LMU-DCOM
E-Newsletter
Summer 2015 Issue
www.LMUnet.edu/dcom/
Summer Greetings from
LMU-DCOM!
Hello All! It is hard to believe
that August is coming to an
end and classes are soon to be
back in full swing.
A lot of things and exciting
events have taken place here at Lincoln Memorial University—DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine and
I am happy to share with you in this summer edition of
our Admissions Newsletter all of LMU-DCOM’s important news and highlights that occurred during the
past few months.
I am currently scheduling presentations for the fall
semester. If you would like for me to come to your
campus to present to your students what LMU-DCOM
has to offer please contact me and we will set up a
date!
I hope you will enjoy the contents of the newsletter
and as always, please do not hesitate to contact me
with any questions or inquiries.
All the best,
Daniel Goodpaster
Admissions Recruiter
daniel.goodpaster@lmunet.edu
LMU-DCOM CELEBRATES CLASS OF
2015 GRADUATION
LMU-DCOM STUDENTS
LOG OVER 11,000
HOURS OF COMMUNITY
SERVICE
Students at Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic
Medicine (LMU-DCOM) celebrated
the completion of 11,231 community
service hours through the TOUCH
program on May 13, 2015, at its annual TOUCH Hours Awards Ceremony.
“We know that students at LMUDCOM volunteer for various organizations, but when you step back and
look at the numbers, it really shows
how much our students love this community,” said Casey Bassett, PhD,
associate dean of students at LMUDCOM.
TOUCH, which stands for Translating
Osteopathic Understanding into Community Health, is a program started by
the Council of Osteopathic Student
Government Presidents (COSGP) to
encourage osteopathic medical student
involvement in community service
activities. Through this program, students are recognized for their hard
work and dedication in serving others
during their years spent in medical
school.
The TOUCH year lasts from April to
March and students are recognized
based on the number of hours they
accrue over the year. Twenty-five
LMU-DCOM students logged over
100 hours of community service and
received Gold-level recognition and
71 LMU-DCOM students logged over
50 hours and received Silver-level
recognition.
The Class of 2015 of LMU-DCOM celebrated its commencement on Saturday, May 9, at 10 a.m. at Tex
Turner Arena marked another milestone in LMUDCOM’s history as the entire LMU-DCOM family
celebrated its second DO graduating class. Dr. Donald
Polk, chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards
and chair of the Tennessee Board of Osteopathic Examination, will serve as commencement speaker. all
150 members of the Class of 2015 walked across the
stage for their moment of glory as they received their
hard-earned diploma and the symbolic graduate-hood
placed around their neck by one of our faculty members or by a physician related to the graduating student.
The majority of osteopathic physicians have historically entered into a primary care field upon graduation.
Approximately 80% of the members of the graduating
class at will enter their first year of residency training
in a primary care residency, including family medicine,
internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, emergency
medicine, osteopathic manipulative medicine and transitional year/traditional rotating internship. The members of the Class of 2015 will be in 107 different residency programs in 33 states and within 22 different
specialties. For information about the Class of 2015
residency matches, please see the bottom-left corner of
our website’s home page ( www.lmunet.edu/dcom ).
LMU-DCOM Welcomes Class of
2019
Since its founding in 2007, LMU-DCOM has had a
rigorous and competitive application process. This
year, LMU-DCOM received 5,044 applications for
the Class of 2019, a 16% increase in applications in
one year. For the Class of 2019 there were approximately 21 applicants for each seat in the class.
The Class of 2019 includes 106 students from
southern Appalachia, and of those, 84 students hail
from the immediate tri-state region of Tennessee,
Kentucky and Virginia. The remaining class mem-
Each year, one student is chosen from
each school by the COSGP as a top
participant with Platinum-level recognition for community service on a
local, national and international level.
The Platinum recipient at LMUDCOM was second-year osteopathic
medical student Emmanuel Okenye of
Cleveland, Tennessee. Okenye completed 375 hours of community service which included participation in
the LMU-DCOM community wellness
program at local schools, as well as
internationally through a school that
he founded in Nigeria.
Over the last year LMU-DCOM students have held a Kids’ Pediatric
Health Fair, given free health screenings at several events, mentored students at Middlesboro Elementary,
helped create a community wellness
program at Forge Ridge School and
volunteered through Servolution and
Remote Area Medical Volunteer
Corps. Hundreds of students also got
together to make baby blankets and
hats for newborns at Middlesboro
ARH and East Tennessee Children’s
Hospital.
MEDICAL STUDENTS
HOST COOPER'S
CARNIVAL FOR
CHRISTIANSON
SYNDROME
Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk
College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU
-DCOM) students hosted Cooper’s Carnival on Saturday, August 15, 2015,
from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Harrogate City
Park. Hosted by LMU-DCOM Pediatrics Club and Physicians and Students
Serving Appalachia Gaining Education
(PASSAGE), the event is a fundraiser to
raise money for the Christianson Syndrome Association as well as raise
awareness of this rare disorder.
Cooper is a little boy in the community
of Harrogate, Tennessee that has Christianson Syndrome. He is the only child
diagnosed with Christianson Syndrome
within Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. His mother, Heather Jackson,
reached out to LMU-DCOM students
for help in raising awareness for the
bers come from all over the United States as well as
three from Canada, one from China and one from
Nigeria. The class is 60% male and 40% female
and the average age is 25 with ages ranging from
the youngest student at 21 years of age to the oldest
student at 42 years of age.
Five members of the LMU-DCOM Class of 2019
received their undergraduate degree from LMU’s
School of Mathematics and Sciences. Additionally,
72 members of LMU’s Master of Science (M.S.)
program were extended invitations to interview for
a spot at LMU-DCOM and 93% were accepted into
LMU-DCOM or another medical school program.
LMU-CVM Welcomes their 2nd
class
Lincoln Memorial University– College of Veterinary
Medicine (LMU-CVM) first opened their doors fall of
2014 and welcomed their second class earlier this
month. LMU-CVM is seeking to attract and educate
future veterinarians to serve the needs of rural communities throughout the United States and especially the
Appalachian region. To achieve these goals we are
actively recruiting bright, hard-working applicants
whose goal is to advance the science and art of veterinary medicine wherever they choose to enter professional practice. We believe that prospective students
with a desire to becoming a veterinarian are mature
individuals that are inquisitive, highly motivated, compassionate, and eager to serve humanity
The LMU-CVM has made major strides and achieved
American Veterinary Medical Association Council on
Education (AVMA COE) provisional accreditation
when classes started in August 2014. The profession
has declared that it needs new models of veterinary
education. We have developed one of these models,
which we believe will meet this need with efficiency
and high quality. We are proud of our innovative approach to education, and our world class faculty and
facilities.
disorder. That is when Jackson heard
about Friday Nite Friends, an event held
by PASSAGE where medical, nursing
and undergraduate students provide care
for medically fragile or special needs
children and young adults to give caregivers a chance to take some time for
themselves.
“I have been completely overwhelmed
by the enthusiasm I have found from
these students,” said Jackson. “It is incredibly humbling that they want to
help.”
Christianson Syndrome is a very rare
genetic condition that primarily affects
the nervous system and becomes apparent in infancy. The features of Christianson Syndrome include delayed development, an inability to speak, problems
with balance and coordination and difficulty learning to walk and stand. Most
affected children have recurrent seizures
that begin around age 1 or 2. Children
with Christianson Syndrome have a happy demeanor with frequent smiling and
spontaneous laughter.
Jackson sits on the board of the Christianson Syndrome Association and says
the disorder may not be as rare as it
seems. When asked how rare the syndrome is, Jackson said, “I think there are
many boys out there like Cooper who
are undiagnosed. As of right now, we
know of around 50 worldwide.”
Cooper’s Carnival featured food, games,
a fun run, clowns, face painting, a
bouncy house and several activities for
kids. To make a donation visit: http://
alumni.lmunet.edu/cooperscarnival. For
more information about Christianson
Syndrome visit CSA-CARES.org.
The LMU and Harrogate community
raised over $3,000 for Cooper and his
family!
If you would like more information about LMU-CVM
please visit the website http://vetmed.lmunet.edu/
LMU-DCOM LAUNCHES
LMU-DCOM Will Host
Osteopathic Medicine
INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE
SCHOLARS PROGRAM
Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of
Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM) has selected
four students from the Class of 2016, Branden
Moore, Razik Oumeddour, Kristin Baker and Rachel
Grisham, for its inaugural LMU-DCOM International
Medicine Scholars Program.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our students to gain experience in an international health
care setting, and we are confident they will represent
us well,” said John Williamson, MD, director of International Medicine at LMU-DCOM.
Branden Moore and Razik Oumeddour will represent
LMU-DCOM at Gannnan Medical University in
Ganzhou City, China. With a population of nine million, Ganzhou City, located in southern China, is the
second largest city in the Jiangxi Provence. Founded
in 1941, Gannan Medical University is the only medical university in the area and has 17,000 students
and 2400 university hospital staff. Moore and
Oumeddour will work at First University Hospital, a
2,200 bed hospital in the heart of the city. While at
Gannan Medical University, the students will do
weekly internships in internal medicine, surgery,
pediatrics and ICU, and emergency medicine. They
will also take weekly Chinese culture courses and
have the opportunity to tour Shangyou Lake, Jingang
Mountain and the City of Beijing.
While Moore and Oumeddour will be gaining experience in a large urban setting, students Kristin Baker
and Rachel Grisham will be headed to Australia for a
rural experience. Baker and Grisham will represent
LMU-DCOM at James Cook University (JCU) in
Queensland, Australia. JCU is a teaching and research institution with a focus on tropical environments including tropical medicine and public health
care in under-served populations. Similarly, LMUDCOM’s mission is to serve the health and wellness
needs of people within both the Appalachian region
and beyond, and enhance access to comprehensive
health care for underserved communities
LMU-DCOM’s long-standing relationship with
James Cook University (JCU) began in 2012 when
Rex Hobbs, associate director of the Physician Assistant Program, visited JCU and worked to create an
agreement allowing both PA and DO students to do
clinical rotations in Queensland, Australia. This winter, two students from JCU spent a month in Harrogate, Tennessee doing clinical rotations with local
doctors.
Awareness
Conference
A tentative date of
Saturday, November 7,
has been set for our next
OMAC so be sure to pencil it in your
calendar. Once the date is confirmed
you will be notified by e-mail so stay
tuned!
Last fall we had over 100 guests to
attend from many different locations
as far away as 8 hours, joined some of
LMU-DCOM’s faculty and staff for
the second Osteopathic Medicine
Awareness Conference & Open House
this year. The event is open to anyone
interested in learning more about our
DO program and about osteopathic
medicine in general and has attracted
many prospective students, premedical/pre-health faculty advisors
and others.
The event agenda included the following items:
- Osteopathic Medicine Overview
- Curriculum Overview
- Application and Financial
Services processes
- OMM (Osteopathic Manipulative
Medicine) Demonstration
- Tour of facilities lead by current
students
- Lunch with students, faculty and
staff
LMU & RAM Clinic
Partner Once AGAGIN
TO SERVE THE
COMMUNITY
During the first weekend of June, LMU
and the RAM (Remote
Area Medical) Clinic partnered once
again to hold
RAM Health Expedition at LMU. The
expedition was held inside
LMU’s Tex Turner Arena and provided
free medical, dental and
optical care to almost 1,000 individuals
in just two days. LMU and RAM have
provided $1,222,348 worth of services to
4,432 people since their first collaboration in 2006. Additionally, 1,535 animals
have been spayed or neutered during
RAM events at LMU. There were over
400 volunteers who came together to
lend their help for this great event, including many LMU staff, faculty and
students, as well as our own LMUDCOM physicians and DO students.
“We’ve had a wonderful long-time relationship with
James Cook University and are thrilled to now be
partnering with Gannan Medical University in China,” said Williamson.
The students were selected based upon academic
performance and a written essay. They will be embarking on their 4-week international rotations trip in
September 2015. LMU-DCOM has established relationships with physicians across the globe and LMUDCOM students have participated in global health
opportunities in several international locations such
as Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, England, Egypt,
Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, India, New Zealand, Sri
Lanka, and Vietnam.
RAM is a non-profit organization that
travels around the nation, as well as to
certain international locations, with the
mission of serving mankind by providing
free health, dental and optical care, as
well as veterinary services to those in
remote areas.
For more information about RAM,
please follow this link
https://ramusa.org/
The Master’s of Science program
The Master of Science (MS) program at LMU is dedicated to providing advanced academic learning in the life sciences through graduate coursework, professional training, and research. Graduates from this degree program are able to independently explore an area of the primary literature of
the life sciences, analyze and critique published research reports, and communicate about life sciences in formal oral and written modalities.
This academic program seeks to enhance the learning of three mission related post-baccalaureate
population of students:
 Those seeking doctoral-level education in the health-related professions.
 Those seeking in-depth and focused study of human anatomy.

This LMU degree program is collaborative between the School of Mathematics and Sciences
and the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (DCOM). Faculty from both areas work
together to provide students with graduate courses and research opportunities.
One of the biggest advantages for students in the Matser’s of Science is that they will be guaranteed an interview at LMU-DCOM for admission into the DO program, as long as their GPA
stays above a 3.0. In fact, 93% of this past year’s Master students were accepted into the DO
class of 2019, adding cultural diversity to the LMU-DCOM student population.

For more information on the Master’s curriculum, overview, admissions and more, please
follow this link: http://www.lmunet.edu/academics/grad_science/index.shtml or contact Holly
Napier at holly.napier@lmunet.edu
PA Program News

PA Program Welcomes Class of 2014
On Monday, May 11, the LMU-DCOM PA Program opened its
doors to its seventh class of students. The PA Class of 2017 is
73% female and 27% male. The average age is 26 and the average
GPA is 3.5. Approximately 65% of the class hails from the Appalachian region, with the majority of those coming from Tennessee,
Kentucky and Virginia.

For more information about the LMU-DCOM PA Program, please
follow this link: http://www.lmunet.edu/dcom/pa/index.shtml