Gregory D. Smith, DO, FACOFP

Senior Associate  

Dean of Clinical Medicine

Dear Students- 

I hope everything is going well for all of you. I know that the class of 2011 is almost ready to graduate-congratulations;  the class of 2012 is hard at work in the middle of rotations; and the class of 2013 is just getting started on the process.

Clinical Coordination Staff:

The Clinical Coordination staff is hard at work trying to improve rotations on a weekly basis.  

You may or may not know that Kari Hoskins has been added as a clinical core coordinator, working with Jody Caldwell; while Nancy Myers has been moved to medical educator, helping to improve site communication and evaluation.  

Donna Palazzolo assists in hospital contracts and affiliations, working with A-Optic and on maintaining the Dean's Letter. Please feel free to contact them for questions you might have in their respective area.  

Shannon Cannon will be joining us in the next few weeks to assist as clinical coordinator administrative assistant in helping out the entire staff.  

As you can see, as the classes are moving out into the clinical years we are growing with you. In my twenty-three years in academics I have never had the quality of staff we currently have here at LMU-DCOM.

Rotation Improvements and Changes:

As we grow we are constantly working on ways to improve rotation scheduling.  Two areas we have currently "added" are the ability to do three of four electives within one area in either your third or fourth year. For example, the class of 2011 discussed with me the ability to do more of their elective rotations preparing for residency interviews during their fourth year instead of having two of the same specialty in the third year and two in the fourth year.  So for the class of 2012, you can use three of your selected elective specialty rotations during your fourth year, as you go out and interview.

Another area is in rural primary care, where we are now allowing students to rotate in their rural primary care in one of the critical specialties including general surgery, peds,  and ob/gyn;  as well as internal medicine or family medicine. This will give you more options and allow you to look into areas you may consider for future training. Please remember that you still must do your 4^th year rural rotation within a "region" of one of LMU- DCOM's core sites.

We are also working on improving didactics with the addition of journal club to Family Medicine, and in the near future we will have long distance learning of Grand Rounds for both Internal Medicine and Family Medicine. Dr. Chris Starnes, our newest faculty member, who is an internist, is also working with me to develop a forum for patient topics on a weekly basis. Our intent is to make this part of every rotation in the future.  

I am also working with the chairmen to standardize all of our core faculty grading systems and upgrade the syllabi. This will be a project that will take us into the summer, but I did want you to know we are working in that direction.

Shelf Exams: 

One other area we are discussing is what type of shelf exams we will be using beginning in August, for the classes of 2012 and 2013. The NBOME is working toward an electronic test so we are monitoring that closely at this time, to see if that will meet your needs as you prepare for boards.

I know that I have given you a great deal of information, and there are still other areas we are constantly changing, including moving to a new evaluation system (E-Value) for the classes of 2012 and 2013. I will try to keep you abreast of items as they come to fruition.

Thanks for your support, many of these changes occur because of your input as students. Good luck in the next month, and I will be sharing again on a monthly basis.

All of us here at LMU-DCOM are extremely proud of you, you cannot imagine all the positives we hear from all our sites. 

Blessings-have a great week!

Your Clinical Rotations Coordination Team

5 Steps to Rotations

Step One: "Pick a Core Site"

• Where do you want to live?
• Talk to rotating students about the hospital, faculty, location.
• Consider commute time, family impact, nomadic lifestyle.
   

Step Two: "Core First, Or Core Second?"

• Do you want Core Rotations 1st Semester or 2nd Semester?
• Core Rotations are 4 weeks and include:
   
• 2 months of internal medicine,  
   
• 1 month of surgery, behavioral health, pediatrics, and ob/gyn.  
   
•  Both internal medicine rotations are scheduled back to back.   
   
• Your core Family Medicine rotation will be on the opposite end of your six month core block.
   

Step Three "Choose Selectives, Set-Up Electives"

• There are 12 clinical rotations in the third year. 
   
• 3 Selectives
• One must be a medical selective,   
   
• One must be a surgical selective,
• One selective is considered as "other" which can be either from the approved medical, surgical or other approved selective specialties list. 
• All selective rotations MUST be with a credentialed LMU-DCOM adjunct clinical faculty.  Before a rotation can be considered a selective rotation, we must have a completed Interest Form and CV.

• 3 Electives
• Any approved rotation in any discipline, at any approved location.
   

Step Four: "EMS - Top 50"

• From 2/7/11 through 2/18/11, you can log on to EMS and enter your top 50 preferences out of 144 choices.

Step Five: "Lottery Results"

Attention OMS-IV's:

The Matches are quickly approaching!  

Deadline for Rank Order List (ROL) submission has passed for the DO AOA/NMS Match and is February 23rd for the MD/NRMP Match.  Be sure to certify your ROL at NRMP! Results of the DO Match through NMS/AOA will be released on February 14^th. The MD Match results are released during the week of March 14^th.   

If you do not Match into a residency position, Donna Palazzolo, extramural education coordinator, will be available to assist you during the scramble periods.  You are welcome to come to campus for assistance during the scrambles, or if that is not convenient, Donna can be reached by email or (423) 869-6832.  Your application and supporting documents are still on ERAS and will be available to any new programs you designate during the scrambles.  Donna can also fax and email documents as needed.  Donna will email updates on the Matches and Scrambles as they become available.

Attention OMS-III's:

 We hope your rotations are going well.  It is not too early to begin requesting Letters of Recommendation (LoR) for your residency application.  Always ask your letter writers to provide you with a strong letter of recommendation, and be sure to use our Letter of Recommendation Cover Sheet.  More information on LoRs and tips can be found on our Residency Application Guide and Resources WebPages.

Now is also the time to begin updating your Curriculum Vitae (CV).   It is recommended that you provide your letter writers with an updated CV to assist them in writing strong LoRs.  CV tips and samples can be found on our Residency Application Guide and Resources WebPages.

You can also begin researching residency programs.  Be sure to pay careful attention to program eligibility requirements and deadlines.  Some programs require audition rotations to be eligible for an interview.  Below are the LMU-DCOM sponsored residency program links and the national database links:

LMU-DCOM Sponsored Residency Programs

Wellmont Health System Osteopathic Residency Programs

AOA accredited Family Practice Residency Program at Lonesome Pine Hospital in Big Stone Gap, Va., and an Orthopedic Residency Program at Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn.

ETSU/Quillen College of Medicine-Family Practice Residency

ACGME & AOA accredited residencies in Kingsport, Bristol and Johnson City, Tenn.

UT Graduate School of Medicine - Family Practice Residency

ACGME & AOA accredited residency in Knoxville, Tenn.

Other Resources:

American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Opportunities Database
A-OPTIC Residency Opportunities
AMA:  Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) Online
Military Graduate Medical Education