spartan nurses - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University

(Far left) On Sept. 17, 2009, (l to r)
John Haapaniemi, DMC chief of
staff; MSUCOM Dean William
Strampel; MSU President Lou
Anna K. Simon; Joel Ferguson,
chairperson, MSU Board of
Trustees; and MSUCOM Associate
Dean Gary Willyerd officially
opened the expansion site at the
Detroit Medical Center.
Student Ramy Mansour was among
MSUCOM students offering a
health fair for the public at Detroit’s
Eastern Market.
graduated to choose the poorest
community in the nation where
her practice and communitybuilding
have received national
recognition; Joyce Johnson, former
surgeon general of the Coast
Guard; and many, many more.
The MSU College of Osteopathic
Medicine has been a
leader in developing research in
a profession that traditionally
has emphasized clinical care,
and leads all other osteopathic
colleges in the nation in our level
of National Institutes of Health
funding, a common marker for
research excellence.
Over the years, internationally
recognized scientists have
served in the college’s faculty.
Veronica Maher, the first person
ever to identify that chemical
and radiation damage to DNA
causes mutations and ultimately
cancer, and Justin McCormick,
an expert on DNA repair, rank in
the top five percent of cumulative
funding from the National
Institutes of Health. Terrie
Taylor (see Spartan Saga, p. 14),
working in Malawi, has become
the world’s focal point for studies
and treatment of cerebral malaria
in children; MSUCOM constructed
a building to house that
African nation’s first MRI, which
was donated by General Electric.
An array of studies by MSU-
COM faculty include epilepsy in
Zambia, neurocognitive development
and AIDS in Uganda,
vaccine development, orthopedic
research, biomechanics, Parkinson’s
disease, Alzheimer’s disease,
stroke, hypertension and more.
Building for the future, MSU-
COM in 1979 developed the first
ever joint D.O.-Ph.D. program
to provide exceptional students
the opportunity to become
physician-scientists. Today, this
challenging program has 25
students enrolled, learning to be
both doctors and researchers, and
using the skills to improve the
knowledge base and practice of
medicine.
MSUCOM Spartans can now
be found making a difference
around the globe. The college’s
MSUCOM has ranked in the
top 5 percent for primary care
education for 10 years running.
-U.S. News & World Report
Institute of International Health
(IIH) develops research overseas,
such as environmental health in
the Balkans and viral disorders in
Egypt. Under the new leadership
of Reza Nassiri, IIH has a rapidly
expanding network of affiliations
on five continents, where faculty
and student exchanges, medical
missions, and study abroad opportunities
are available. Typical of
such outreach is the establishment
of an MSUCOM HIV clinic in
the Dominican Republic under
the leadership of Peter Gulick.
Today the footprint of the
MSU College of Osteopathic
Medicine is large—teaching,
learning, leading, caring, healing,
and serving. The college has not
only met its mandate by providing
the physicians Michigan
needs, it is also multiplying its
impact by providing the physicians
that the world needs.
GROWING UP TO
THE CHALLENGE
Remaining responsive to the
needs of a state in an area as
complex as health care education
has not been easy. It requires eyes
on the horizon, hands on the
wheel, and the pedal to the metal.
That is why the MSUCOM has
recently launched an expansion
of its first- and second-year
program to two sites in southeast
Michigan—at the Detroit Medical
Center downtown and at the
Page 30
Fall 2010 MSU Alumni Magazine