DATELINE: CINCINNATI
DOCTORS TAKE EXTRA STEPS TO HONOR VETS AND CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY BY JANICE HISLE
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octors are duty-bound to treat patients’ problems—and a group of Cincinnati-area physicians goes out of its way to do much more than that. The Urology Group sponsors events ranging from a 5K charity race to gatherings honoring military veterans. The reason: to demonstrate how much these physicians care about their patients as people—and to contribute to the community at large, says Dr. Gary M. Kirsh, president of The Urology Group. “Our deep involvement with community events truly is an extension of our deep involvement with individual patients,” Kirsh says. “Patients come into our lives—and we come into theirs—at critical times. We treat their health problems and try to give them their lives back…we get to know them, get to know their families.” Since The Urology Group’s inception in 1996, its physicians have sometimes even treated multiple generations of the same family, Kirsh says. 14
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“There’s a connection,” Kirsh says. “Especially with our veterans’ events, where we are honoring and celebrating true heroes. We can actually feel the connection deepening. It’s moving. It’s authentic.” A large percentage of The Urology Group’s patients happens to include men who served in World War II or the Korean War, the physicians noticed. So the doctors felt compelled to acknowledge those veterans. During the past four years, The Urology Group has sponsored three distinct veterans’ events: First: In 2015, The Urology Group covered expenses for four Cincinnati-area World War II vets to travel to Washington, D.C., for the 70th anniversary of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, the day the WWII Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s surrender, ending six years of battle in Europe and sparking celebrations across the globe. Second: In 2016, the Urology Group marked the 75th anniversary of the bombing of
The Urology Group has sponsored several events centered on veterans since 2015.
Pearl Harbor with a program for World War II veterans. About 70 participants came to the Sharonville Convention Center for the largest such commemoration in the Cincinnati region and possibly one of the biggest unofficial events of its kind in the nation. Veterans added their personal stories to a “living-history” project that Princeton High School students were compiling. Third: Last July, about 75 Korean War vets attended a patriotic celebration of the 65th anniversary of the armistice that ended fighting on the Korean peninsula. Cosponsored by GE Aviation, the gathering at GE’s Cincinnati-area learning center featured a display of GE’s J47, the jet engine that powered the F-86 Sabre, the first U.S. “swept-wing” fighter. That jet, with its iconic backward-angled wings, faced off against the Soviets’ comparable aircraft. Kirsh vividly recalls the poignancy of the Pearl Harbor commemoration: “The families provided us with World War
