Walk with a Doc

On Saturday, June 10, Darlene Dunay, DO, District 4 chair, exercised with a purpose. She is a regular runner and jogger, but that day she slowed down for a good reason. Even with the smokey air from the Canadian wildfires, Dr. Dunay helped lead Walk with a Doc – Scranton.

Walk with a Doc in a national program that was started to “encourage physical activity and reduce the effects of a sedentary lifestyle.” While that is still 100% true, physicians have found that the simple act of taking a walk together has the power to transform lives and communities around the world. When physicians walk together with patients, each step can bring us closer to truly understanding and appreciating each other as a global community.

A DOs Life on the Farm

“A ’67 VW beetle,” was the answer to my question “What brought you here?” after I learned Kieren Knapp, DO was not a Pennsylvania native. POMA’s 87th president (1996-1997) shared that he was raised on a dairy farm in Iowa with over 500 head of cows. He, his wife, Jane, and their unborn child made their way from Iowa to York County in 1978 for a medical school rotation. When their son arrived nearly 3 months earlier than anticipated, and needed a prolonged hospitalization in one of the area's first neonatal units, the young family laid down roots in York County and never left.

When I learned that the Knapp Farm had just welcomed some baby goats while I was visiting south-central Pennsylvania, I couldn’t resist a (literal) field trip to visit the tribe of kids and see what Doc does when he is not caring for his patients, as he has done for the past 44 years.

I was greeted in the driveway of his country home and walked past the small ornamental ponds, many bird feeders, and several pens that housed guineas, peacocks of at least three species, chickens and rare yellow golden Chinese pheasants. While egg prices continue to rise, with the mild winter, Doc and Jane’s egg harvest has been plentiful. A local food bank is the beneficiary of the bounty.

Daring To Award Recipient

Being a young professional in a new town in rural western Pennsylvania has its challenges. Being one of only three women physicians (and the only osteopathic female physician) practicing inpatient medicine with the hospitalist group has another set of challenges. With a work schedule of seven days on, seven days off, teaching responsibilities with the family medicine residency, serving on the POMA Board of Trustees as representative for the young physicians in practice, caring for fur babies and renovating a home, one would think there is little to no time to meet people and contribute to the community. Enter the DuBois Jaycees.

The DuBois Jaycees is one of sixteen Pennsylvania chapters of an international organization made up of young professionals whose mission is “To empower young active citizens to create positive change through community service initiatives”. The DuBois Jaycees has supported blood drives, academic scholarships, community improvement projects, children’s programs, to name a few.

Kathryn Graham, D.O. joined the DuBois Jaycees when she moved to DuBois after completing her Internal Medicine residency and began working as a hospitalist at Penn Highlands Healthcare in 2018. She joined the Jaycees to “meet people and continue community involvement” which has been part of her life even before medical school. “Katie” sees the Jaycee’s biggest impact is “giving back to people in need”, particularly with scholarship awards and support of people with food insecurity and increased financial need around the holidays.

Around the World with Team USA

“It was a privilege to wear the USA colors” states William J. Kuprevich, Jr., DO, who served as the team physician for USA Women’s Basketball National team at the AmeriCup competition in Puerto Rico in September 2019. Team USA went 6-0, capturing the gold medal and advancing to the November 10th-19th, 2019 FIBA America tournament in Argentina.

While serving Team USA as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for the Pacific Rim Games in San Diego in 2005, he worked with the USA Women’s and USA Men’s basketball teams. He also served as the Team USA CMO at the Paralympics in Torino, Italy in 2006, and the Pan American Games in Rio in 2007.  Dr. Kuprevich was asked to cover USA Women’s National basketball team at the World Championship event in Russia in 2007. After Russia, he covered more international events for the team, including competitions in Amsterdam, Cancun, Buenos Aires, Prague and Paris.

*Photo credit to USA Basketball.