Alisdair “Rod” Philp, Ph.D., a DMU assistant professor of biochemistry and nutrition, was inspired to help students create the group because of student anxiety over genetics questions on medical licensing examinations. He is an elected affiliated scientist of the ACMG, which enabled the student interest group’s affiliation. Philp says the rapid advancement in genetic knowledge and research, along with DMU students’ interest in both, affirmed the idea for such an organization.

“The human genome project took years, around 20 world-class institutions and 2.7 billion dollars,” he says about the effort, completed in 2003, to identify all the thousands of genes in human DNA. “It revolutionized my job. Nowadays, you can sequence the coding part of the genome with one machine and one person in an off-the-shelf test for around $4,500 in 90 days.

“We are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how genetics impacts clinicians, from family practice to the specialist surgeon,” he adds. “That’s why we need to cater for students who are interested in this area. We have the opportunity to give our students, from any of our programs, a strong advantage in a competitive field.”

As genetics knowledge expands, health care providers will be expected to translate it to their patients.

The parents of a child who’s losing his eyesight due to a genetic disorder, for example, may be better prepared with accurate prognosis for him as well as the risk for any future children based on correlations of genotypes and phenotypes. Members of a family plagued by diseases such as diabetes may be able to have better crafted medications as scientists discover the subtle genetic changes that influence individual patients’ responses to drugs.

In addition, diseases that were always considered too complicated for genetic analysis, such as coronary artery disease, are rapidly being deciphered. Recent advances in the U.S. and Europe have seen successful gene replacement therapies, based on the accurate identification of the causative gene. And as more companies bypass the physician and diagnosis – “an alarming prospect,” Philp says – with services that genotype individuals’ DNA, health care providers will be asked to analyze and translate their patients’ results.

“Medical genetics is a rapidly expanding field and will likely be integrated into nearly every branch of medicine pursued by DMU students,” says DMU osteopathic medical student Arman Cicic, president of the genetics student interest group (SIG). “By providing comprehensive and up-to-date genetics education, the SIG hopes to keep our students at the forefront of contemporary medicine and maintain DMU’s mission to produce highly competent health professionals.”

The mission of DMU’s SIG, says vice president and student Scott Miller, is to “provide students and staff, along with local physicians and residents, with comprehensive medical genetics education to better serve and advocate for the health of our community.” In addition to providing a forum for students to research topics in medical genetics and present their findings, the group will seek to foster networking among health care providers and researchers at other universities, hospitals and more.

The group also plans to survey DMU alumni in family practice and who are physician assistants in central Iowa to learn the most common genetic diseases they encounter in their practices, what they wished they had learned in genetics and what DMU should teach students about genetics today. That information may lead to enriched curriculum and will allow the SIG to design additional courses and continuing education for those practicing in the field.

“This is a student-driven effort to demystify genetics for students, physicians, residents and others,” Philp says. “The field changes so quickly that many practicing physicians can get left behind by uninformative technical terms. Often it appears that the new advances are very complicated, but the beauty of genetics is that it’s like Legos. It fits together one way; you just need to have someone show you the how the trick works.”

The group is also in the process of arranging a genetics grand rounds that draws together oncologists, pediatricians, surgeons, family practice physicians, genetic counselors, nurses and other interested professionals from local health care institutions, a win-win for those participants as well as DMU students and faculty.

“For a basic scientist, I believe it is essential for us to maintain close contact with the health care professional,” Philp says. “If we do not, we run the risk that what we teach students will be out-of-date and irrelevant. Furthermore, these rounds, I hope, will present the opportunity for practitioners in Des Moines to take a seat at a truly interprofessional forum.”

DMU has the perfect way for pre-med students to get a head start…

The DMU Health Professions Advanced Summer Scholars Program (Health P.A.S.S.) gives them a taste of what it’s like to be a student in osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine, physician assistant or physical therapy.

The FREE three-week program takes place at the end of July and is open to college sophomores and juniors who want to get a taste of what med school will be like and pad their resumes with a little hands-on experience. Enrollment is limited to 10 students and applicants must have a minimum cumulative college grade point average of 3.0.

APPLY NOW!

Please don't eat me every day of the week.

Committee member and second-year osteopathic medical student Andrew Kamps offers this recipe that is healthy, inexpensive and easy to throw together – the perfect combination for busy medical students.

Cauliflower and chickpea curry

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon curry powder
• ½ cup chopped cauliflower
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons raisins

Saute curry powder and onion in olive oil for 3 minutes. Add cauliflower and cook until tender.  Add chickpeas and raisins and cook an additional 3-4 minutes or until warm. Serve with brown rice.

Now an official campus organization, the Conservation and Sustainability Committee succeeded in getting the University to install several water coolers that allow people to refill their bottles. In conjunction with Food Day 2011, in October the committee brought to campus the movie “Food Inc.,” a disturbing documentary about corporate food production in the United States. The group is also encouraging the campus community to observe Meatless Monday, a national movement to get people to eat meatless at least one day a week.

“My view is that if we get the planet’s population of seven billion people to make some positive change in their lives, doing what they can, that will make a difference,” says second-year osteopathic student Jessica Nokovic, committee leader this year.

In support of the group’s goals and in celebration of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (and since I deprived you of a recipe on Friday), below I offer two seasonal selections from the Meatless Monday website.

Pick parsnips over the greasy bag.

Smoked Paprika Parsnip Chips

• 3 large parsnips
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• Salt

Preheat oven to 325. Scrub parsnips clean and trim both ends. Thinly slice into rounds. Toss with olive oil, vinegar and paprika. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes. They will crisp up more after being out of the oven for a few minutes.

Cranberry Avocado Guacamole

• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 minced jalapeno
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 2 ripe avocados, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 cup halved cranberries, drained well on paper towels
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

In a large bowl, whisk together the lime juice, honey, jalapeno and onion. Add avocados, cranberries and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper; toss gently to combine.

Students have a ton of fun with the event. DMU students started designing Malpractice Bowl t-shirts some years ago, with snarky taglines like “Des Moines University – helping OTHERS since 1898….Drake Law – helping THEMSELVES since 1881.” One year’s shirt depicted a bulldog, Drake’s mascot, chasing an ambulance.

DMU organizers and coaches for this year's Malpractice Bowl include students David Cain, Raquel Sugino, Jeff Stein, Jeff Olson and Jeff Ebel.

“The game is a way to get back at the lawyers,” jokes Jeff Olson, a DMU podiatric medical student who’s coaching this year’s men’s team. “If we can beat them now, it feels good.”

While the games can get intense – after all, medical and law students, by nature, are competitive – organizers say it’s all in good fun.

“Sports in general brings out a sense of camaraderie outside of the classroom,” says Raquel Sugino, a DMU podiatric medical student and Student Senate member who worked on the Bowl this year.

Join the fun and camaraderie by cheering on the DMU women’s and men’s teams at this year’s Malpractice Bowl. The games are played on Drake’s intramural fields at 28th Street and College Avenue, just north of its main campus. Get your game face on and GO DMU!

Why you should make friends in grad school:

10. School is now your life. You go to class. You study. You sleep (some) and repeat. Every once in a while when you get a five-day break between tests, it’s nice to have someone to complain to about school or make a “no talking about school” rule and attempt to follow the rule for five minutes when out to dinner.

9. You don’t know what to talk about to your friends and family back home because of number 10.

8. It is nice to have someone wish you “happy birthday” other than those Facebook people from high school you haven’t seen in years.

7. If you want to drink adult beverages, doing it alone can be a sign of alcoholism.

6. It is more comfortable getting up close and personal during Physical Diagnosis class. Well, no, actually it’s still awkward.

5. You learn more about Iowa sports. Since I am not an Iowa native, I thought I would impress one of my classmates with my knowledge of their sports teams. She said she graduated from Iowa State. “Ah ha,” I said to myself. I know their team name. “Go Hawkeyes!” Well, my friends let me know my mistake before I got beat up.

4. It’s nice to have someone who will share their locker for your backpack during test days when you can’t remember your combo or your lock is like mine and only works when you don’t actually need in your locker.

3. You might not be athletic enough for one-person volleyball.

2. If you are laughing in public with a group, people think you are having a good time. If you are laughing in public by yourself, people think you are schizophrenic.

And the number 1 reason is…

1. It’s better to cry on a friend’s shoulder after a bad test than on a stranger’s.

Another great feature of Networking Night is that it’s designed for both local students and those who take courses online. The “locals” can enjoy light refreshments while browsing booths, signing up for student organizations and learning about the IPHA and APHA. Online students can tap into the MPHSC Adobe Connect link beginning at 5 p.m. for socializing and networking. And everyone can listen to faculty comments starting at 5:30 p.m. in the SEC Auditorium.

“We hope to have diverse attendance at Networking Night, including online and local students of public health as well as students from all programs at Des Moines University,” says Caitlin Molsberry, MPH Student Club president. “As health professionals, we will all be working together to improve the health of our patients and communities. It makes perfect sense that we should begin to foster strong personal and professional relationships now.”

After faculty comments in the auditorium, on-campus students can enjoy a networking reception and another opportunity to learn about and sign up for various campus organizations. Online students can participate in a discussion with Elizabeth Eastman, MPH Student Club vice president and an online student.

If you plan to attend in person, the MPH Student Club asks that you take a brief survey to help the group estimate attendance. Be sure to bring cash or checks to sign up for organizations of interest (credit cards will not be accepted).

“Public health is recognized as an integral part of the work of all health professionals and key to  improving the health of populations throughout the world,” says Mary Mincer Hansen, Ph.D., R.N., director of DMU’s MPH Program. “The MPH Student Club’s Networking Night is a great opportunity for students of all professions to learn more about public health and experience interprofessional networking.”

Des Moines University has an entire department devoted to teaching students how to care for patients with compassion, ethics and leadership. And in 2007, the University became one of 72 of the nation’s more than 160 medical schools to have a GHHS chapter.

Every year, a highly select group of fourth-year osteopathic students, nominated by their peers and faculty, are inducted into the society. That very special ceremony occurred last week. Congratulations to our fourth class of GHHS members!

“GHHS is very fitting for Des Moines University because it recognizes exactly what DMU prides itself on – the personal aspect of medicine,” says 2009 DMU graduate Justin Atherton, a member of the University’s first group of GHHS inductees. “DMU has academically gifted students, but it has a way of attracting students willing to go above and beyond to put the ‘caring’ back into medicine.”

Here in Des Moines we are so lucky to have such a thriving creative and artistic community and the culmination of of this group of people happens annually at the Des Moines Arts Festival. This year’s events start Friday and run through Sunday.

The Des Moines Arts Festival features 185 of the nation’s top professional artists and 22 emerging Iowa artists in a juried exhibition of artwork in 14 mediums. Providing guests with the unique opportunity to meet artists from around the world and purchase their artwork, the Des Moines Arts Festival has become a signature event for the community.

Along with one of a kind art, the weekend is also filled with live music, local food vendors, street theatre and even a film festival.

So mark your calendars because this is an event not to miss!

The T.O.U.C.H. program is recognized across the country. Most osteopathic medical schools have one, and most residency programs (D.O. and M.D. alike) are at least familiar with it. DMU, however, presents some interesting opportunities for students looking to receive a T.O.U.C.H. award in order to gain the upper hand in applying to residencies. For one thing, a unique aspect of the DMU curriculum is the fact that our physical diagnosis class is relatively early in the program. That means that by the end of our first year, we’re already able to conduct a thorough history and physical. Even if we aren’t yet familiar with all the clinical medicine or treatment options from the second-year systems courses, we can at least provide valuable assistance to local free clinics or health fairs. Oftentimes, the attending physician will give us modest autonomy in being the first to see a patient, take vitals, ask the right questions and begin the physical exam. Some medical students don’t get such opportunities until their third-year rotations (when they’re being evaluated).

Providing OMM treatments to athletes is just one way DMU students volunteer.

Another nice feature of DMU is its prime location. Des Moines is, after all, Iowa’s capital and most populous city. This means that most of the Iowa chapters of major health-interest groups have headquarters in or around our neighborhood. Furthermore, whenever there’s a need to raise political awareness with a major outreach event, Des Moines is a prime target. So what does that mean for us? Well, when the Iowa chapter of the American Lung Association hosts its “Fight for Air” stair climb, it’s right here in Des Moines. When Iowa’s branch of the American Diabetes Association launched its first “Tour de Cure Bike Race” this year, it was right here in Des Moines. And whenever there’s a “race for the cure” for AIDS, cancer, emphysema or whatever else you can think of in Iowa, guess which city it’s in? And with all these runs/bike races/stair climbs, of course, there’s an obvious need for medical personnel and dedicated little osteopathic medical students to provide first aid or OMM treatments (as in our famous Osteopathic Finish Line events – OFLs for short). We are, to my knowledge, one of the only (if not THE only) medical school in which students are able to perform OMM treatments on actual patients in our first two years (and my first OFL was in the first month of class). There are almost always two or more such events every month in Des Moines.

Additionally, Iowa has always been known for its famous educational system. Notice that the back of the Iowa state quarter features a school house in testament of this fact. Additionally, even back home in Pennsylvania, I too took “the Iowa Test of Basic Skills” in elementary school. A guest speaker from Iowa State University summarized it thusly (to a group of high school students visiting campus): “Based on standardized testing scores, it’s often said that America trails much of the world in terms of education…but if you were to remove Iowa from the U.S. and treat it as an independent country, its educational system would place #2 in the world by the same standards.” I don’t know how he got such numbers, but I knew he was right after hearing the high school students’ responses. One inquired: “Wait, on what data was that conclusion based?” Others piped in with “Yeah, I’d like to see the primary literature” and “What was their sample size?” (Seriously, I wish I was kidding.) Now, with all this excellent preparation for higher education and career placement, these students pay lots of visits to local colleges and professional schools early on in their schooling. And who, you might be wondering, will eagerly open their doors to educate such bright minds about the virtues of a career in medicine? Why, DMU, of course, with our “Exploring Post 141” program and “Community Ambassadors Program,” in which DMU students are actively involved in representing our respective programs. When they don’t come to us, we often visit them (as in our “What’s in a Doctor’s Bag?” program for explaining medical instruments to elementary students).

Now, as delightful as it is to have that T.O.U.C.H. certificate hanging on the fridge, or our gold and silver pins affixed to our white coats, working in the community is its own reward. It gives us a chance to remember where we’re headed – a reminder that there will indeed be a life after medical school. Sometimes, when you’re memorizing microbes or chemical pathways for hours on end, you may often ask yourself, “Now, why is it that I’m here, again?” or “Why was it that I wanted to be a doctor in the first place?” Then, after you help an impoverished man at the free clinic get payment assistance for his hypertension meds, you find your answer.