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(ATHENS, Ohio — July 28, 2014) The Ohio University Heritage College
of Osteopathic Medicine welcomed the largest incoming class in its
39-year history Saturday, July 28, as 190 new medical students took
part in a convocation ceremony and received their white coats,
symbolic of their status as physicians in training. “Here you will
learn to become not just smart doctors, but caring doctors,” Dan
Krajcik, president of the Heritage College Student Government
Association, told the incoming class. “You will stand out in the
future, not because you treat patients solely with your head, but
also with your heart.”
With its focus on training physicians to meet the most pressing
health care needs of Ohioans, 91 percent of the incoming class are
from the state. Three members of the Class of 2018 are participating
in the D.O./Ph.D. program, combining training in medicine and
research through Ohio University’s new translational biomedical
sciences doctorate program.
Heritage College Executive Dean Kenneth Johnson, D.O., told the
students that with the opening of the Dublin campus earlier this
month, and a third campus set to open next year in Cleveland, “you
begin your osteopathic medical studies at an extremely exciting and
important time in the history of this college.”
Roderick J. McDavis, Ph.D., president of Ohio University, noted
that not only is the Dublin campus the first new site for the
Heritage College, but the first new regional campus the University
has opened in nearly 60 years.
During the event at Ohio University’s Templeton-Blackburn Alumni
Memorial Auditorium, the college also awarded its Phillips Medal of
Public Service to state Rep. Terry Johnson, D.O., a 1991 Heritage
College alumnus from Scioto County who represents Ohio’s 90th House
District.
Dean Johnson praised Terry Johnson as both a dedicated primary
care physician and “the epitome of a public servant,” citing among
other accomplishments his co-authorship of House Bill 93, which
helped crack down on prescription “pill mills” in the state.
“We are so incredibly proud to call him one of our own,” the dean
said.
In his own remarks, Rep. Johnson told the medical students that
adhering faithfully to values such as loyalty, duty and integrity
will be crucial if they wish to maintain their bedrock value as
physicians in “this world that swirls around us… in chaos,”
including the nation’s health care system.
Lose personal integrity, he warned the students, “and you lose
everything…When you are forced to choose between making people happy
and good medicine, choose good medicine.”
The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is a
leader in training dedicated primary care physicians who are
prepared to address the most pervasive medical needs in the state
and the nation. Approximately 50 percent of Heritage College alumni
practice in primary care and nearly 60 percent practice in Ohio.
To see a video of the ceremony, click
here. |
