| Journal of the POMA - Vol 69, No 2 - June 2025 |
From the Editorial Board
"Sonata for Kaleidoscope"
Written by Samuel Garloff, DO, PCOM '78
Ladies and Gentlemen, as I peer through my View-Master, click through the various scenes and witness the rebirth of the JPOMA. The transition from the printed to an online edition is complete, and we hope it meets with your approval.
In past years, I advocated for the inclusion of original poetry in the journal. With the rebirth of the JPOMA, this has expanded into a creative writing section. I couldn't be happier.
Science and the arts have always advanced hand in hand. Einstein played violin. After all, could a string instrument produce music without the physics of harmonics? How could Orpheus attempt to rescue Eurydice from the underworld without the science of the lyre? One of the world's greatest playwrights was physician Anton Chekhov, who famously said, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." If you would like a more recent example, read any of the works of Robin Cook, MD. Fond of the visual arts? Consider the anatomical drawings of Frank Netter, MD. The greatest concert violinist I ever met is a psychiatrist who had his medical school expenses paid by Leonard Bernstein.
Then there is poetry. I'm convinced the poet views life, as does a psychiatrist on occasion, on the oblique. Of course, mathematicians and physicists do also. They can't avoid it. The JPOMA features poetry written by new authors and by Richard Donze, DO, MPH.
I first read one of Dr. Donze's poems in JAMA. Since then, I discovered he has been published in several journals besides JAMA, including the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of Medical Humanities and others. His work has also been republished in several anthologies of physician poetry: Uncharted Lines; Voices from the Front Lines: the Pandemic and the Humanities; Blood and Bone: Poems by Physicians; and Primary Care: More Poems by Physicians. His own collection of medical and non-medical poems titled The Natural Order of Things was published in 2021 by Finishing Line Press, the same publisher that will lease his novel The Secret Saint Anthony Prayer this August. We are proud to have him join us as our "Poet in Residence." Hopefully, some of you visual artists will soon join him.
I urge everyone to explore and nourish their creative side and share it with your colleagues. We ask that you submit creative writings, both poetry and prose, or really any style, to James Eirkson at [email protected], or to me at [email protected]. If you want to share drawings, we are certainly more than interested.
After all, could we be the physicians we pride ourselves to be without viewing Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, reading the description of humanity by Walt Whitman in "I Sing the Body Electric," studying the writings of A.T. Still, or listening awash to the Baroque and Renaissance masters who were artists, physicians and scientists, leaving us incredible historical perspectives through their music?
No. If Medicine is an art, we are the masters. Share your talents.
Respectfully, WGRP
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"Where ID was, there EGO shall be" ~ Sigmund Frued
Written by Samuel Garloff, DO, PCOM '78
Typically, when I proffer a submission to the newsletter or journal, it is rather whimsical. Not this time. Andrew Budson, MD, a researcher at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has published a New Explanation for Consciousness. "In a nutshell, our theory is that consciousness developed as a memory system that is used by our unconscious brain to help us flexibly and creatively imagine the future and plan accordingly." [This] "suggests that we don't perceive the world, make decisions or perform actions directly. Instead, we do all these things unconsciously and then, about a half second later, consciously remember doing them....We knew that conscious processes were simply too slow to be actively involved in music, sports and other activities where split-second reflexes are required."
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Retirement: A Life After Work
Written by Gerald Skobinsky, DO, PCOM '70
After graduating from PCOM and interning at a small general hospital, I went into family practice in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. I was a solo practitioner for 40.5 years – until I retired in 2011.
What happened to going to the office? I was set free, or was I? No prior authorizations, no Medicare, and no paycheck; just “blissfully” lazy days. Ouch, now what?
Monday dawned and I awoke at 6:00 a.m. prepared for a busy day. I had nothing to do. I tried to go back to sleep and couldn’t. My mind was screaming, “What do I do next?” The thought of wasting all that education and experience gave me the feeling that I was cheating the world and myself of Me.
At that time, my oldest son was living in the South of France with his French (now ex-) wife and two children. My wife, Joyce, and I decided to visit them and stay for a month to see their everyday lives firsthand. That turned out to be three weeks too long.
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When a Patient's Family Member Is a Physician: Benefits and Challenges
Written by Angela Zawisza, DO, DMUCOM '07
A trauma surgeon stands in a hospital hallway, listening to the overnight resident presenting an admission, a 70-year-old male transferred from a Caribbean country. Generally healthy, he arrived in the Emergency Department there with complaints of shortness of breath. Further history revealed a fall on the ice prior to his trip, and over the following ten days, he experienced increasing shortness of breath along with bruising on the left flank and lateral chest wall. Imaging in the outside ED revealed a large fluid collection in the left hemithorax, and subsequent chest tube placement resulted in the removal of two liters of serosanguinous fluid. This occurred 72 hours prior to admission to this hospital. The patient had been placed on antibiotics, and once medical flight arrangements were made, he was transported to this hospital for definitive treatment.
“Oh, by the way, his daughter is a physician.”
We all deal with challenging family members, but how does hearing that a family member is a physician change that perspective? Is it a relief that perhaps the conversation will be a little easier, with the family member available to translate medical-speak? Or is it a concern that the family member will make unreasonable demands, or try to dictate care in a medical field in which he or she is not trained?
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OP-MED: Impact of AI on Medical Education
Written by Katherine Galluzzi, DO, WVSOM '84
In April, an interdepartmental meeting at PCOM was scheduled via Zoom. When the admin couldn’t attend, they opted to have ChatGPT generate the transcript and minutes. The result: a 36-page transcript accurately attributing comments based on screen names (except for group room comments, which defaulted to me). As my colleagues joked, I tend to do most of the talking anyway.
But it was the minutes that amazed us: clear, concise, and well-organized. Tasks were assigned, next steps outlined, and the documentation was better than anything we’d seen before. ChatGPT made us appear more efficient than we felt.
AI already permeates our lives—from Siri curating playlists to frustrating chatbot interactions. These ChatGPT-generated minutes weren’t my first experience with generative AI. Last year, the AOBFP explored using ChatGPT for board question writing. Security concerns prevented allowing ChatGPT to "learn" on our content, but we prompted it to create clinical questions. While the output was impressively fast and seemingly accurate, citations were problematic—some nonexistent or incorrect. In AI terms, it was “hallucinating.”
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Code 99204
Written by Richard Donze, DO, MPH, PCOM '78
doc retired office referred me
30 years we got older together
he was done hated patient-talk
over computers then with virus
it was all computer couldn't get
it to work despite kids' help so
we did phone once told him he
could tell tele-health go to hell-
a-health he laughed what? No
never got it stayed in kids said
why take a chance got groc’ries
delivered only went out to get
the shot at church then back in-
side this is first time seeing any
doctor in four years haven't had
to thank God yeah sorry mask al-
ways slips off nose when talking
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June Theme: Short reflections from your first rotation.
October Theme: Short reflections on the technology available when you were a resident. Email to [email protected].
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"Weighing In" On My First Clinical Rotation As A "Booth Doctor"
Written by Ted Eisenberg, DO, PCOM '76
When I arrived at the clinic in North Philadelphia, I knew virtually nothing about patient management – other than that I had to do a history and physical to get started.
I went to weigh my first patient and asked her to step on the non-digital scale. It wouldn’t register because she was well over 300 pounds. So, I grabbed a second scale, had her place one foot on each, and I tried to simultaneously calibrate each one. It didn’t work. I dug deeper into her 3-inch chart and discovered that someone had figured out that if you put a large clamp on the end of the scale part that moves up and down, and you weigh yourself before and after placing the clamp, you’d know how many pounds it would knock off – about 80 pounds in my case.
After my second patient walked in and sat down, I asked, “How much do you weigh?” He told me, and I followed up with “Is that with or without your shoes?” He then knocked on one of his legs. It was wooden. Then he knocked on the other! Both were a result of a below-knee amputation from diabetic gangrene. My first day in the clinics was a learning experience – a very embarrassing one.
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This article provides a statistical accounting of the state of osteopathic medicine in Pennsylvania on January 3, 1959. How far we’ve come in 66 years! The state is now divided into 13 districts rather than 9. More than 10,000 DOs practice in the state of Pennsylvania, rather than just over 1,300 in 1959. Perhaps most telling of the growth of our profession, in 1959, there were only 6 osteopathic medical schools in the United States (the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine being one). Now, we have three medical schools with four campuses in the state alone, with a fourth school preparing to accept its first class in 2026. With a 70% increase in the number of osteopathic physicians in the country in the last decade, Pennsylvania continues to be an integral part in the growth of the profession.
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Substitute “measles” for “smallpox” in this article from a 1959 issue of JPOMA, and it could have been written today. Vaccination rates for measles are at an all-time low, leading to several outbreaks across the United States, and the current outbreak in Mexico has been attributed to the spread from the West Texas outbreak. Anti-vax groups continue to have a stronghold on a significant part of the population, leading to the recurrence of a disease that was declared eradicated from the United States in 2000.
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This POMA member graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy in 1935 and went on to become Chairman of the Department of Surgery at PCOM and ultimately Chancellor. In the early 1950s, he had a chance meeting with presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower relayed to this physician how osteopathic treatments had alleviated his chronic shoulder pain during the war. This physician relayed that there was no federal funding for osteopathic medical schools, unlike their allopathic counterparts. The next year, funding for osteopathic medical schools was in President Eisenhower’s budget. A promoter of osteopathic medicine from the beginning, he was the 62nd president of the AOA.
Click here if you can identify this pioneering osteopathic physician!
The answer will be revealed in JPOMA's October 2025 issue.
(Answer to JPOMA's February 2025 Guess Who? - Arnold Melnick, DO)
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Members of our osteopathic community are the best and brightest. We honor the passing of these POMA members. We recognize their contributions and legacies to the profession and to POMA. To friends and families, we offer sympathies.
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Publication Notes
Disclaimer
Views expressed in The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board, The JPOMA, or POMA unless specified.
About the JPOMA
Frequency
The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association will be published three times a year: February, June, October.
Submission Information
The Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association is a safe space for all DOs to have a voice and be heard. Opportunities to contribute in all content areas are open to all osteopathic medical students, residents, and physicians. Share your thoughts, ideas, and submissions via email to [email protected].
Submission Deadlines
The Publications Committee will review submissions one month prior to publication. The rolling submission deadlines are as follows:
- January 15th for the February issue
- May 15th for the June issue
- September 15th for the October issue
Editorial Board
The POMA Publications Committee serves as the editorial board for the Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association. It is currently chaired by Joseph Zawisza, DO and includes Vice Chair Donna Delfin, DO, Richard Donze, DO, Theodore Eisenberg, DO, Katherine Galluzzi, DO, Samuel Garloff, DO, Porsche Lee, LECOM OMS-III, and Zachary Mendola, LECOM OMS-II. POMA Vice President Angela Zawisza, DO, is champion of POMA's Communications Activities.
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Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association
1330 Eisenhower Boulevard, Harrisburg, PA 17111
www.poma.org | [email protected]
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