What social connections mean about the way we teach our students

F.R. "Fritz" Nordengren, M.P.H.

The Internet and mobile connectivity have increased the number of tools to communicate and build social connections. From the 1981 AT&T slogan “Reach out and touch someone” to Twitter’s “What’s happening?”, these tools have promised to improve our quality of life. The growth of these services creates opportunities in education to find new channels for students and faculty to share the learning experience. Coupled with the opportunities is the responsibility to understand their limits and the role of faculty mentors to prepare learners for professional practice.

As the number of social tools on the Internet increases and mobile devices offer new ways to stay in touch, it’s not uncommon to consider if the explosion of technology is bringing us closer together or creating distance between us.

At first glance, having many friends or contacts on social networks implies a great sense of connectedness. However, you likely have experienced the downside of electronic social circles, such as the recent party or lunch where other guests were staring into their digital devices and tapping messages to others. The connectedness of one-on-one conversations may be lost to the digital connectedness.

Understanding the importance of social connections and social capital gives us a key foundation for understanding how we can better prepare our students.

What is social capital?

Social capital is the study of connections between social networks. One of the books that brought social capital awareness to the mainstream interest was Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone (2001).

The premise is that while more of us are doing more things, we are doing them alone. His research synopsis shows that while more people are bowling, fewer people bowl in leagues. More people are employed in the professions, but fewer per capita are members of professional associations. The idea, he suggests, is that our social connectedness is decreasing, even as more of us participate in activities.

Parallel to his discussion of social connectedness and the rise in social networking technologies is the study of loneliness led by John Cacioppo. In the book Loneliness, the University of Chicago professor states that loneliness is unrecognized as a mental illness, similar to the lack of recognition given to depression decades ago. Among other traits, he adds, lonely people sleep less well and can’t think as clearly, which can have a direct impact on a student’s ability to learn and perform at his or her best.

Understanding loneliness and the impact of technology on social connectedness can help faculty adjust teaching and advising strategies, especially in the typical medical education. Students are often placed in large cohorts, organized into study groups and work together for a common goal. Students are also sent on rotations, often alone, and many times in a new city or environment. While a rotation appears to be a more “lonely” experience than the cohort learning, students may feel loneliness in both educational settings. One of the goals of faculty and academic advisors is to help create an environment where students can perform their best. Can technology play a role?

Digital connectedness: a case of “haves” and “have nots”?

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, issued in November 2009, notes that “the extent of social isolation in America is not as high as has been reported through prior research.” It states the number of Americans who are truly isolated is unchanged or minimally changed since 1985. Rather, the more pronounced social change is that Internet and mobile phone users have larger and more diverse core networks.

The Pew study appears to set up a “haves and have nots” division of social connectedness, with technology users potentially being better connected. A future study that identifies core network composition may help us truly see whether and how these tools are changing the makeup of our social network.

What does this mean for teaching and learning?

As use of online social networks appears to grow, what strategies can be employed to help learners? The answer can be inferred from the U.S. Department of Education study titled “Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies.” The meta-analysis includes 51 study effects, 44 of which were with older learners. Among the findings are these three outcomes:

• Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.
• Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction and purely online instruction.
• The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.

This suggests that by arranging curriculum to offer blended learning – a combination of online and face-to-face instruction – students are likely to have better performance. As educators, we recognize that some forms of instruction benefit from lecture in a large lecture hall. Other kinds of learning are best done alone and can more effectively be delivered via a web-based module. It is the role of the educator to recognize the limits and varying needs of individual learners.

It is also important to recognize that blended learning is not “add on” learning; it doesn’t mean simply adding five hours of web-based learning to an already full syllabus. Instead, identifying portions of the learning that can be moved out of the lecture hall and into the student’s computer allows lecture time to be concentrated on application, practice and a higher level of learning.

Timing is a factor, too. If web-based instruction or the use of social media communication tools is incorporated late in the curriculum, it may be too late for the student, especially for one whose potential for loneliness is high, to use and relate to the faculty member and advisor in a digital world. However, using these tools early in the program, perhaps even as part of orientation and ongoing through the curriculum, the student may be likely to both use the tool for social connectivity with faculty and continue to use the tool for learning reinforcement. The faculty member’s role in the social network is to help students understand the role of social connectedness and to navigate the changing world of technology.

Finally, the affective domain in health care education includes our role as models of appropriate behavior and use of digital, ever-present tools to our students. Early use of online tools in the curriculum can demonstrate best-practice modeling and begins formation of social ties for later learning. As we model what we consider the appropriate use of these tools, we likely will influence their use by our students in professional practice.

F.R. “Fritz” Nordengren is assistant professor and educational technology strategist in DMU’s College of Health Sciences.

Des Moines University’s Kendall Reed Rare Book Room recently acquired a rare, first English edition copy of The Workes of That Famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey [sic], printed in 1634. French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) made innumerable contributions to the field of medicine and is considered a father of modern surgery. On the battlefield, Paré resurrected an old but rarely used concoction of egg yolk, oil of roses and turpentine to treat wounds in lieu of boiling elderberry oil. He also successfully disproved the theory that Bezoar Stones contained magical healing properties. In addition, Paré introduced groundbreaking work in obstetrics and developed the Bec de Corbin, an early version of contemporary hemostats.

The Workes of That Famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey features more than 300 beautiful and weird woodcut illustrations that supplement his writings on the plague, popular myths (such as the use of unicorn horns to treat illness), materia medica, 16th century medical instruments and much more. The tome is available for viewing in the Rare Book Room along with other books and journals on the history of osteopathy, podiatry, surgical anatomy, military medicine and medical education. Dating from the 17th century to present, DMU’s rare book collection is an important resource for medical students, practitioners and historians.

The Paré book and other items in the collection “allow students to feel, smell and imagine the past and what physicians of that time endured to assure the progress that we benefit from today,” says Kendall Reed, D.O., dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“Books of this era are rapidly disappearing from the market and form the cornerstone of any rare book collection,” he adds. “We must diligently and purposely continue to acquire rarities such as this for our next generation of physicians. It’s a part of our rich culture at DMU that we need to not just preserve but expand upon. Time is of the essence.”

Information courtesy of DMU Archivist Lindsey MacAllister, M.A.; the DMU Archives and the Kendall Reed Rare Book Room.

“The baby was only nine to 10 pounds because he was expending so much energy trying to breathe,” says Michael, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who was stationed in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007. “Sarah steered me toward the proper treatment.”

He and his colleagues flew the baby by helicopter to Baghdad for surgery on a large cyst in his throat. It was a risky, low-to-the-ground flight; sniper fire was a constant concern, but flying at a higher altitude may have endangered their patient. After surgery, the baby was back home less than a week later.

Michael’s role in saving the boy’s life is just one example of his courage, leadership and service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Fallujah, he served as sole medical officer for seven separate units of more than 2,000 military members. He coordinated emergency medical care for Iraqi forces and civilians. Trained in hyperbaric medicine and the only dive medical doctor in Iraq at the time, he provided medical and dive support to an underwater construction team and river squadron working to repair a boat ramp at Haditha Dam.

“Diving in the Euphrates River was surreal,” he recalls. “We were outside the wire, outside the camp. You’re pretty exposed, but you just do your job.”

For his effectiveness, leadership and “loyal devotion to duty,” Michael was awarded the Bronze Star Medal last year.

“Lieutenant Villarroel’s commitment and insistence on participating in every emergency procedure involving one of his Marines or sailors resulted in a palpable sense of confidence and reassurance” among battalion members, the medal citation stated.

Michael cherishes the honor but avers, “There are other Marines and sailors who are just as deserving or more deserving. They are doing the hard work and making the difference.”

Both Villarroels – who in February became parents of daughter Emerson James – enlisted in the Navy as DMU students. He’s now stationed at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego; Sarah is completing a child abuse fellowship at the University of California-San Diego. “She’ll be the only pediatric forensics-trained pediatrician in the military on the West Coast,” Michael says proudly.

He’s also proud of his military colleagues. “I love what I’m doing,” he says. “Working with the Marines and sailors, serving them, taking care of your guys – that’s where you get the benefit.”

Swim, bike, run. Triathlons are easy
to understand.

But magnify the concept to 10,225 miles
and stretch the route across 13 countries
in 11 months and it becomes The World
Triathlon, a nearly unfathomable concept
that’s just under way.

Charlie Wittmack, a Des Moines attorney, the
first Iowan to climb Mount Everest and a life-
long adventurer, embarked on this epic
journey July 1 when he jumped into the
River Thames to swim to the North Sea and
across the English Channel. He’ll
follow that with a 9,000-mile bike
ride across mountains and deserts
in Europe, Asia and Nepal. Next he’ll hop
off the bike to run a 950-mile trail from sea
level at the Bay of Bengal through
the Himalayas to the summit of Mount Everest.

The whole trek is roughly 100 times the length of an Ironman triathlon.

Wittmack is not making this crazy-ambitious journey on a whim or to show off superhuman endurance. He’s doing it to bring light to issues he considers very serious. Health. The environment. Education. That’s where Des Moines University fits in.

Yogesh Shah, M.D., associate dean of global health at DMU, created a partnership among The World Tri team, DMU, the World Health Organization and the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) to promote a message of public health and education to combat maternal mortality. The WRA is an international coalition working to make childbirth safe for all women.

“Nepal’s maternal mortality rate is the 16th worst in the world,” Shah says. “Improving mortality rates around the world is an important focus at DMU and the World Health Organization. By joining with the WRA, we gain even more strength in bringing awareness to this topic.”

That fits Wittmack’s world view. “I stopped thinking about the parts of the trips as adventures and instead as opportunities to form connections,” he said in a May 17 talk with DMU students.

So while he recovers from biking and prepares to hike Everest, a DMU group will work with him and his wife, Cate Wittmack, on the maternal mortality challenge. The team includes DMU faculty, graduates, staff and students as well as physicians and health care students from around the United States.

Beginning in December, the team will train health care workers in the Kathmandu hospital on safe, clean delivery procedures, using birthing models from DMU’s Iowa Simulation Center for Patient Safety and Clinical Skills.

From January through June 2011, the team will visit rural villages along Wittmack’s hiking route to speak in schools and at community gatherings. They will share information on safe sex, pregnancy complications and maternal health issues, using materials prepared by UNICEF.

“Right now many in rural areas consult an untrained birth attendant for deliveries. They do not get even a local birth attendant involved until there are complications, at which point it’s often no longer an option to get the mother to a larger town with a medical facility,” Shah explains. “Part of the message we will share is why it’s important to get prenatal care and call the attendant at the start of labor.”

Members of the team will rotate through in month-long stints, but the message will remain constant: No woman should die while giving birth.

As the 2009 recession continues to depress household incomes, stymie job growth and spike government debt, Forbes.com offered a suggestion: Move to Middle America. Specifically, to Des Moines.

In April, Forbes declared Iowa’s capital the number-one “best place for business and careers” based upon its “reasonable business costs, strong economic outlook and solid quality of life.” The city was seventh on the list last year.

Forbes is not the only one praising Des Moines these days. In May, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine pegged the city number seven on its “best cities for the next decade” list for attracting “global talent”; its other draws are low-cost housing and the city’s “long-touted reputation for family-friendliness and a ’19-minute commute.’”

Des Moines also has attracted the attention of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, which in February featured an article about “recent commercial, residential and retail development in Des Moines, where public and private cooperation has produced a robust urban landscape matched by few cities its size.”

So what’s up with all this applause for a city in the heart of fly-over land?

“I’ve seen transformations in the city,” says DMU Trustee Dale Andres, D.O.’73, senior vice president of medical affairs at Mercy Medical Center-Des Moines. “It’s multidimensional, from sports to recreation to schools to shopping.”

Developments in the metro area in the past five years include:

• Installation of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, named after the couple who donated to the city 25 works by international artists, valued at more than $40 million. Midwest Living magazine recently included the park among its top 45 “best new Midwest spots to play, eat and stay.”

17th

STRONGEST U.S. METRO ECONOMY
Farmers Insurance Group of Companies

• A new central branch of the Des Moines Public Library spanning two blocks in the heart of Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park. Designed by London-based architect David Chipperfield, the library features Okatech windows that create an external copper façade but, from inside the building, are transparent.

#1

BEST PLACE TO RAISE A FAMILY
Farmers Insurance Group of Companies

• The new Science Center of Iowa, which includes a 216-seat IMAX Dome Theater and a 50- foot domed Star Theater.
• Renewal of Gray’s Lake Park, with creation of the two-mile Kruidenier Trail that encircles it and connects to other trails in the area.
• Construction of Wells Fargo Arena, Hy-Vee Hall and the Iowa Hall of Pride adjacent to Veterans Memorial Auditorium, which is scheduled to be remodeled as a convention center. Home of the Iowa Barnstormers arena football team, Wells Fargo Arena has hosted performers including Elton John, the Black Eyed Peas, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.
• Historic East Village east of the Des Moines River stretching six blocks to East 14th Street, previously a dilapidated area now home to hip eateries, eclectic boutiques and swanky loft-style housing.
• In West Des Moines, Jordan Creek Town Center, the state’s largest shopping complex with upscale retailers, restaurants and a 3.5-acre lake with walking trails.

These and other new developments join the area’s tried-and-true favorites, such as the famed goldleaf-domed State Capitol Building, historic Valley Junction (West Des Moines), Living History Farms, Blank Park Zoo and the renowed Des Moines Art Center.

Annual events also add to
Des Moines’ cool factor, including the following:

• the annual Iowa State Fair, which draws nearly one million visitors and was included in the New York Times best-selling travel book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and subsequent travel book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die.
• the Des Moines Arts Festival, which annually draws more than 200,000 people; it was named the nation’s fifth top art fair by AmericanStyle Magazine in 2008.
• the Hy-Vee World Cup Triathlon, which attracts thousands of elite and amateur athletes with its rich purses; the event also has raised more than $750,000 for Variety–the Children’s Charity
• the Principal Charity Classic, the only Champions Tour event in Iowa; named “best event” in 2009 by the Tour, the golf tournament has raised $1.7 million for local children’s charities.
• the 80/35 Music Festival, launched in 2008 in downtown’s Western Gateway Park and named after the area’s crossing interstates; performers have included the Flaming Lips, Public Enemy, Ben Harper and Modest Mouse.

15th

HEALTHIEST STATE IN THE NATION
United Health Foundation

• new and classic Broadway shows, Des Moines Symphony concerts, comedy performances and more at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, which ranked 17th in ticket sales in the Jan. 11, 2010, edition of Pollstar magazine’s annual list of the top 100 worldwide theater venues.
• the annual prestigious World Food Prize, created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize international leaders in improving the quality, quantity and availability of food in the world.
• the Downtown Farmers Market, which lures thousands of people every Saturday from May 1 through Oct. 30 with its more than 200 vendors; the Farm Boys’ breakfast burrito alone makes the trip well worth it.

Variety marks Des Moines’ dining scene, too. With more than 850 restaurants in the metropolitan area, diners can choose from upscale French cuisine to fusion, Cajun, sushi, vegetarian, Vietnamese, Italian and all ethnic versions in between.

“Everything went from meat and potatoes and spaghetti to chef-driven restaurants, where the chef has a vision of what he or she wants to create,” says W.E. Moranville, restaurant reviewer for The Des Moines Register since 1997. “The whole mantra today is fresh and local and making a restaurant truly one of a kind. It’s such a nice change.”

Progress in Des Moines has not occurred overnight. Art Wittmack, retired president, CEO and chairman of Neumann Brothers, a Des Moines-based construction company, says the evolution has been driven by an ongoing strategic planning process; productive partnerships among public and private sectors; and, relative to many other cities, fewer economic ups and downs thanks to agricultural, banking, insurance and health care industries in the area.

Wittmack should know: His company, founded in 1912, has literally changed the face of Des Moines with dozens of construction and renovation projects, including the Ruan Center (once Iowa’s tallest building), Science Center of Iowa, the award-winning Employers Mutual Casualty Co. building, the Meredith Co. building and several DMU projects.

Wittmack, a member of the DMU Board of Trustees and the Greater Des Moines Partnership Board, says the city’s secret sauce is its user-friendly environment.

“I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot and live on both coasts and in Chicago, but what brought me back was that Des Moines is a great place to live, work and bring up children,” he says. “It has that balance that other cities were missing. Bike trails, Broadway plays, the Des Moines Symphony, the Art Center, music, athletics – you can do all those things in Des Moines.”

Want sports? Des Moines offers plenty, all at family-friendly prices:

• Des Moines Buccaneers USHL hockey team
• Des Moines Menace PDL soccer team
• Iowa Barnstormers arena football team
• Iowa Crush women’s professional football club
• Iowa Cubs Triple-A baseball team
• Iowa Energy NBA D-League basketball team

For more information about Des Moines visit the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Des Moines University’s 110th commencement was a mixture of joy, excitement and sadness over the loss of a DMU friend.

Gabriele Conn, flanked by DMU Interim President Stephen Dengle and Provost Karen McLean, accepts an honorary degree on behalf of her father, Peter Pintus. The Holocaust survivor tragically died five days before commencement

The joy and excitement, of course, were felt by the 466 degree recipients – the largest graduating class in DMU’s history – and hundreds of family members, friends, faculty and staff. Keynote speaker Thomas Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and two-term Iowa governor, congratulated the graduates and encouraged them to be both “healers and leaders” in three areas: addressing the “crisis” of chronic disease, revitalizing rural America and serving the under-served in other countries.

“There is work to be done by trained, qualified and committed healers,” said Vilsack, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree at the ceremony for his career in public service. “You, too, can help in doing this to reshape America’s view in terms of the rest of the world and to reshape the rest of the world’s view of America by contributing to a sense of community, of giving something back…to help heal those around the world who are in need.”

Peter Pintus

Commencement participants also felt sorrow: Peter Pintus, a Holocaust survivor who was to receive an honorary doctor of humane letters at the ceremony, unexpectedly died just five days earlier on May 24. He was honored posthumously.

A Des Moines resident since 1964, Mr. Pintus used his life experiences to teach lessons of tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. A hospital chaplain, Episcopal deacon and – most recently – assistant to the rabbi at Temple B’nai Jeshurun, he addressed students and faculty for several years at DMU’s annual Holocaust remembrance.

They came a long way, baby: Moises Aponte Cartagena and his wife, Idamaris Santiago, with sons Adriel, left, and Moises.

The week before commencement, Moisés Cartagena Aponte, his wife, Idamaris Santiago, and sons Moisés and Adriel celebrated his upcoming graduation by enjoying local attractions including the Science Center of Iowa and Adventureland amusement park. As they should – after all, they’d traveled more than 2,300 miles to get to Des Moines.

Cartagena, a physical therapist and instructor at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao, chose to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy to better help patients and to comply with the American Physical Therapy Association’s expectation that all physical therapists have doctoral degrees in the discipline by 2020. He discovered DMU’s post-professional doctor of physical therapy program on APTA’s website.

“I was looking for a D.P.T. program that offers distance learning, so I could finish it here and continue working,” he says.

DMU’s P.P.D.P.T. program and master’s programs in public health and health care administration can be completed with courses on campus, online or a blend of both. In his program, Cartagena came to campus twice – in February 2008 for a manual therapy course and for commencement this May.

“I decided to participate because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I want to share this event with my family,” he said before traveling to Des Moines. “It is the culmination of a long, formal educational career.” He deserved to celebrate. Cartagena’s first language is Spanish, so he “spent a lot of hours” translating and proofreading from English to Spanish and vice versa. Like many other online students across the country and around the world, he had to track his classmates’ time zones to complete group assignments.

“I had to readjust my sleep hours because in many instances, projects were done in groups, and I had to wait during the night for their feedback to submit my assignments,” he notes.

Still, Cartagena is “thankful” for the “great experience” and glad to be part of the Class of 2010.

“I really enjoyed the accessibility of the faculty during all my courses and the constructive teaching style,” he says. “Working in groups with my classmates taught me the importance of collaborative work in our profession. The program gives me tools to be a better physical therapist and a better health care provider.”

Kosta Antonopoulos and Valerie Tallerico gained insights on academia in a clerkship created by CPMS Dean R. Tim Yoho, center.

You might say R. Tim Yoho, D.P.M., FACFAS, dean of the College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, is looking for his replacement. Long-term, that is.

Two years ago, he realized that the many educational opportunities for students were thin on training future academic medical administrators. “There were no orientation programs for students interested in the administrative side – those who down the road might have an interest in academic medicine,” he says.

Yoho created a one-month CPMS Academic Medicine Clerkship for fourth-year students with that interest. The clerkship exposes students to the day-today administrative, curricular and clinical operations of the college, often in eye-opening ways.

“You don’t truly realize as a student all the things that faculty have going on,” says Valerie Tallerico, Yoho’s academic clerk in April. “I learned how involved the faculty are, which is great to see – how they’re working to improve the University.”

Tallerico and Kosta Antonopoulos, her successor in the clerkship, say the experience honed their teaching skills. They helped teach second- and third-year podiatric students and wrote some test questions.

“You came to recognize the look on their faces when they needed extra explanation of the material,” Antonopoulos says.

“It made me think through what I did as a second- and third-year student to get myself to understand,” Tallerico adds.

Yoho says he values the clerks’ perspectives as students; in addition, by giving them behind- the- scenes insights, the clerks become ambassadors for the college among their classmates.

“I observed how much faculty will go to bat for students,” Antonopoulos says.

While he and Tallerico came away from the clerkship with different conclusions – he loves the classroom setting; she leans more toward teaching in a residency program – they have the potential to be a package deal. After graduating in May, they got married in June and then began their residencies at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“Kosta and Valerie are exceptional role models who sought numerous leadership positions as CPMS students,” Yoho says. “They’re the type of people I’d really like to see come back to our college.”

Glanton honoree Robert Ray, shown with his wife, Billie, has had a profound impact on Iowans and citizens of the world.

In the mid 1970s, then-Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray, J.D., appointed Luther Glanton Jr. to the district court bench, making him the first black judge in Iowa. As the 38th governor of Iowa, serving from 1969 to 1983, Ray issued orders to promote civil rights and established the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, a group that honored him in 1982 with the Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice. He encouraged Iowans to assist refugees from Southeast Asia and in 1979 served as delegate to the United Nations Conference on Refugees.

For these and other worthy acts, Ray will be honored at DMU’s Glanton Scholarship Dinner Oct. 14 at the Meadows at Prairie Meadows, Altoona, IA.

“We couldn’t be more excited about having Gov. Ray as our honoree this year. He is an exemplary Iowa leader and has done so much for minorities in our state,” says Sue Huppert, DMU’s vice president for alumni and development.

Money raised from Glanton Dinner ticket sales and donations increases the endowment for the scholarship named for Judge Glanton and his wife, Willie Stevenson Glanton. The scholarship assists minority students in all DMU programs.

Willie Glanton was the first black female assistant county attorney and the first black person from Polk County to serve in the Iowa Legislature. 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 today.

Since leaving the governor’s office, Ray served as president of Drake University and interim mayor of Des Moines; he co-founded the Institute for Character Development and co-chaired the National Coalition on Health Care. In 2005 he received the Iowa Award from the Iowa Centennial Memorial Commission.

Learn more about the Glanton Scholarship, established in 2004. For information on becoming a corporate or individual sponsor of the Glanton Dinner, contact Sue Huppert at 515-271- 1384. To be added to the dinner invitation list, contact Lyrio Cloma-Read at 515-271-1387.

“That fellowship, without a doubt, was the biggest decision I ever made and influenced everything that happened in my career,” says Buser, D.O.’81, FACOFP. “Not only did I learn I had a natural knack and enjoyed osteopathic manual treatment, I enjoyed teaching as well. That got me into education.”

It also launched him on a career of professional leadership and service that earned him the 2010 Andrew Taylor Still Medallion of Honor, the highest award conferred by the American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO). The medallion is presented to AAO members who have exhibited an exceptional understanding and application of osteopathic principles.

“It’s great to be recognized by your peers, but it’s also humbling when I look at the people who have been given the award in the past,” says Buser. A former faculty member at DMU and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Buser has been vice president and dean of the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine since 2007. That year, he became the first D.O. to be elected to the Current Procedural Terminology® Editorial Panel by the American Medical Association (AMA) Board; that’s key, he says, because the panel has “final say” on the most widely accepted medical nomenclature used to report medical procedures and services under public and private health insurance programs.

“My work on the panel and with the AMA is driven around ensuring that D.O.s get paid appropriately for what we do,” he says. “It’s in the name of advancing our profession.”

That goal has motivated Buser since his DMU days. Past president of the AAO, the New England Academy of Osteopathy and the Maine Osteopathic Association, he has served on the American Osteopathic Association Board since 2004. He has taught extensively around the world and has represented the American osteopathic profession in several World Health Organization initiatives.

“I believe more people should have access to osteopathic medicine. We provide the best medicine and the best way to work with patients,” he says. “We’re more completely trained than any other physicians. It’s important that our profession survive and thrive.”

To honor his legacy, the College of Osteopathic Medicine created the Joseph R. McNerney, D.O., Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine for fourth-year COM students who exemplify the physician’s expertise, integrity and dedication.

“He was the quintessential osteopathic physician,” recalls Victor Kaylarian, D.O., DMU chair of internal medicine.

“He took very good care of patients and was very much committed to our profession, its growth and the success of everyone’s practice,” adds Michael Flood, D.O.’77, DMU associate professor and chair of the University’s Iowa Simulation Center. “He was a physician’s physician.”

Dr. McNerney, who died in 1998, founded the first intensive-care unit in Iowa, the Harrison Alcohol Treatment Center in Des Moines and the state’s first nuclear medicine program, also in Des Moines. He cofounded the heart clinic at the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, now DMU. He served on the University’s board, including 14 years as chair; was president of the American College of Osteopathic Internists; and was director of internal medicine residency training at Des Moines General Hospital. The Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association named him Physician of the Year in 1984.

In addition, of Dr. McNerney’s 10 children, sons Joseph and Robert and daughter Bridget hold DMU degrees; son David is DMU’s facilities director.

Jayme Danielson, D.O.’10, received the inaugural $500 McNerney Award at the COM graduation banquet in May. “Jayme has an excellent academic record and very strong performances on clinical rotations, especially in internal medicine,” Flood says. “He’s also kind, thoughtful and considerate – well-liked and an all-around fine teammate.”