President Magruder and new board member Ron Winkler

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The A.T. Still University (ATSU) Board of Trustees met October 17 in Kirksville, Mo., during Founder’s Day weekend for its quarterly meeting and elected its newest member, Ronald Winkler of Kirksville. Winkler is president of Winkler Communication Services, a telephone and fiber cable installation and repair company that has served northeast Missouri since 1991. Winkler will serve a three-year term. The board now has 17 members.

The board also made a number of other personnel changes, including saying goodbye to former chair Peter Detweiler, CEO of Alliant Bank in Kirksville, whose term expired, and re-electing members Cynthia Byler, D.O., of St. Louis, Mo.; Carl Bynum, D.O., M.P.H., of Warson Woods, Mo.; Manuel Bedoya, D.M.D., of Tucson, Ariz.; Clyde Evans, Ph.D., of Needham, Mass.; and John Robinson, of Phoenix, Ariz.

New officers were also appointed: Dr. Bynum as chair; Kenneth Jones, D.O., of Clinton, Mo., as vice chair; Dr. Byler as secretary; Robert Uhl, of Phoenix, Ariz., as finance committee chair; and Dr. Evans as chair of the education/research committee.

The next board meeting is scheduled for February 2010 in Mesa, Ariz.

SOMA students at the HealthSource of Ohio campus in Milford, Ohio.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The inaugural class at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA), who are scheduled to graduate in 2011, set out in September to community health center campuses (CHCs) across the country that will become their homes for the next three years of their medical education. The School’s ground-breaking contextual learning model places medical students in clinical settings in their second year and, by all accounts, the new model is showing strong signs of success.

“Overall, everything is going quite satisfactorily,” said SOMA Dean Douglas Wood, D.O., Ph.D., regarding the students’ first few months off-campus. He further indicated that feedback from the CHCs, learning facilitators, and students is very positive. Initial feedback also indicates that SOMA students have arrived at the clinics well-prepared for the new clinical setting. “Physicians at the clinical sites are consistently amazed at the amount of knowledge that our students have,” said Dr. Wood. “Because of how our curriculum is set up, we expect nothing less.”

Provost Craig M. Phelps, D.O., FAOASM, ’84, visited sites in Brooklyn, New York, and Beaufort, S.C., to see firsthand how students are progressing. “It is humbling to see how well our students are embraced by the faculty, staff, administration, and most importantly, patients, at their community health center campuses,” said Dr. Phelps. “It is a testament to how well the educational model is working.”

SOMA leadership is not taking their initial success lightly, or for granted. Dr. Wood was quick to point out that SOMA has a strong system in place to monitor progress. Along with phones, email, podcasts, video, and other electronic communication, it is SOMA’s priority to send one of the School’s five deans to each clinical site twice a year to monitor and report progress. Between September and January, eight formal site visits had been completed. The other three sites have received informal visits and are slated for a formal evaluation in the near future. “It is important to have a new set of eyes at each location on a regular basis,” said Dr. Wood.

SOMA student Vanessa DeSousa, OMS II, confirmed that she felt well-prepared when she first started in her clinic in Porterville, Calif. “All of the [first year] OSCEs and medical skills practice, as well as OPP lab, have really helped me to interact with patients appropriately,” she said.

For students at the CHCs, roughly 60 to 70 percent of their time is still spent in didactic education. Each of the 11 campuses has a learning facilitator and a classroom for ongoing instruction. The remaining 30 to 40 percent of their time is spent in the clinic setting, seeing patients who often present the very health issues and illnesses that they are learning about in class.

“When I can put a patient face to the name of a disorder, disease, syndrome, etc…, it stays with me,” said DeSousa. “In addition, having a seasoned physician to talk to about each patient really helps me learn the important clinical and basic science concepts.

“I have had several experiences already where a patient presents with exactly what we are talking about in our basic sciences,” she continued. “It makes sense to learn in the context in which we will be practicing. Physicians have commented that we know a lot already, and that we are very lucky to have early clinical exposure.”

MESA, ARIZ. (Sept. 12, 2008 ) – A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA) has been awarded funding for two projects that will further enhance efforts to train students in rural and underserved areas in Arizona.

SOMA students spend their second through fourth years learning at community health center campuses throughout the nation, giving them an opportunity for hands-on learning in a small group setting while at the same time helping to provide healthcare services to many underserved populations. Three of those community health center campus locations are in Arizona.

The Arizona Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) awarded SOMA $75,000 to fund the Arizona Rural and Underserved Health Workforce Training Project, and another $25,000 to fund the American Indian Rural Service (AIRS) Training and Northern Arizona Rural Service (NARS) Training Projects.The Arizona AHEC Program is administered through the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.

“We are honored to work in partnership with the AHEC central office and the three regional AHECs to train medical students in local community environments that provide exceptional care to underserved populations,” said Thomas E. McWilliams, D.O., FACOFP, associate dean of bio-clinical sciences at SOMA. “These grants allow students to be exposed to didactic and clinical materials in context; that is, in an environment where the knowledge can be applied and services rendered.

“We believe that this type of learning is more effectively recalled and that such experiences will promote the selection of specialty careers that are needed by underserved communities and populations,” he continued. “The grants also allow us to better prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals to provide culturally appropriate care and to work effectively as part of a healthcare team.”

The Arizona Rural and Underserved Health Workforce Training Project gives students an opportunity to assist in the delivery of medical services to underserved populations served by AHEC centers. As part of this project, ATSU will establish “classrooms in a box” at SOMA’s three Arizona community health center campuses: Phoenix Indian Medical Center in Phoenix, North Country Community Health Center in Flagstaff, and El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson. The classroom in a box includes a computer, network connection equipment, and audio, video, and graphics components that together form a system that will enable remote lecture presentations, conferences, and workshops at the community campus sites. Funds will also help facilitate inter-professional experiences with ATSU peers from the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, and fund a consultant who will present a workshop on cultural competency and cross-cultural communication.

The AIRS Training Project partners SOMA students with the Greater Valley Area Health Education Center and allows them to become an integral part of the Phoenix Indian Medical Center healthcare team that provides quality primary care to approximately 153,500 American Indian patients. Similarly, the NARS project partners students with the Northern Area Health Education Center to observe patient care and gain an understanding of the local healthcare system. Funds from AIRS and NARS projects pay for students’ travel expenses to remote training sites as well as provide portable equipment for effective training at those sites.

MESA, Ariz. (Aug. 5, 2008 ) –A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA) celebrated the enrollment of its second class at its White Coat Ceremony held in the Mesa Arts Center on Friday, August 1. The ceremony symbolizes an incoming student’s commitment to the obligations of their new profession and their responsibility to future patients. The event also represents new beginnings for SOMA as its inaugural class prepares to continue their education at partnering community campuses.

Students and faculty members campus-wide gathered at the event to celebrate the present and future of SOMA’s program. Keynote speaker Jack Dillenberg, D.D.S, M.P.H., dean of Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health (ASDOH), spoke on the significance of the ceremony and how physicians can better serve the community.

“I believe that the White Coat Ceremony is extremely important, especially when conducted at the beginning of the student’s journey in medical school. Students need to know that their values of integrity, honesty, and compassion are essential in their education as physicians. Their patients will come to trust and respect them as they demonstrate these important qualities. This trust will enable the ‘new’ physicians to better serve their patients, the patient’s family, and ultimately the community at large,” said Dr. Dillenberg.

SOMA, known for its cutting edge technology and self-directed learning, prepares its students to become more efficient as physicians by offering them hands-on learning in small group settings, a firsthand look at local healthcare systems, and an opportunity to be part of community health practices.

“This could be one of the most innovative medical schools in the country for two main reasons: our curricular model and sending students out [to other campuses]”, said Douglas Wood, D.O., Ph.D., dean of SOMA. “Medical students learn best when they are in the context they are learning. They learn what they can use right away.”

For three of their four educational years students will work closely with community health care centers where they will continue to spend time learning in classroom settings. SOMA offers students the opportunity to attend one of the 11 partnering community campuses or consortiums with locations ranging from Sunset Family Health Center in New York to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health, based in Hawaii. Each location has its own character and varying techniques but all reach out to underserved communities. The campuses were selected based on their quality, size, and reputation for leadership. Other important factors in the decision were location and demographics of the area.

“Students need to understand how local healthcare systems operate and become advocates for learning inside of them. If they’re not culturally adept, they won’t be as effective as physicians,” said Gary Cloud, Ph.D., director of advancement with SOMA.

The program’s inaugural class consisted of 107 students from 23 different states along with countries including Mexico and Africa. Of them, their average age was 27; 62 were male and 45 were female. Current registration indicates the incoming class’s average age is 26 and is comprised of 103 students, 52 males and 51 females.

After competing their first year at ATSU, students receive a four- to five-week break followed by the continuation of their education across the nation in September.

“Our goal is to see at least 25 percent of them work more than a year at their campus [after completion of program] – that would be very, very good,” said Dr. Wood of the students. “This is something that other folks haven’t done before. The opportunity is here and not at other schools.”

A total of 59 need-based scholarships were granted to select incoming students. Of them, four students received $10,000; 14 received $2,000; and 41 received $1,000.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (July 24, 2008 ) – The School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA) is a recipient of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Pre-Doctoral Training in Primary Care grant funded at a rate of $723,210 through June 30, 2011. The grant will further SOMA and the National Association of Community Health Centers’ (NACHC) partnership to train a new cadre of family medicine and primary care physicians for underserved populations.

Under the guidance of project director Thomas E. McWilliams, D.O., FACOFP, the grant will focus on activities including developing, implementing, and assessing a didactic patient-centered family medicine curriculum; an innovative, longitudinal, integrated family medicine clinical training program modeled after the Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship; and cultural competence training.

“It is our goal” said Dr. McWilliams, SOMA associate dean, “to train compassionate family medicine and primary care physicians who are technologically adept, prevention oriented, and who are lifelong learners and teachers.”

A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona was established in 2007. Since its inception, SOMA has been creating a new paradigm of medical education meshing community/safety-net healthcare needs with the medical education process. SOMA’s purpose is to educate and graduate osteopathic medical students who are broadly skilled in the core competencies that transcend medical disciplines and are thus capable of reducing current barriers to care, as well as eliminating health disparities. SOMA’s commitment to community mirrors NACHC goals to expand healthcare access for America’s medically underserved through the community-based health center model. For more information about SOMA or the NACHC, visit www.atsu.edu or www.nachc.com.

This program is funded by the Pre-Doctoral Training in Primary Care Grant D56HP10312-01-00 between ATSU-SOMA and the Health Resources and Services Administration.