NEOUCOM Dean celebrates school's future, past successes

Community-based education can enhance students and communities, she said.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
ROOTSTOWN -- Dr. Lois Margaret Nora asked a question of her audience at an event Thursday celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.
"When 'The Way We Were' was on the radio and you went to see 'The Sting,' how was medicine different than it is today?," asked Dr. Nora, president and dean of the college.
There were no CT scans or MRIs, and patients ran the risk of dying as doctors tried to find brain tumors by sending air up the spinal column. There were fewer antibiotics, and urinary tract infections took weeks, not days, to cure. There were few anti-convulsives and fewer medicines to reduce the chance of a body rejecting organ transplants. There were fewer drugs to treat high blood pressure, and doctors never discussed sexual dysfunction.
In looking back at the past 30 years, during which the campus of NEOUCOM turned from a cornfield to a school that has graduated 2,043 doctors, Dr. Nora showed the "incredible rate of change" that has occurred.
Likely changes
And in looking forward to the next 30 years, she showed how quickly it is again likely to change.
Take Dr. Bones McCoy of the Star Trek's Enterprise, she said. He had a scanner that, run over a body, could give an immediate readout of the body's activity. He had injectables that could save lives with a quick shot. There was a circular sick bay and "smart beds" that could read life signs of patients.
"Guess what?" Dr. Nora said. "These things are happening now."
Dr. Nora spoke on the way medical education must change over the next 30 years during the "New Vision for NEOUCOM: The Future Is Now" program sponsored by the college's Office of Continuing Medical Education. The event was part of a two-day 30th anniversary celebration.
The college is affiliated with Youngstown State University, Kent State University and the University of Akron. It works with eight teaching hospitals including St. Elizabeth Health Center and is associated with several others.
Of the college's graduates, half remain in Ohio and 25 percent practice in the 17 counties of Northeast Ohio.
Community-based education
Dr. Nora told of her tour through those 17 counties and how what was most important in a physician to the people she met boiled down to four C's: competence, communication, caring and character.
Part of this will include greater use of technology to diagnose and treat disease as well as to communicate with patients.
Dr. Nora also said that NEOUCOM must expand its relationship with the communities it serves.
"I believe they [students] can be uniquely trained well in the community-based setting," she said. "Our community-based medical school should also be critical in the quality of life and economic development of the area."
Such community-based education -- in which students receive their hands-on training in doctor offices and other nonhospital settings -- is a way to achieve success, not only for students but for the doctors and communities they serve, speakers at the event said.
"This is the decade in which there is going to be a sea change in how medicine is practiced," said Dr. Joseph Scherger, a founding dean of the Florida State Medical School. "The year 2003 is being seen as the pivotal year."
Florida State Medical School, the first new U.S. medical school in 20 years, was founded about two years ago with a goal to serve more rural and underserved populations as well as specializing in geriatric care. Part of that includes community-based education for students.
viviano@vindy.com