Tribute to JPOMA Editor, Mark Abraham, DO, JD
"There is a tide in the affairs of men..." - Brutus
Written by Samuel Garloff, DO

    WGRP here. I have just finished reading Harold by Steven Wright. I wish I could describe the plot. I can’t. The best I can report is reading this book is akin to reading James Joyce for Dummies. The book is a compilation of the thoughts of a seven-year-old. History according to Harold.

     Histories fascinate me. Why? The simple answer is that I grew up without one. Sometime in the 1950’s, my family was visited by agents of the FBI. It was summertime. I was home with my father. My brother was at a friend’s house, my mother was elsewhere. My father instructed me to fetch my brother and return home. Arriving home he told us to repair to our room and not to leave until he gave permission. It was the 50’s. We didn’t ask questions.

    My brother and I listened as two agents grilled my father about familial ties to Russia. My uncle, my father’s brother, was an enlisted man in the Army and had applied to OCS. It was the age of McCarthyism. Communists allegedly were everywhere, including the military. We listened as my father denied any and all family living in Russia. We became a product of spontaneous generation in America. After the agents left, my father called his brothers and told them what he was asked. He then told them how he responded and instructed his brothers to do the same. From that moment forward, there was no family history. None. Perhaps as a result, histories fascinate me, including the history of POMA and The JPOMA.

   When Alice Zal, DO asked me to write for the journal, I agreed to do so stipulating that I would not, out of respect, seek to replace my predecessor H. Michael Zal, DO, but would add what I thought might be useful, instructive, educational or entertaining submissions. Shortly afterwards, Alice turned the reins over to Mark Abraham, DO, JD.

    I didn’t know Mark and wondered what to expect. Over the years I have worked with a number of editors. They were all different. One I worked with was a delight, his replacement was a pain (location censored) and I walked away. So yes, I wondered what was going to happen.

    I quickly discovered that Mark granted absolute literary freedom. On occasion when he authorized a theme-based edition, I would submit an off-topic article that I thought was important to either the readership in general or to me personally. He never objected. He never demanded a rewrite. As time progressed, we occasionally spoke by phone about a new idea or approach. On other occasions, we would email or text back and forth, segueing into comical repartee. These exercises allowed me to learn that he was well versed in multiple venues including sports, entertainment, medicine and the law. He displayed an insightful and multi-layered sense of humor. Engaging in banter with him was a fun-filled and intellectual exercise.

    He is gone and I wish I knew him better. My last email to the chief was read not by him, but his wife. She kindly and graciously replied informing me of his passing. I was dumbstruck. His history and contributions must not be forgotten by POMA and The JPOMA readership.

    To his wife Robbie and daughter Sheyenne Leigh, please accept these words as a tribute, a reminder of your shared experiences. Mark always seemed to be searching and eager to learn and understand more. He impressed me as having an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Admirable and necessary traits for an editor. Admirable and desirable traits in a spouse and father.

    Endings are painful but unavoidable. Perhaps Franz Kafka said it best, “The meaning of life is that it stops.” Mark won his victory for humanity. We would all have benefited from more.

    I wonder what Harold would think about this.

The Dirge of the DEI
Written by Samuel Garloff, DO

    WGRP reporting live. Allow me to set off a firestorm. I confess, I enjoy doing so. Equality does not equate with diversity, diversity does not equate with equality and no two people agree on how to achieve inclusion. Worse, none of these categories assure exceptionalism. What’s a med school to do?

    I have read numerous articles about achieving diversity, equality and inclusion in medical school acceptance policies. These certainly are not new social issues, but the focus on medical school acceptance is, as our youthful colleagues say, trending. Some schools have resorted to employing Deans of Diversity. I’m glad I’m not one of their ranks. Being a self-proclaimed humanist however, I submit this offering to simplify the issue for those charged with solving these problems.

From Head-to-Toe to Just Breasts:
My Journey from Jack of All Trades to Master of One
Written by Ted Eisenberg, DO

    During my third year at PCOM, I attended an ENT lecture that showed dramatic before and after photos of rhinoplasty. I realized that I liked the immediate gratification of seeing a significant change. During my internship, I discovered that my hands worked. When I started my general surgery residency, I already had a career in plastic and reconstructive surgery in mind. It was the one area of surgery that combined my longtime interests in design and architecture.
    After I completed my surgery residency, I began two years of an AOA-approved plastic surgery training that was unfunded because an official AOA plastic surgery program did not yet exist. To pay my bills during this time, I moonlighted in the emergency room: I worked ten 12-hour shifts a month.

Formation of Health Plan Policy
Submitted by Eric Chevrette, LECOM OMS-IV and
Hailey Brenner, LECOM OMS-IV

Take the First Pitch
Written by Richard Johnson, DO

    When I was growing up, I played little league baseball for about a year, it really wasn’t “for me,” so I never picked up the baseball lingo that kids that played from age 5 to 19 picked up and used as “common knowledge” verbiage.
    When I got to college (last century) I joined a fraternity, and as most frats do, we played intramural softball. During our first game the “coach/brother” sent me to the plate with the charge to “take the first pitch.” Not really understanding what that meant, I swung at the first pitch, and missed. I thought the coach was going to have a cow. “What the hell are you doing, he proffered!?” To which I declared, “you told me to take the first pitch, so I did.” “No, you, dumb#*@, take the first pitch means to let it go and wait for the next one. Well, ain’t that great, be nice to know the lingo.
    Moving forward about 50 years, I was recently discharged from the hospital after a 6-7-hour abdominal surgery with catheter and JP drain and about 20 pages of post-op information and instructions. I read through them like a good patient and knew what it all said, my wife/intelligent and very competent caregiver, however, took it all literally and to the letter of the law, which is good, but has its downsides. The information and instructions were general recommendations for many/all related surgeries and had some conflicting information compared to what the surgeon discussed with us at my discharge visit.

The NBOME Advocates Parity for DO Applicants and their Qualifications in GME Applications
Written by Renee Cree, NBOME

    The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) advocates for parity and equal opportunity for DO applicants to residency and fellowship training programs. This advocacy includes equivalent recognition and acceptance of the COMLEX-USA credential within graduate medical education (GME) to that of USMLE for MD applicants. To the extent that licensure examination scores are used as part of a holistic residency application process, COMLEX-USA scores should be considered exclusively for osteopathic (DO) applicants. 
    The NBOME has taken a two-pronged approach to its advocacy efforts: education and direct outreach. As part of its education, the NBOME partners with organizations including the American Osteopathic Association, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the American Society of Osteopathic Medical Regulators (formerly the American Association of Osteopathic Examiners), and state medical and osteopathic medical licensing boards to inform those outside of the osteopathic profession on the distinctive yet valid elements of the osteopathic medical pathway to practice, including the purpose of COMLEX-USA and its alignment with the educational program leading to the DO degree.

The Under-Representation of Osteopathic Physicians in Plastic Surgery
Written by Nura Gouda, OMS-IV, Marshall Miles, DO, Michael Karon, DO

    Plastic surgery residency is arguably one of the most competitive specialties in which to match. Many factors can increase one’s chances of matching, such as high board scores, strong letters of recommendation, multiple research publications, and outstanding performance on fourth year rotations. However, while reviewing match data from recent years published on the NRMP website⁽¹⁾, it was apparent that one specific factor had a grossly negative association with a successful match: attending an osteopathic medical school (DO) rather than an allopathic medical school (MD). The osteopathic philosophy of medical education was created in 1874 with the intent of approaching patient health and treatment holistically, viewing the patient as a culmination of their mind, body and spirit, and practicing on the assumption that these three aspects exist synergistically⁽²⁾. Additionally, osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), which DO physicians are taught during their training, involves the use of one's hands to understand and identify somatic dysfunction based on an understanding of the musculoskeletal system. Besides this additional training, osteopathic and allopathic medical students receive the same medical education. Integration of OMT into treatment of patients is often physician and specialty specific. 

    To date, DO physicians are found practicing and training successfully in every medical and surgical specialty in throughout the nation. Though historically DO physicians were mainly found in primary care specialties, there has been increasing amounts of osteopathic physicians matching into non-primary care specialties each year. Despite this steady increase in representation, plastic surgery remains at a stark deficit of osteopathic to allopathic physicians. Our article discusses current data on DOs in plastic surgery training and practice, trends reflected in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), and predicates why this under-representation persists in the field of plastic surgery, despite increases in osteopathic physician representation among all other medical specialties.

Leadership — An Enduring Mission
Written by Silvia Ferretti, DO

    To recognize the newly reimagined and redesigned digital Journal of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) offers a special piece highlighting LEADERSHIP, a quality that endures through reimaginings and redesigns; always pertinent, always necessary, and always an attribute of all that is LECOM.

    As an integral part of the Pennsylvania osteopathic medical community, and in serving for a higher good, the mission is the roadmap to success. That enduring mission is rooted in an unshakable commitment to leadership.

    When the Board of Trustees of Millcreek Community Hospital founded the LECOM in the early 1990s, it became the 16th college of osteopathic medicine in the nation. Since that time, the determined efforts of faculty, staff, and students alike have propelled LECOM to its place as the largest educational institution of its kind.

    LECOM educates osteopathic physicians, pharmacists, dentists, and podiatrists to practice medicine upon a higher level, embodying the credo not for ourselves, but for others. It inculcates the values of inclusive leadership excellence - not solely in educational training, but in community service and through awareness of the human condition. Not only is LECOM a leader in education, but the College and LECOM Health are partners in providing for the health care needs of the Erie community. LECOM has demonstrated an unwavering and resolute commitment to all of the communities in which it has come to lay its cornerstone.

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 two months prior to publication. The rolling submission deadlines are as follows:
    - November 30th for the February issue
    - April 30th for the June issue
    - August 30th for the October issue

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