Q&A: Spirited, Vietnam-born TCOM grad takes no freedoms for granted

Born in 1971 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tayson DeLengocky, DO, and his three siblings fled the country with their parents, who obtained political asylum in France. Although he grew up primarily in northwestern France and immigrated to the United States in 1990, his early exposure to a repressive Communist regime shaped his outlook and values.

Cherishing freedom of expression, Dr. DeLengocky writes letters to newspaper and journal editors and maintains a blog covering a wide range of issues, from whether international medical graduates should be allowed to serve AOA-approved residencies to what should be done about human rights violations abroad. In 2011, he received the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association’s New Physician of the Year Award for a series of guest editorials and other efforts to counteract the proposal by the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTSHC) in Fort Worth to establish an MD school alongside the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM).

A 2002 graduate of UNTHSC-TCOM, Dr. DeLongecky served a three-year ophthalmology residency in New York City through the Touro University Medical Education Consortium and a two-year fellowship in vitreo-retinal surgery at South Texas Retina Consultants in Corpus Christi, Texas. A specialist in diseases of the retina, he practices at Bond Eye Associates in Peoria, Ill., touting a whole-patient approach to ophthalmologic care.

In August 2010, the University of North Texas Board of Regents approved a proposal to develop an MD school at UNTHSC. What have you done to help forestall the establishment of this school?

In December 2008, UNTHSC President Scott B. Ransom, DO, MPH, all of a sudden announced the formation of a study group to consider the feasibility of establishing an MD program at the Fort Worth campus. As an alum who loves osteopathic medicine, I took it upon myself to look into the issue. I was not impressed by Dr. Ransom’s arguments that an MD school at UNTHSC would be financially viable, help alleviate physician shortages in Texas, and not harm the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. I knew that the proposed MD school would not be good for the osteopathic medical profession and would be extremely costly to Texas with few benefits.

Between March 2009 and December 2010, I wrote three guest editorials for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, two for the Fort Worth Business Press and one for The Brownsville (Texas) Herald denouncing point-by-point with supporting evidence Dr. Ransom’s proposal. When UNTHSC released an academic and business plan for the MD school, I dissected and came up with a counterargument for each component of the plan after doing extensive research.

The business plan for the proposed MD school is flawed. For one thing, it greatly underestimates the cost of starting a new medical school at $21.5 million, when it would likely cost more than $100 million. What’s more, with south Texas experiencing the state’s most severe physician shortages, it didn’t make sense to spend millions opening a second medical school in Fort Worth.

So, with the help of an assistant, I wrote a 40-page report and printed 200 copies at my own expense. The report took six weeks to complete and went through 20 drafts. I submitted the document to the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association (TOMA), which used it in lobbying the Texas Legislature and the UNT Board of Regents. I also wrote letters to TCOM alumni, students and faculty, urging them to support TOMA’s advocacy efforts against the proposed MD school.

As I explained in the report and my letters, a better, more cost-effective way to increase the number of physicians in Texas would be to fund more graduate medical education positions throughout the state. This would help prevent both DOs and MDs from leaving Texas to train and practice.

In November 2010, I launched my website and began to blog about the proposed MD school, the distinctiveness of osteopathic medicine and other issues I feel strongly about, such as human rights violations in Vietnam. Even after 40 years of peace, the people of Vietnam have no freedom, and coercion exists at every level. Bloggers who criticize the Vietnamese government have been jailed. I also write letters to online and print publication editors regarding human rights abuses, such as my most recent guest editorial condemning land seizures in Vietnam.

The U.S. is a free country: If you have a will, there is a way. Here, we have freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And we have so many choices that even aspiring physicians have two distinct medical professions to select from. I don’t take these freedoms and options for granted. Therefore, I believe that all DOs should speak out on behalf of the profession, using the Internet and especially social media to promote their practices and osteopathic medicine. This way, DO will soon become a household word.

How did you become interested in osteopathic medicine and ophthalmology?

I was a biochemistry major at the University of Texas at Austin. But for the wrong reasons, I decided to go to dental school instead of medical school. I realized my mistake during my first semester. My heart wasn’t in dentistry.

I chose to pursue a career in osteopathic medicine because of the profession’s strength in primary care and holistic approach to treating patients. I thought I would become a family physician and integrate oriental medicine into my practice. Then in my fourth year, I did an ophthalmology elective rotation mainly because I have a niece who has congenital cataracts; I thought I might learn something that could help her. Instead, I ended up falling in love with the specialty.

Ophthalmology is similar to primary care in that you develop long-term relationships with patients and have continuity of care. But you also get to do microsurgical procedures, which I find fascinating and challenging.

Do you incorporate osteopathic manipulative treatment and osteopathic principles into your practice?

Before beginning my ophthalmology residency and later subspecializing, I did a traditional osteopathic rotating internship. Because of that and my education, I’m well-trained in the osteopathic approach of treating the whole patient. This training helps me to recognize systemic disease affecting blood vessels and the nervous system. And it is also why I make a point of checking patients’ blood pressure and other vital signs. I want to make sure that patients get to the right specialists if their problems are not primarily ophthalmologic.

I don’t do much OMT as an ophthalmologist. But I do perform OMT on one patient who has chronic tension headaches, who had previously seen numerous other doctors, from neurologists to chiropractors, for relief without success. I’ve referred patients to DOs who practice osteopathic manipulative medicine, but sometimes OMM specialists have long waiting lists. I often get on the phone with other physicians when I send patients for them to see. I try to go the extra mile to make sure my patients get the care they need, which frequently means helping them bypass red tape.

I’m grateful that I had the chance to become an osteopathic ophthalmologist, and I want to share this opportunity with others. Toward this end, I mentor DO students through the AOA’s iLEARN program and I have three premedical students shadowing me. In addition, I help train local medical students and resident physicians. I feel it is important to give back to the profession I love.