushing their personal limits. “Challenge yourself. Do not settle on good when with effort better can be obtained, and with dedication best is achievable.

Ask the questions that others are not asking. Seek to understand beyond the prescribed parameters.

Demonstrate intellectual curiosity. Show passion. Do more than the curriculum demands.

Suck the marrow out of every experience. Medicine is not a job, it’s a calling! Live every day with purpose, focus, and in the pursuit of excellence.”

Following Dr. Bell’s remarks, each member of the Class of 2019 walked across the stage, one at a time and individually hooded. The action symbolically transitioned a Liberty osteopathic medical student to an osteopathic physician. Shortly before the conclusion of the Hooding Ceremony, the graduates recited aloud the Osteopathic Oath, led

by James Kribs, DO, associate professor of osteopathic manipulative medicine.

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“Thank you for investing yourselves in your medical training at LUCOM, and thank you for enriching our lives in the process.

We celebrate today not just your momentous accomplishment in becoming osteopathic physicians – but you – your lives,” said Timothy Leonard, MD, PhD, senior associate dean of academic affairs. “God has given you a life with a profound purpose: to carry His love to hurting people, to represent His goodness in in the lives of others – in your own families, in your patients and their families, in your colleagues, and in your communities. Steward God’s gifts and grace well. When you are tired and weary, remember that God is faithful and that He is our strength.”

Earlier that morning, before LUCOM’s Hooding Ceremony, members of the Class of 2019 were able to sit front row during Liberty’s 46th Commencement Ceremony at Williams Stadium, joining the rest of the university’s graduates. During Commencement, graduates and their families heard from Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Prof. Tony Nobles, Dr. Ben Carson, and keynote speaker U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Vice President Pence encouraged all the graduates to prepare their minds for action.

“You need to show that we can love God and love our neighbor at the same time through words and deeds. And you need to be

prepared to meet opposition. As the founder of this university (the late Dr. Jerry Falwell) often said, ‘No one ever achieved greatness without experiencing opposition’” Vice President Pence said.

He also challenged the graduates to “go forth for Liberty” and make their alma mater proud as their loved ones cheer them on.

“Decide here and now that you are going to stand firm, that you will put into practice all the things you learned here on Liberty Mountain, that you will never give up, that you will persevere, and that you will always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have.”

LUCOM welcomed Prof.

Nobles last fall during Grand Rounds and Dr. Carson visited LUCOM during his presidential campaign in 2015, he was also the keynote speaker for the inaugural Class of 2018 last spring.

As a whole, the Class of 2019 set the bar with the Match and specialty results with four graduates entering into anesthesiology, five in diagnostic radiology, 16 in emergency medicine, 45 in family medicine, five in general surgery, 31 in internal medicine, three in pediatric medicine, two in neurology, five in obstetrics, one in ophthalmology, one in orthopedic surgery, one in otolaryngology and facial plastic surgery, 11 in pediatrics, three in physical medicine and rehabilitation, seven in psychiatry, eight in traditional rotating internships, and one in urology.

Class of 2019 graduate Emily Hillaker, DO, will begin her residency next month in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

“It feels so crazy and awesome to be a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. As a kid, my family and I always had osteopathic physicians provide our care; I always found them caring and

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complete, and that’s why I chose osteopathy,” said Hillaker.

She entered LUCOM as a member of the inaugural class and took time off to build her family and then returned shortly thereafter. “It’s so surreal to be here now. I wouldn’t change anything.”

Alvin Nguyen, DO, credits the osteopathic profession with allowing him to have more tools in his medical toolbox. “Osteopathic Medicine has a loving nature to offer. At Liberty, I had loving preceptors, loving staff and faculty; being together at LUCOM truly helped us all grow a love for serving others.” He will begin his residency Family Medicine next month.

A fellow classmate and graduate of Nguyen’s, Arif Hafeez, DO, was in a unique position to have his sister (an osteopathic physician) walk across the stage with him and hood him in front of his family and friends. “It feels amazing and rewarding to have my sister here and hood me. It’s a very humbling feeling and I just wanted to make my parents proud.” He will also enter into Family Medicine.

Matthew DeMatteo, DO, also entered with the inaugural class but took one year to be a Teaching Fellow in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) under the guidance of LUCOM faculty. “It feels amazing to be here, a real privilege, and a real honor. LUCOM’s mission and vision lined up with great patientcentered care and the training from all the physicians and biomedical scientists really help shaped and mold the type of physician I’m going to be. It’s a real privilege.”

For his residency, DeMatteo chose Anesthesiology to make a real influence in people’s lives prior to surgery and critical care.

Faith, Family, Medicine:

LUCOM graduate shares adoption story

Acceptance into medical school is exciting, though the application and admission process to get there can be difficult. To be a new medical student and a parent at the same time? That can be challenging. Shortly after beginning LUCOM, incredible major life events intersected in an unexpected way for one of Liberty’s first osteopathic medical students, Marvin Cuevas, DO.

to adopt, specifically through the foster care system.”

When Cuevas was accepted to LUCOM, he and his wife, Deborah, had been fostering a 2-year-old boy, Rhys. Fostering children was very important for them and so was his medical education. At the time, they were living in Arkansas and it was Fall 2014 when Cuevas decided to attend Liberty.

“My responsibility to my family had to be the priority. As soon as we got the news, I contacted Dr. Timothy Leonard, (LUCOM senior associate dean) and Dr. Ronnie Martin, (LUCOM’s founding dean), and they graciously granted me the leave of absence. For me, this just confirmed that LUCOM was the place where I wanted to train to be a physician.

The character of the faculty and staff is what makes LUCOM such an amazing place to learn and grow,” Cuevas added.

Miles away, he would start LUCOM while his wife continued to care for their child in Arkansas.

“LUCOM was always my first choice,” he explained.

“Once I received my acceptance letter, I canceled all of my other interviews because I knew this was where I wanted to be. I chose LUCOM because of the culture of excellence that is so prevalent among the faculty and staff, as well as the commitment to biblical principles that are so important in my personal life.”

Fast forward through Cuevas’ first academic semester to Christmas break. It was during this time, he learned that Rhys was ready to be adopted, along with his younger twin siblings, Khye and Laikyn, who happened to be living nearly two hours away.

“Adoption has always been an important part of my life, as I was adopted at the age of 13 by my aunt and uncle,” he said. “My wife and I always knew that we wanted

In order to adopt the three children, Cuevas had to leave medical school temporarily. “For me, the decision to take a semester off was not a hard decision at all,” he said.

Without hesitation and missing a beat, the couple jumped into raising three children, all under the age of three. “It was one of the most challenging but rewarding seasons of our lives,” Cuevas said.

By leaving LUCOM temporarily, Cuevas became eligible to join the Class of 2019.

He recalls a message from Dr. Martin during orientation of his first fall semester back with the second class. “He told us that to succeed in medicine you have to have your priorities straight. For him, and me, this meant to put my faith first, my family second, and medicine third. I cannot tell you how true I have found this to be over the past four years both at school and in the hospital.”

Cuevas returned to school in Fall 2015. Jump to Sept. 2017 and the couple celebrated the birth of their youngest daughter, Magnolia, just as Cuevas was starting his third-year at LUCOM. Cuevas credits his wife as a “lifesaver” for him throughout medical school.

“For me, it’s all about my perspective, knowing that my identity is not found solely in medicine,” Cuevas said. “Keeping the perspective that God is with me through every challenge really allowed me to rest in the knowledge that I don’t control every aspect of my life. It allowed me to focus on the things that I could do and trust that God is capable of handling those things that are too big for me.”

As a 2019 graduate and a father of four, Cuevas and his family are headed to Somerset, Ky., where he will work at Lake Cumberland Regional Medical Center for his internal medicine residency.

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Fighting Fear, Pursuing Dreams

Twin sisters from Iraq Survive the perils of war to start new life in U.S. as osteopathic doctors For twin sisters of Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM), Noor and Sarah Alnazal, Class of 2019, achieving their dream of becoming osteopathic physicians became a reality on May 11. A moment nearly 15 years in the making.

In 2004, at age 17, the sisters began their medical journey in their native country of Irag. “We were both very studious,” Noor said, noting that high-schoolers in Iraq were automatically placed in a college based on their grades. “If you get the highest grade marks, you get placed into medical school. We both scored

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well, and we enjoyed it.” Despite their success at early age to begin medical training, the War on Terror was in full swing and the United States and coalition forces had entered into war with Iraq.

In an environment that quickly became violent, things changed rapidly for the sisters. “There was no government in control, and there were a lot of extremist groups that started ruling over the region. The trouble started about a year into the war, and then it escalated fast. There was no military or police. It was just the militias,” said Sarah.

For Noor and Sarah, as nontraditional Muslim women, it was a dangerous time. According to Noor, they were threatened by Islamic extremists because they did not cover their heads and many women, including some of their classmates and professors, were killed for not following Islamic tradition.

“We were born Muslim, but we didn’t practice,” Noor said. “We didn’t pray or fast or anything like that. That was something they (the extremists) didn’t like.” A few years later, as the oppression of women in Iraq became more severe, the twins were forced out

of school. It was then that they decided to take a bold risk and assist the U.S. forces. “We wanted to make a change, especially as women,” Sarah said. “Women were very oppressed. We wanted to be part of the change and do what we could. When you don’t have your freedom, you realize that you have to do something about it.”

They left their family who supported them even knowing that it could cost them their lives.

Because they spoke English well, the twins became translators for the U.S. Army and were stationed at Forward Operation Base Falcon in Baghdad. They would follow troops into areas that had been cleared of extremists and talk to residents. Despite the chaos and destruction that comes from war, it was clear that the Iraqi people still had hope.

“Businesses and homes were burnt down,” Noor said. “(Residents) said when they saw U.S. troops, they felt safer. The American forces did a lot more than just go to war. After we would clear an area from terrorists, we would go in and then help the businesses in the area and the schools and the hospitals. These were things that the media didn’t talk about. The U.S. military really did help with the rebuilding (of Iraq), not just with the war.”

Noor and Sarah experienced danger together. The worry they had for each other made them wonder if it would have been easier to go through it alone.

“There were nights I would lie awake and listen for Sarah to come back from a mission,” Noor said.

“When I heard her boots thump against the floor, then I knew she was safe.”

“It was scary, but we’re lucky,” Sarah added. “I didn’t want anything to happen to Noor. I kept thinking I would have felt better if it was just me (during the war).” But finishing medical

school was still a priority for the sisters. At night, they would continue to study in hopes of someday returning to medical school. As translators, they even had the chance to learn from Army medical personnel. “We would translate documents (at hospitals) because we had a medical background,” Noor said. “Sometimes, we’d even translate for the Iraqi medics when the American doctors would train them.”

“Sometimes, we would have American doctors or nurses go in to teach the Iraqi doctors about new technology,” Sarah added.

“The Iraqi doctors didn’t know much about what was going on around the world; they just took care of their critical cases at the hospital and moved them to the international base. People really appreciated the help of the American doctors, especially the patients who were injured during the war.”

Noor and Sarah served two years with the U.S. military and said the experience gave them a glimpse into what freedom could mean for them, including the freedom to work, as women, in any profession without fear of repercussions. “They (American troops) didn’t have a problem working with women,” Sarah said.

In 2009, the sisters moved to San Antonio, Texas. The years of living in danger and fearing the future were over. “When I arrived at the airport in Texas, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about explosions anymore,” Sarah said.

“I was safe in America.” Their family followed them three years later.

In Texas, they earned their bachelor’s degrees in biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio and then applied to multiple medical schools.

LUCOM was the first to offer them an interview, and when they visited, they decided they liked the program so much that they didn’t need to consider any other schools. They were accepted in 2015.

“At LUCOM, they get to know you as a person,” Sarah said. “I feel almost everyone knows who we are and where we come from.

They care about us as people.”

While enrolled as Liberty osteopathic medical students, Noor and Sarah reached a special milestone; they both became U.S. citizens, officially making America their home. Fast forward to 2019, at age 32, the sisters feel confident about where life has taken them and how they can use their past experiences to help their future patients. “I think going through challenges in my life has taught me to persevere and face difficulties,” Noor said. “That will help me relate to my patients when they are going through the worst times in their lives. I can help them realize that things could get better even when it seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Now in residency, both Noor and Sarah are working together at the University of Texas San Antonio Hospital in the radiology department. How appropriate, for twins, that they would continue to be together for post-graduate training.

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Class

2019

DO, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine

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Lucas Aidukaitis, DO

Patrick Akin, DO

Joa Allen, DO

Noor Alnazal, DO

Sarah Alnazal, DO

Eloisa Amaya Sandoval, DO

Messanh Ameduite, DO

Hannah Aucoin, DO

Camille Audette, DO

Gabriel Babinsky, DO

Kimball Bailey, DO

Eric Ballman, DO

Joshua Barbir, DO

Thomas Barkley, DO

David Barton, DO

Kilee Bayne, DO

Brandon Beck, DO

Noemi Bermudez, DO

Michelle Blain, DO

Carley Bloomfield, DO

Brianna Bobber, DO

Matthew Boyle, DO

Joseph Brock, DO

Shawn Buxton, DO

Daniel Campbell, DO

Kaitlin Campbell, DO

Kate Cappetta, DO

Chandler Charette, DO

Drew Charles, DO

Shawn Cherian, DO

Sherin Cherian, DO

Marvin Cuevas, DO

Kaleb Culpepper, DO

Gabriela Dande, DO

Dana Daoud, DO

Austin Davis, DO

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James Davis, DO

Jessica Davis, DO

Dustin Dehart, DO

Matthew DeMatteo, DO

Katherine Dempster, DO

Fon Sawitree Dew, DO

Dustin Eck, DO

William Edwards, DO

Roelle Eugenio, DO

John Fang, DO

Andreas Feia, DO

Renee Frantz, DO

Arif Hafeez, DO

David Hamm, DO

Richard Hargrove, DO

Marshall Harris, DO

Jason Harter, DO

Derek Helsley, DO

Matthew Iandoli, DO

Thomas Ilustrisimo, DO

Brian Ingold, DO

Patricia Iroabuchi, DO

Hajirah Ishaq, DO

Bright Izekor, DO

Daniel Khushigian, DO

Michael Kim, DO

Alexandra Kitzmiller, DO

Kristin Kniech, DO

Sriharsha Kota, DO

Abigail Krueger, DO

Micah Lindsey, DO

Rachel Livengood, DO

David Lockwood, DO

Ashley Lotfabadi, DO

Morgan MacIntyre, DO

Evan Mashigian, DO

Bridget Dillon, DO

Gabriel Duda, DO

Adam Duncan, DO

Rachel Dussault, DO

Kenneth Easters, DO

Nathaniel Ebersole, DO

Casey French, DO

Michael Frost, DO

Janae Fry, DO

Thomas Garbarino, DO

James Garizio, DO

Arthur Gross, DO

Cassandra Hickey, DO

Emily Hillaker, DO

Kyle Hollmann, DO

Holly Howard, DO

Laura Huff, DO

Christopher Huxel, DO

Kevin Jackson, DO

Elizabeth Johnsen, DO

Aaron Joiner, DO

Kevin Keating, DO

Alishba Khan, DO

Madiha Khan, DO

Neelam Kumari, DO

Kaitlyn Kuntzman, DO

David Lau, DO

Lauren Lauer, DO

Hoo Sup Lee, DO

Cristian Leeson, DO

Elisabeth Mason, DO

Meghan McAliney, DO

Hadassah McCray, DO

Jessica McElroy, DO

Shawn Mo, DO

Alexandre Mokbel, DO

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Micah Monk, DO

Lydia Morrison, DO

Christopher Mullet, DO

Kaitlyn Murray, DO

Alvin Nguyen, DO

Shaun Ostrofe, DO

Logan Perkins, DO

Michael Pietrangelo, DO

Lisa Pinelli, DO

Chad Pitcher, DO

Stephanie Prudencio, DO

Sammy Raad, DO

Kevin Raymond, DO

Joshua Reitz, DO

Mary Roberts, DO

Carlos Rodriguez, DO

Megan Rogahn, DO

Andrew Russell, DO

Karen Rymer, DO

Kyle Samyn, DO

Michelle Sausner, DO

Julia Selwyn, DO

John Sherret, DO

Silas Shin, DO

Marcus Shortes, DO

Jyoti Singh, DO

Andrew Slater, DO

Elizabeth Smith, DO

Joyce Song, DO

Jonathan Steiner, DO

Collin Stinogel, DO

Michael Sullivan, DO

Sean Swaney, DO

Rachel Tanas, DO

Bettina Thomas, DO

Samuel Thomas, DO

Wesley Turner, DO

Luis Valle, DO

Molly Witham, DO

Jared Vinson, DO

Tyler Yee, DO

Danielle Weston, DO

Amy Zimmerman, DO

Results by Specialty

Anesthesiology • • • •

Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio) McLaren Health Care Corp (Pontiac, Mich.)

University of Connecticut School of Medicine (Farmington, Conn.)

Virginia Commonwealth U Health System (Richmond, Va.)

Diagnostic Radiology • • • • • •

Oklahoma State U Center for Health Sciences (Tulsa, Okla.)

San Antonio Military Medical Center (San Antonio, Texas) U Texas HSC-San Antonio (San Antonio,Texas) U Texas HSC-San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas) West Virginia University School of Medicine (Morgantown, W.Va.)

Emergency Medicine • • • • • •

Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia, Pa.) Doctors hospital – OhioHealth (Columbus, Ohio) Florida State University College of Medicine (Sarasota, Fla.) Florida State University College of Medicine (Sarasota, Fla.) Grand Strand Regional Medical Center (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Grand Strand Regional Medical Center (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

• • • • • • • • • •

Grand Strand Regional Medical Center (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Grandview Hospital & Medical Center (Dayton, Ohio) Kaweah Delta Health Care District (Visalia, Ga.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Mountain State OPTI (Wheeling, W.Va.) Oklahoma State U Center for Health Sciences (Lawton, Okla.)

Orange Park Medical Center (Orange Park, Fla.) St. Elizabeth Health Center (Boardman, Ohio) U Oklahoma College of Medicine – Tulsa (Tulsa, Okla.)

Western Michigan University Stryker School of Medicine (Kalamazoo, Mich.)

Family Medicine • • • • • • • • • • •

Advocate Health Care (Park Ridge, Ill.) Ballard Health (Abingdon, Va.) Cahaba Medical Care (Birmingham, Ala.) Carilion Clinic – Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (Roanoke, Va.) Choctaw Nation Health Services Authority (Talihina, Okla.)

Choctaw Nation Health Services Authority (Talihina, Okla.)

East Tennessee St. University (Bristol, Tenn.)

Ellis Hospital (Schenectady, N.Y.) Exeka Health Latrobe Hospital (Latrobe, Pa.) Family Medicine Residency of Idaho (Boise, Idaho) Grand Strand Regional Medical Center (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

113

Family Medicine (continued) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Guthrie/Robert Packer Hospital (Sayre, Pa.) Hunterdon Medical Center (Flemington, N.J.) In His Image Family Medicine (Tulsa, Okla.)

In His Image Family Medicine (Tulsa, Okla.)

In His Image Family Medicine (Tulsa, Okla.)

In His Image Family Medicine (Tulsa, Okla.)

Kaweah Delta Health Care District (Visalia, Calif.)

LewisGale Medical Center (Blacksburg, Va.) Lynchburg Family Medicine (Lynchburg, Va.) Martin Army Community Hospital (Fort Benning, Ga.) Mercy Medical Center – Redding (Redding, Calif.)

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) Novant Health (Cornelius, N.C.) OMECO (Tulsa, Okla.)

OMECO/Alliance Health (Durant, Okla.)

Our Lady of Lourdes (Binghamton, N.Y.) Palm Beach Consortium for GME (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) PCOM/Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center (Reading, Pa.) Reading Hospital and Medical Center (Reading, Pa.) Research Medical Center (Kansas City, Kan.) Riverside Regional Medical Center (Newport News, Va.) Sovah Health – Danville (Danville, Va.) Sovah Health – Danville (Danville, Va.) St. Francis Hospital (Wilmington, Del.) St. Petersburg General Hospital (St. Petersburg, Fla.) The Williamsport Hospital/Medical Center (Williamsport, Pa.) Triple Army Medical Center (Honolulu, Hawaii) U Kansas SOM – Wichita (Wichita, Kan.) U Kansas SOM – Wichita (Wichita, Kan.) U Minnesota Medical School (St. Cloud, Minn.)

UCF COM/GME Consortium (Gainesville, Fla.) University of MA (Fitchburg) Family Medicine (Fitchburg, Mass.)

UPMC Pinnacle Lititz (Lititz, Pa.) York Hospital (York, Pa.)

General Surgery • • • • •

Internal Medicine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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David Grant Medical Center, Travis AFB, University of California (Davis, Calif.)

NMC Portsmouth (Portsmouth, Va.) NMC San Diego (San Diego, Calif.)

Sky Ridge Medical Center (Lone Tree, Colo.)

UIC/Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center (Chicago, Ill.)

Abrazo Health Network (Glendale, Ariz.)

Appalachian OPTIC (Somerset, Ky.) Adena Health System (Chillicothe, Ohio) Baptist Memorial Hospital (Jonesboro, Ark.) Baylor-Scott & White (Temple, Texas) Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass.)

Brandon Regional Hospital (Brandon, Fla.) Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.) Desert Regional Medical Center (Palm Springs, Calif.)

East Tennessee State University (Bristol, Tenn.)

Grand Strand Regional Medical Center (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center (La Crosse, Wis.) Jersey Shore University Medical Center (Neptune, N.J.) Keesler Air Force Base (Biloxi, Miss.)

Lakeland Health (St. Joseph, Mich.)

LECOMT/Larkin Community Hospital Palm Springs (Palm Springs, Fla.) LewisGale Medical Center (Salem, Va.) LewisGale Medical Center (Salem, Va.) McLaren Health Care Corp (Lansing, Mich.)

Methodist Hospital – Houston (Houston, Texas) New Hanover Regional Medical Center (Wilmington, Del.) Skagit Regional Health (Mount Vernon, Wash.)

Sovah Health – Danville (Danville, Va.) Sovah Health – Danville (Danville, Va.) Summa Health/NEOMED (Akron, Ohio) U South Florida Morsani COM – Tampa (Tampa, Fla.) UCF COM/GME Consortium (Gainesville, Fla.) Valley Hospital Medical Center (Las Vegas, Nev.) Wellington Regional Medical Center (Wellington, Fla.) Wright Center for GME (Scranton, Pa.) York Hospital (York, Pa.)

Medicine - Pediatrics • • •

Case Western/MetroHealth Medical Center (Cleveland, Ohio) Penn State Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, Pa.) U Illinois COM – Peoria (Peoria, Ill.)

Neurological Surgery • •

Palmetto Health Richland (Columbia, S.C.) U Florida COM – Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Obstetrics – Gynecology • • • • •

Mercy Health Muskegon (Muskegon, Mich.)

Neducak Center of Central Georgia/Mercer University – SOM (Macon, Ga.) Riverside Regional Medical Center (Newport News, Va.) St. Anthony Hospital (Oklahoma City, Okla.)

University at Buffalo School of Medicine (Buffalo, N.Y.)

Ophthalmology •

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital South Shore (Far Rockaway, N.Y.)

Orthopedic Surgery •

Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital (Phenix City, Ala.)

Otolaryngology & Facial Plastic Surgery •

St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital (Boardman, Ohio)

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation • • •

Baylor College of Medicine – Houston (Houston, Texas) Sunrise Health GME Consortium (Las Vegas, Nev.) University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)

Psychiatry • • • • • • •

Carilion Clinic – Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (Roanoke, Va.) Geisinger Health System (Danville, Pa.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Nassau University Medical Center (East Meadow, N.Y.) Oklahoma State U Center for Health Sciences (Tulsa, Okla.)

Sky Ridge Medical Center (Lone Tree, Colo.)

Traditional Rotating Internship • • • • • • • •

Cape Fear Valley Medical Center (Fayetteville, N.C.) CarePoint Health – Bayonne Medical Center (Bayonne, N.J.) CarePoint Health – Bayonne Medical Center (Bayonne, N.J.) Inspira Health Network (Vineland, N.J.) NMC Portsmouth (Portsmouth, Va.) NMC Portsmouth (Portsmouth, Va.) San Antonio Military Medical Center (San Antonio, Texas) St. Mary Mercy Hospital (Livonia, Mich.)

Urology •

Metro Health University of Michigan Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.)

Pediatrics • • • • • • • • • • •

Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass.)

Cook County Health and Hospital System (Chicago, Ill.) Lehigh Valley Hospital (Allentown, Pa.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Ga.) Oklahoma State U Center for Health Sciences (Tulsa, Okla.)

OMECO (Tulsa, Okla.)

Penn State Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, Pa.) U Florida COM – Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Fla.) U Illinois COM – Peoria (Peoria, Ill.)

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GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION New Opportunities Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) is developing new programs in Graduate Medical Education (GME). We seek to equip physicians to effectively deliver evidence-based medical care to patients locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. We are pleased to be recruiting for our first new program: Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (ONMM).

Candidates for Our Programs Recruiting candidates who will have successfully completed one year of residency education in GME prior to beginning an ONMM residency. There are also options for graduates of residency programs to complete a Plus One Fellowship in ONMM. Our new residents and fellows are expected to contribute to multifaceted aspects of academic medicine training: patient care, medical education, research and scholarship, and leadership development, including teaching and mentoring LUCOM student-doctors.

The curriculum was constructed creatively to prepare residents to become specialty experts in musculoskeletal care at a time when the specialty of ONMM is the most recent addition to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) menu of residency programs in the Single Accreditation System.

LUCOM GME, as well as its residency and fellowship programming, equips physicians to become leaders in their specialties in the domains of clinical practice, medical education, and scholarship in preparation for their careers in academic medicine or communitybased practice.

College of Osteopathic Medicine Liberty University LUCOM is a faith-based institution with student-­ doctors guided by the principles of the Christian worldview to become knowledgeable and competent servants for their patients and society. Our mission, as a distinctly Christian osteopathic medical school, is to glorify God through the provision of quality medical care by developing osteopathic physicians to serve those in need. The inaugural class of medical school students graduated in 2018 and are now serving in residency programs across the United States.

Liberty University, founded in 1971, is an accredited evangelical liberal arts institution with 17 colleges and schools, including a law school, a medical college, and a school of divinity. With more than 600 programs of study from the certificate to the doctoral level, Liberty equips students through both classroom theory and practical experience, effectively preparing them to enter a competitive job market.

Liberty is located in the City of Lynchburg in Central Virginia, surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The campus is over 7,000 acres and sponsors numerous cultural and athletic events, theatrical plays, and more.

The Lynchburg community has a revitalized, historic downtown district with art galleries, restaurants, and plentiful outdoor recreation. We welcome your interest and look forward to hearing from you.

For More Information, Contact Chad K. Brands, MD, CPE, SFHM Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs cbrands@liberty.edu | (434) 592-4151

Liberty.edu/LUCOM LibertyMedicine 117

SAVE

DATE LUCOM

MISSIONS BANQUET SATURDAY, FEB. 22, 2020 | 6 P.M. THOMAS ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH, BRUNER HALL

A NEW ADVENTURE BEGINS Join Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine for its annual medical missions fundraiser, with guest speaker David Stevens, MD, author and CEO Emeritus of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA).

The dinner supports LUCOM’s mission to help provide medical care to underserved communities locally and around the globe.

Tickets available for $125/each.

Reserve your seat and purchase tickets by calling (434) 582-3352 or emailing LUCOMOutreach@liberty.edu.

THE LUCOM SEAL

Liberty University Medicine stated around the circumference of the academic seal incorporates not only the history and character of the university, but also the osteopathic profession.

The Staff of Asclepius, the DO symbol in the center of seal, consists of a single serpent encircling a staff, named after a skilled physician who practiced in Greece around 1200 B.C. Asclepius is commonly referred to as the Greek god of healing.

The staff is placed upon the Liberty Bell. A replica resides at the top of Liberty’s Freedom Tower. The bell symbolizes the university’s dedication to the founding principles of the United States.

Both the rod and the bell rest atop a shield – the shield of faith, taken up by students as they go out into the world to impact the culture for Christ.

The foundation of the seal – and the heart of Liberty University – is the Bible, revealing the truths of God and the principles by which we live. Always open, the Word of God speaks to everyone who listens.

Behind the shield is the octagon, which reflects the classic Jeffersonian architecture of Liberty’s first building and many of the new buildings throughout the reconstruction of campus.

At the base of the seal are laurels, the symbol awarded to victors in ancient Greece.

The laurels represent the mission of Liberty University, Training Champions for Christ, which has been the priority since 1971.

306 Liberty View Lane Lynchburg, Va. 24502 Liberty.edu/LUCOM LUCOM@liberty.edu | (434) 592-6400

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