In the University’s Homeless Camp Outreach, students learn to help people “where they are” – and gain compassion in the process.

The University is the first U.S. college or university to earn the highest recognition granted by the Wellness Councils of America.

Physicians typically dash from one patient or procedure to another through long exausting days. Jeannie Pflum, D.O.’97, an obstetrics and gynecology doctor in Santa Rosa, CA, is no exception.

When Terry Branstad, J.D., was appointed president of DMU in 2003, then-chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, Gil Bucholz, D.O.’58, gave him a mission to “raise the visibility, respect and recognition of Des Moines University, raise money for the University and manage and oversee the institution,” Gov. Branstad told faculty, staff and students in a special campus meeting on Oct. 16. “I have endeavored to never lose sight of that mission.”

Most medical centers expected the H1N1 flu virus would increase their patient counts this year, but last fall Pat Crocker, D.O.’80, and his colleagues found themselves in an especially hot spot for the flu and in the media.

By day, Kelly Prescher, M.S.’93, D.P.T.’04, is a physical therapist at University of California-San Diego’s Thornton Hospital. In her spare time, she is chair and newsletter editor of the San Diego district of the American Physical Therapy Association. She’s mother to daughter Audrey and partner to her significant other, Doug. But when the moon inserts itself between the earth and the sun, she becomes Kelly Prescher, eclipse-chaser.

In the 2008 DreamWorks comedy “Ghost Town,” character Bertram Pincus discovers the surgeon failed to disclose his momentary death during a routine colonoscopy. “Have you any idea how much I am going to sue you for?” he sputters.