AOA honors leaders and groups for advancing the osteopathic profession

On Saturday, the AOA recognized leaders of the osteopathic medical profession for raising its visibility through brand awareness, research, access to care around the world, and osteopathic medical education. The following supporters were honored at an awards luncheon.

AOA Presidential Citations

AOA President Boyd R. Buser, DO, honored three leaders in the osteopathic medical profession with Presidential Citations, the AOA’s highest honor. They are:

• Humayun J. Chaudhry, DO, FAODME, who has spent his career raising international awareness of osteopathic medicine and the distinctive care DOs provide. Dr. Chaudhry, an osteopathic board-certified internal medicine physician, is chairman of the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities, where he’s a global ambassador and advocate for osteopathic medicine. He also works to promote excellence for all U.S. medical boards in his role as chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards.
• Sandra Featherman, PhD, president emeritus of the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), who has dedicated nearly two decades to advancing osteopathic medical education. In addition to enhancing UNECOM’s reputation during her tenure there, Dr. Featherman has served on the AOA Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation and in leadership roles at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.
• Stephen C. Shannon, DO, MPH, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, who has dedicated more than 30 years to advancing osteopathic medical education, research, and clinical practice. Dr. Shannon, an osteopathic board-certified family practice and preventive medicine physician, previously served as dean of the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and as a member of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners’ Board of Directors.

Shining STARs

The Strategic Team Award and Recognition, known as “STAR,” recognizes contributions made by state and specialty affiliates; osteopathic medical schools; OPTIs; and nonpractice affiliates that enhance the AOA’s strategic plan and advance the osteopathic medical profession. Award recipients are:

• American Osteopathic College of Radiology (AOCR), for its efforts to realign its committees and board to more appropriately implement governance; and to streamline its membership categories, opening full membership to MDs and creating categories for international members. Additionally, AOCR engaged in a marketing campaign to increase exposure and brand visibility by adding new members, increasing non-member registrations for CME courses, and increasing traffic to the AOCR and the Journal of the AOCR websites.
• Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine (OSU-COM), for working to address Oklahoma’s primary care physician shortage through OSU-COM’s Center of Health Sciences Project ECHO Clinics. The clinics expand osteopathic brand visibility by building special care capacity in rural Oklahoma and by training rural primary care providers to diagnose and treat patients with complex health conditions. The school launched its first ECHO clinic—a psychiatry TeleECHO clinic—in November 2016, and earlier this year launched an obesity medicine TeleECHO clinic and a HIV/AIDS/Hepatitis C TeleECHO clinic. OSU-COM will continue to invest in building out a host of ECHO service lines.
• Touro University California, College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUCOM), for launching its GROUPIE program—an acronym for seven distinct and measurable outcomes that help to collectively define the unique and distinctive skills of TUCOM grads: Global Health; Research; Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine and Obesity; Hand-held Ultrasound; Public Health; Inter-Professionalism; and Empathy. As a result of its research agenda, TUCOM has submitted six manuscripts and an overarching editorial to The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association highlighting the first phase of the GROUPIE program.
• Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (MAOPS), for assisting smaller state AOA affiliates by allocating grant funds to support states in implementing online CME education programs. MAOPS also established a coalition of 10 states who share member data and revenue generated from cross-promotion of state conferences.  MAOPS continues to support Logan Banks, DO, on his medical mission in Burundi, Africa, and it raised brand visibility by having the mayor of Jefferson City proclaim April 12, 2017 as Missouri Osteopathic Medicine Awareness Day.  It also held one of the largest conferences in three decades and hired a member liaison to visit physicians and share their concerns with the MAOPS board.
• Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, for writing a book for 10- to 12-year-old readers that provides a history about osteopathic medicine and its founder, A.T. Still, MD, DO. To date, it is the only book written for school-aged children about A.T. Still, and is an approved book for the social science curriculum for 10- to 12-year-old students in Missouri.

George W. Northup, DO, Medical Writing award

The Northup Award, bestowed annually to the best article published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA) the previous year, recognizes contributions to the JAOA that have the potential to change the way DOs think, practice medicine and conduct research.

The 2017 award recognizes the article “Correlation Between Standardize Patients’ Perceptions of Osteopathic Medical Students and Students’ Self-Rated Empathy,” which appeared in the October 2016 issue of the JAOA. The article written by Adam J. McTighe, PsyD; Robert A. DiTomasso, PhD; Stephanie Felgoise, PhD; and Mohammadreza Hojat, PhD; investigates empathy ratings of osteopathic medical students. The authors emphasize the use of standardized patients in training osteopathic medical students to become skilled and empathetic osteopathic physicians.