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SCHOOL NEWS
CEC hosts SSH
On June 20, WVSOM’s Clinical Evaluation Center hosted The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) for an accreditation site visit.
The SSH represents a rapidly growing group of educators, research scientists and advocates who utilize simulation methodologies for education, testing and research. The society is united by its desire to improve performance and reduce errors in patient care using multi-modal simulation methodologies including task trainers, patient simulators, virtual reality, screen-based simulators and standardized patients.
As educators and health care professionals know, any type of accreditation process requires extensive time, effort and preparation. Congratulations to the CEC staff for their accomplishments and best wishes for continued success in this process.
Top 10 things you should know about the CEC
1. The CEC’s 19,000 square-foot facility opened its doors in August 2009.
2. For the 2012-2013 academic year, the facility provided 10 open labs, assisted with eight clubsponsored labs and provided more than 14,383 student training hours.
3. This year, the CEC utilized more than 70 standardized patients and 21 patient simulators for training.
4. The facility hosted inter-professional events with pharmacy students, nursing students and physician assistant students.
5. Staff members provide about 100 simulation demonstrations every year.
6. Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) courses are conducted by CEC staff and WVSOM faculty.
7. The CEC is committed to using simulation as a way to increase patient safety and treatment.
8. Research indicates students retain knowledge better when they are offered hands-on training. Simulation education allows students to learn by doing.
9. CEC funding is secure and the center is strongly supported by WVSOM’s administration.
10. The CEC is more than just OSCEs!
Board of Governors elects new officers
At the Board of Governors meeting on June 22, newly-elected officers for the 20132014 academic year were announced. Cheryl Schreiber was elected chair. Charles Davis, D.O., WVSOM Class of ’82, was elected vice chair. Manuel Ballas, D.O., WVSOM Class of ’93, will be the new secretary.
Charity Richmond, executive administrative assistant with the General Counsel’s office, was appointed to be the Classified Staff Representative on the board. Patrick Craft, Class of 2015, will be the student representative.
In appreciation of his outstanding service and dedication to the school, Rodney Fink, D.O., Class of ’87, was recognized with a plaque bearing the gavel from his four-term service as chair of the board. He will continue to serve in a Member-atLarge capacity for another year.
WVSOM recognized as top medical school for 15th year
WVSOM continues to be recognized as one of the nation’s top medical schools for rural medicine.
The institution was ranked No. 9 in rural medicine by the U.S.News & World Report “America’s Best Graduate Schools” 2014 annual publication. WVSOM was also ranked No. 13 in family medicine. The rankings recognize institutions that offer top programs in business, law, medicine, engineering and education, among other specialties.
“A commitment to educating primary care physicians who will serve in rural areas is at the heart of WVSOM’s mission,” said President Michael Adelman, D.O., J.D. “WVSOM’s recognition as a top medical school in rural and primary care speaks to the dedication of the school’s faculty and staff to delivering an education which will enable our students to provide holistic, compassionate and capable care to their future patients.”
Results were calculated from a survey of 149 accredited M.D. and D.O. medical schools across the country.
Governor proclaimed April 3 WVSOM Day
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin recognized the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine’s efforts in educating lifelong learners and providing excellence in medical education. The governor presented a proclamation formally declaring April 3, 2013 as “West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine Day” in the state because of the school’s mission to serve West Virginia and provide quality health care for its residents.
“West Virginia is home to hundreds of osteopathic doctors and we’re blessed with an outstanding training facility — the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine,” the governor said to an intimate group of WVSOM representatives. “The impact of the school and its doctors truly stretches across the state.”
WVSOM has produced more than 2,500 osteopathic physicians, many of whom practice as primary care and family medicine physicians. Tomblin said he is especially thankful to the physicians who provide service in rural communities.
“I want to recognize President Dr. Michael Adelman and Dr. Rodney Fink, chairman of WVSOM’s board, and the many faculty members and administrators who have worked hard to provide our doctors with the knowledge and skills needed to bring patient-centered, evidence-based medicine to West Virginia,” he said.
Gov. Tomblin delivered the framed proclamation to Adelman and Fink, with applause from guests.
“WVSOM is proud of the physicians we have trained during the past 40 years of our existence and we continue to be committed to training physicians who provide service to West Virginia,” Adelman told the governor. “We thank you for this honor. It is deeply appreciated.”
Experimental award winners.
WVSOM, Sigma Xi host first-ever science fair
Non-experimental award winners. In May, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM) partnered with the Greenbrier Valley Chapter of Sigma Xi to host the first-ever Southern West Virginia Regional Middle School Science Fair.
The regional science fair invited students from Greenbrier, Monroe and Pocahontas counties to participate. All first, second and third place school or county winners were invited to attend, and up to 20 students per county were accommodated at the fair.
The science fair included workshops for students with themes centered on forensic science, microbiology, robotics and nutrition. Award winners were announced in both Experimental and NonExperimental categories.
Annual Career Day
A visiting student from Ronceverte Elementary School implores one of WVSOM’s patient simulators to revive. Approximately 80 elementary students visited the campus this spring for their Annual Career Day. In addition to a tour of the Clinical Evaluation Center, students were able to visit with anatomists and enjoy an Abracadabra Live performance featuring Magician Mike, Joey and Professor Science. They even received a special presentation from the admissions office and learned it’s never too early to begin planning for a career in medicine.
WVSOM provides HIV/AIDS education
WVSOM along with the support of the Office of Women’s Health (OWH), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, hosted a lecture and film screening in honor of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2013. The event took place March 7 on the WVSOM campus in Lewisburg.
Members of the Lewisburg community were invited to learn more about the impact of HIV/AIDS with issues relevant to awareness, status and treatments. The event featured a lecture by Dr. William Short, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Jefferson Medical College and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who has broad experience in caring for women with HIV. A screening of the PBS Frontline documentary “The Age of AIDS” followed the lecture.
The event was funded in part by the Office of Women’s Health. The WVSOM Student Osteopathic Internal Medicine Association and Student Affairs office hosted the event.
Rural Health Workforce Day
On April 4, 10 WVSOM Rural Health Initiative students from the Class of 2014 participated in the Rural Health Workforce Day at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston. Appointments were scheduled with senators and delegates from the home districts of several of the participating students.
“We prepared information packets for the students which contained talking points about the shortage of primary care providers in rural communities and how the RHI program at WVSOM is reinforcing rural primary care through its immersion programs and mentorships,” said Janet Hinton, program coordinator for the student Rural Health Initiative.
Once the students completed their scheduled discussions, they pursued further conversations with rural delegates to inquire about recruitment incentives for physicians interested in a rural medical practice.
WVSOM’s RHI students were recognized in the House of Delegates by Delegate Perdue (Wayne County), chair of the House Health Subcommittee, as well as Delegate Ellington of Mercer County and Delegate Canterbury from Greenbrier County.
“Rural Health Workforce Day is an opportunity for the students to learn about financial assistance and practice opportunities that are available in West Virginia for rural health care providers,” said Patti Crawford, WVSOM’s director of rural outreach. “The Bureau for Public Health was there with their Division of Rural Health and Recruitment so the students had an opportunity to enter into meaningful conversations about rural health care delivery.”
WVSOM presents at Rural Health Conference
On May 7-10, WVSOM faculty and staff travelled to Louisville for the 36th Annual Rural Health Conference sponsored by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA).
Lorenzo Pence, D.O., vice president of academic affairs and dean, and Stephanie Schuler, executive director of the Clinical Evaluation Center, presented “Building an infrastructure for retaining rural physicians.” They shared the process by which WVSOM created a statewide hospital and clinic infrastructure to prepare third- and fourth-year medical students for rural primary care and to improve recruitment and retention of rural physicians.
Dr. Pence partnered on a second presentation titled “Recruiting health professionals to rural areas: A state and institutional collaborative.” Contributors included Jennifer Plymale, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health associate admissions dean and director; Larry Rhodes, M.D., West Virginia University Institute for Community and Rural Health rural programs director and pediatrics department interim chair; and Robert Walker, M.D., West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission health sciences vice chancellor. They explored West Virginia’s statewide approach for developing rural health initiatives at each of the three medical schools.
Wayne Miller, Ph.D., program director for WVSOM’s Center for Rural and Community Health (CRCH), and Haylee Heinsberg, CRCH community health educator, delivered a workshop on “Solving community health worker perplexities.” They explored the challenges and complexities of training and utilizing Community Health Workers and shared the center’s efforts to standardize training for Community Health Education Resource Persons (CHERPs) in the state.
The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine hosted not one, but two traveling exhibits this spring — both of which were a glimpse into the past.
“Life and Limb: The Toll of the Civil
War” is a National Library of Medicine exhibit, which explores the experiences of disabled Civil War veterans who were forced to sacrifice their limbs in order to save their lives. The exhibit ran from Feb. 11 through March 23.
Mary Essig, WVSOM library director, said the exhibit focused on the stories of disabled veterans rather than the surgeons, physicians and nurses whose stories are richly documented from that time.
“This was more than just the general history of Civil War and Civil War medicine,” she said. “There’s a lot of interest in that history, but the contribution of disabled veterans often gets forgotten.”
The Life and Limb exhibit offered WVSOM students and local community members a glimpse into the medical field between 1861 and 1865 — from common surgeries to medical instruments to the creation of an “Invalid Corps” in 1863.
Kendall Wilson, D.O., a local physician and former WVSOM Board of Governors member, provided a special medical presentation during the exhibit’s reception. Wilson has also served as a re-enactor in the Battle of Lewisburg. Authentic medical instruments on display were an ivoryhandled scalpel used in neurosurgery, tortoiseshell-folding scalpel similar to a pocketknife and a fleam, a handheld instrument used for bloodletting.
Reproduced instruments on display included a bone saw, instrument box and an anesthesia cone used to sedate patients during surgery. “The Henkel Physicians: A Family’s
Life in Letters,” the library’s spring exhibit, provided insight into the lives of a family of physicians who lived and worked in Virginia during the 19th Century. The exhibit letters document the daily life of a rural medical practice through several generations, revealing its challenges and rewards through changing times. It was on display May 20 through June 29.
Essig said the exhibit focused on letters between 1786 and 1907, which detailed the personal lives of the physicians and their extended families. The letters cover events like the Civil War, a murder trial and smallpox outbreaks.
“The Henkels lived and practiced in New Market, Va., and because of this Lewisburg gets several mentions in the letters,” she said.
Realistic airway
Automated verbal response and sounds
Palpable ribs
Wireless and tetherless with blood on board
Blinking and directional eye movement
Hail Caesar
This summer, WVSOM welcomed a new Point-of-Injury Trauma Care Simulator to the CEC. His name is “Caesar™” and he is marketed as the world’s most rugged patient simulator.
Built to educate health care responders on trauma, disaster response and combat casualty care, this unit provides clinical accuracy and realism for injury scenarios which might include IED detonation, multiple gunshot wounds or simply falling out of a tree.
Features include blinking and directional eye movement, his eyes following the health care provider as he is examined, as well as multiple pulse points, palpable ribs, six bleeding ports and automated verbal responses (aka “screams of pain”) or speech patterns reflecting various states of consciousness and treatment.
In addition to dramatic bleeding effects, Caesar’s four limbs display automatic physiological responses to tourniquet applications. His interchangeable legs can be arranged to represent amputation or shrapnel wounds.
This brings the number of patient simulators now available for student training to 22. And with the addition of Caesar, WVSOM adds depth to its training capabilities, particularly for physicians who may pursue careers with the military or work in rural emergency rooms.
“We have made a real effort to ensure that the Clinical
Evaluation Center is in the position to offer high quality simulation experiences that meet the variety of needs of the WVSOM community,” said Stephanie Schuler, executive director. “Our latest simulation mannequin, Caesar, allows us to expand these experiences to include outdoor venues. Exposure to dirt, rain, leaves and other debris will not affect Caesar’s capabilities, which allows us flexibility in simulation integration such as a scenario that begins in an outdoor environment and ends up in a emergency room and eventually hospital admission.”
Tourniquet sensors in four limbs provide accurate response to properly applied tourniquets Six bleeding ports in legs, arms, neck and abdomen are controlled by two channels Lightweight, rugged tablet PC is built to survive harsh work environments.
Japanese osteopathic students make annual visit to WVSOM
Japanese osteopathic students traveled across the globe to learn more about anatomy and osteopathic manipulation at WVSOM.
Each year WVSOM hosts the Japanese visitors, this year from the Japan College of Osteopathy (JCO), from June 10-14. In Japan, osteopaths are not recognized as full physicians practicing medicine. While the Japanese osteopathic students can perform osteopathic manipulation once they have graduated, they cannot perform surgeries or prescribe medicine to patients.
During the visit, student visitors are given a tour of campus and participate in an intense anatomy dissection. The dissection allows students to have a full understanding of how the human body is organized and how osteopathic techniques affect muscles, tissues and organs. It’s an experience that Japanese osteopathic students do not have in their country.
This year, the students were given the opportunity to meet the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) President Ray E. Stowers, D.O. He stated the importance of building strong relationships among other schools within the osteopathic profession. The goal of this cooperative agreement is to ultimately help Japanese osteopathic students receive full rights as physicians in the future, according to organizer Peter Ward, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy.
Health conference takes place on campus
The Health Professions Advisors Conference (HPAC) brought pre-med advisors from universities throughout West Virginia and surrounding states to Lewisburg’s campus in March.
The event was geared toward advisors at institutions where WVSOM representatives conduct recruiting visits. It helps to keep other schools informed of WVSOM’s latest admissions requirements, the applications process and provides an opportunity for individuals to speak with faculty and administrators. The information is vital in sharing with potential students from undergraduate colleges and universities, according to Danny Seams, WVSOM interim admissions program administrator.
Twenty-seven pre-med advisors attended the event, which included 11 representatives from West Virginia, eight from Virginia, four from Maryland, two from Tennessee, one from North Carolina and one from Ohio. Guests received an OPP presentation and demonstration from Celia McLay, D.O., participated in a Mini-Med school presented by Andrea Nazar, D.O. and WVSOM students and attended a dinner at the Elks Club. The following day included an Advisors Networking Breakfast in the alumni center, the viewing of a mock interview, a curriculum overview presentation by Dr. John Schriefer and an admissions presentation.
Rural Practice Day
The second annual Rural Practice Day, hosted by WVSOM’s Rural Health Initiative, targeted medical school students considering a career in rural medicine.
The March 9 event included rural D.O.s sharing their experiences. The physicians included Mark Waddell, Millie Petersen, Tom Asher, Karen Asher and Dino Beckett. Martha Endres and Karen Pauley provided information in a financial incentives workshop.
Other workshops included: Women in Rural Medicine — Kelly Barki and Lori Tucker. Quality of rural life — Steve Thompson and Amanda Michaels. Wilderness Medicine — Steve Eshenaur and Lisa Hrutkey.
RECOGNITION
WVSOM named a Great College to Work For
The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine is once again being recognized for its commitment to providing one of the top places to work in West Virginia and the country.
For the third straight year, The Chronicle of Higher Education has listed WVSOM as one of the best colleges to work for. The results, released in The Chronicle’s annual report on academic workplaces, are based on a survey of more than 300 colleges and universities.
An independent survey of employees was performed at participating institutions with WVSOM earning high marks for its performance in five workplace categories.
WVSOM was recognized for:
1. Professional/career-development programs 2. Teaching environment 3. Compensation and benefits 4. Facilities, workspaces and security 5. Respect and appreciation
WVSOM President Michael Adelman, D.O., D.P.M., J.D., credits the commitment of faculty and staff to creating a quality work environment.
“This recognition is a tribute to the many people in our organization who are dedicated to excellence and who have worked hard to build a collaborative community that fosters success,” Adelman said. “Every day I have the pleasure of working with people who are invested in their work and in creating positive outcomes for our medical students and for the state of West Virginia.” The institution is guided by the belief that when employees are recognized for their hard work and achievement, it provides an environment for employees to succeed.
Leslie Bicksler, WVSOM associate vice president of human resources, said the recognition is a testament to the value and contribution of each employee.
“I appreciate the opportunity to come to work each day in a supportive and collegial work environment, which also provides employees with the resources and tools to do their jobs well,” she said.
The Chronicle is one of the nation’s most important sources of news about colleges and universities. Editor Liz McMillen said this survey continues to showcase the excellence among colleges and universities.
“The institutions that the Great Colleges program recognizes provide innovative educational experiences while also offering their employees outstanding workplace experiences,” she said.
The survey results are based on a two-part assessment process: an institutional audit that captured demographics and workplace policies from each institution, and a survey administered to faculty, administrators and professional support staff. The primary factor in deciding whether an institution received recognition was employee feedback.
