Fifteen teams, including nine from the community and many in costume, relived their P.E. days and raised money for Variety – the Children’s Charity in DMU’s first annual Dodgeball Derby on Jan. 23. Sponsored by the DMU chapter of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine Club (AAPSM), the derby raised nearly $200 for Variety, which serves underprivileged, at-risk and special needs children in Iowa. “The foundation you get as a child is so important,” says club vice president Danielle Butto, D.P.M.’12. “Variety helps support that initial foundation.”

The DMU Mali team included Laura Nilan, D.O.’10, and Stephanie McGinn, M.P.H.’11, in front, and Brian Hansen, D.O.’10, Matt McClanahan, D.O.’10, Ella Callison, PA-C’10, Allison Paulk, PA-C’10, and Steve Badke, D.O.’10.

They treated numerous diseases, many resulting from poor public sanitation, poverty and the residents’ difficult lives. The days were long and exhausting. Still, the travelers agree the experience was well worth it.

“The cultural insights and big smiles we received made it all worthwhile,” says Phillip Tedrick, D.O.’77, an emergency physician from Augusta, ME. He was one of three DMU alumni on the trip, his first to Africa. “I was the big winner in the process.”

So were the students in DMU’s osteopathic medicine, public health and physician assistant programs. They observed many diseases not common in the United States, such as malaria and the effects of malnutrition. The heavy patient load – the team saw as many as 300 patients a day in each of the two sites where they worked – also gave them lessons in providing care with few resources.

“The differences in conditions for the mother [in childbirth] between the U.S. and Mali are almost unbelievable,” says Ella Callison, a physician assistant student. “Mothers use no analgesics, no supplemental oxygen, no breathing exercises. Complications during delivery and postpartum are met with difficulty.”

In one of the three births they observed, Callison and PA classmate Allison Paulk decided to name the baby in honor of Robert “Brent” Crandall, D.O.’96, who delivered the child. “The Malian parents also decided to use the name,” Paulk says. “The range of emotions that we experienced during the births are my most memorable experiences.”

Instructor Laura Delaney greets a child she helped deliver three years ago, named “Laura” in Delaney’s honor.

Laura Delaney, PA-C, MPAS, an instructor and clinical coordinator for DMU’s physician assistant program, says sustainable medical outreach and public health education are critical in a nation where most people make an average of a dollar a day and where only 3 percent of the population live to age 65. It’s also a transforming experience for medical students and health care professionals.

“They learn they have what they need to treat a person – sick is universal,” says Delaney. The trip was her third to Mali. “The challenge is working with our fundamental medical knowledge and physical diagnosis skills.”

The students rose to the challenge, says Vincent Scoccia, D.O.’93, a physician in Tonopah, NV, who went to Mali as his first global health service trip. “I was so proud of all the students – they are good human beings and so willing to learn and help people,” he says. “There is hope and a bright light in our future.”

The DMU-Medicine for Mali trip will occur annually. For information on participating in or supporting it, contact Delaney at 515-271-1060 or laura.delaney@dmu.edu.

See more photos from the trip on our Facebook page!

Revell participated in an elective four-week rotation in DMU’s Physical Therapy Clinic that helped her learn more about the role of physical therapy for patients before and after foot and ankle surgery and for those suffering from pain. That’s given her ideas on how she will work with physical therapists in her own practice.

“For example, if a patient’s foot surgery is causing them to alter their gait, that could cause hip pain,” she says. “A couple of years later, they may have terrible hip pain. Physical therapy can help them avoid further injury.”

Because DMU’s physical therapists typically spend significant time with patients, Revell observed procedures ranging from quick mobility tests to in-depth manual therapy to those using higher-tech tools, such as ultrasound and biofeedback.

The rotation is part of DMU’s emphasis on teaching students an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, says Kari Nies Smith, D.P.T.’04, M.S.P.T.’98, manager of the Physical Therapy Clinic. Accordingly, she and her colleagues benefited from Revell’s participation in the rotation.

“We’ve gained a better understanding of what podiatric physicians are focusing upon to restore function and stability in many of their patients, and how we can work together to ensure the biomechanical and movement function is restored with retraining the patient how to weight-bear and walk more efficiently,” Smith says. “An interdisciplinary team approach is necessary to provide the best care in the management of a patient’s condition. And it’s always great for patients to see us working together.”

Actor Colin Firth’s DMU connection

British actor Colin Firth turned out an Oscar-nominated performance in his recent movie, “A Single Man,” but his Feb. 3 interview with Terry Gross on the public radio program “Fresh Air” turned up an item that’s just as cool: Firth’s maternal grandfather, John Rolles, graduated from Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery (now DMU) in 1952.

After graduating from England’s Nottingham University and becoming an ordained minister, Rolles and his wife, Helen, worked as missionaries in India. “He joined the British Missionary Society because he heard that they were building schools and hospitals in India,” Firth told Gross in the interview. “He was not evangelical. He didn’t go around converting people.”

Deciding they could best serve India by providing medical care, Rolles brought his family – which by then included son Christopher and daughter Shirley, Firth’s mother – to Iowa, where he enrolled at DMU in 1948. He was immediately the Big Man on Campus and off, speaking to student groups and local organizations about his experiences in India.

After John graduated, the Rolles family returned to serving villagers in India, with financial contributions from Still faculty and students, their church and the Polk County Society of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons. “Still College has given us a great opportunity in this field,” Rolles told the Still College Log Book, “and we are proud to be an outpost of the profession.”

Photo © Thinkfilm; www.firth.com.
Information and Log Book courtesy of the Des Moines University Archives and Rare Book Room.

DMU’s Willie Stevenson Glanton (hatless) sits directly across the table from President Obama. Official photo by Pete Souza, WhiteHouse.gov.

The small group of invited guests viewed the Emancipation Proclamation and joined President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama for a discussion on past and present civil rights work.

“I almost felt in awe,” Glanton said afterward. “Everybody had a moment with President Obama. I told them I was so glad to be there and that I hope they’ll come back to Iowa soon.”

Glanton was the first black female assistant county attorney in Iowa, the first black person from Polk County to serve in the Iowa Legislature and the first black attorney for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Her husband, the late Honorable Luther T. Glanton Jr., was the first black judge in Iowa.

The couple has served DMU, too. Judge Glanton joined the DMU Board of Trustees in 1979; when he died in 1991, Willie took his place on the board, became its chair in 1999 and continues to serve. To honor the couple’s service and leadership, in 2004 the University established the Glanton Scholarship to assist minority health and medical students.

Glanton first met the Obamas during the 2008 presidential race. In 2007, she hosted a reception at her Des Moines home – attended by more than 200 people – for Michelle Obama, who was campaigning for her husband. That event was noted in author Liza Mundy’s 2009 book, Michelle: A Biography.

The Obamas aren’t Glanton’s first first couple. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent the Glantons to tour West, Central and East Africa, Cyprus and Korea through the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Exchange Program. In 1965, she was selected by President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson as a “distinguished host” for his Washington inauguration.

This presidential interaction, however, held a special difference for her.

“To live to see a black person become president of the United States was almost too much to handle,” Glanton says. “I wish Luther could have lived to see this.”

Learn about the Glanton Scholarship at DMU, created to honor Louie and Willie Glanton.

The $77.2 million for defense projects across Iowa, approved by Congress and President Barack Obama as part of the 2010 Department of Defense appropriations bill, included $1.2 million for trauma response simulation training for Iowa National Guard medical personnel at DMU’s Iowa Simulation Center for Patient Safety and Clinical Skills.

The money will support formal training for military medics on managing mass casualty, trauma and routine emergency care and to enable them to maintain certifications. The partnership between the simulation center and the Iowa National Guard will fill a need for a centrally located training facility for all levels of professional citizen soldiers. “Our tenet is to provide high-quality, cost-effective training to prepare military personnel to be ready to go,” says College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean Kendall Reed, D.O., FACOS.

Reed and sim center staff are working with Iowa National Guard leaders to match the center’s training capabilities with the needs of Guard medical specialists and supervisors, physicians, nurses and physician assistants.

The training effort is not the first that DMU has offered for military medical personnel. Every month, soldiers from the 4224th Army Hospital, based at Fort Des Moines, train at the simulation center with an average of 30 nurses and medics.

“We want the center to be a resource for the community and the military,” says Michael Flood, D.O.’77, center chairman and DMU associate professor. “We want to help meet the military’s needs long-term.”

Students in DMU’s young M.B.S. program, including Tyler Nielsen and Katie Welliver, enrich DMU’s research environment.

Two students in DMU’s master of biomedical sciences (M.B.S.) degree program won research awards within two weeks of each other in January.

Tyler Nielsen was awarded an $800 grant from the national research society Sigma Xi for his research on carbohydrate metabolism and glycogen storage in Trichomonas vaginalis, the causative agent of trichomoniasis – the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide – and its close relative, Trichomonas tenax. He presented the research at the annual meeting of the North Central Branch of the American Society for Microbiology.

Katie Welliver received the Caroline tum Suden Professional Opportunity Award from the American Physiological Society for her research. The award includes $500 and registration for the society’s experimental biology meeting in Anaheim, CA, in April, where Welliver presented an abstract about part of her research.

“I applied for the award as a long shot,” she says. “It’s been a great experience, and I’ve learned so much in the program.”

The awards reflect well on the two students, who plan to graduate this year, and the M.B.S. program, which began enrolling students in 2007. Sigma Xi awards only about 20 percent of applications for grants in aid of research, and most applicants for the Caroline tum Suden award are doctoral students.

“It’s exciting to be part of the program and work with the professors here,” Nielsen says. “The faculty work with us as peers.”

The 40-credit-hour M.B.S. program is designed to give students advanced knowledge and expertise in medical and scientific research for careers in academia, government, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology-dependent industries. Students select a faculty laboratory in their first year while completing most of their courses; in the second year, they focus on research and producing a thesis. Their work, much of which is done in campus laboratories during evenings and weekends, enriches DMU’s research endeavors.

“I’m really pleased that our graduate students have the opportunity to be recognized for their hard work in the laboratory,” says Julia Moffitt, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology and Welliver’s research mentor. “The research productivity on campus is fueled in large part through the efforts and contributions of our graduate students, and these awards reflect a job well done.”