A local longtime advocate, educator and practitioner of osteopathic medicine will share information about the profession when WVSOM hosts its annual Celebrate Osteopathic Medicine (COM) Week, which this year will take place April 14-18.
In an event that is open to the public, Robert “Bob” Foster, D.O., will speak about “Osteopathic Medicine as a Key to Well-Being” at 6 p.m., April 18, in the Conference Center in the WVSOM Student Center on the school’s Lewisburg campus.
Foster retired as WVSOM’s associate dean of osteopathic medical education in 2023 after 45 years of service to the school, although he continues to assist in educating students about nutrition in medicine. His presentation will touch on the history of Andrew Taylor Still, D.O., M.D., the founder of osteopathic medicine, and on medicine embracing the concept that a person is a unit of mind, body and spirit.
“For the past 20 years or so, the U.S. has started talking about patient-centered medicine,” Foster said. “That’s the way medicine should have been from the start, since the patient is the reason physicians are in business in the first place. That ties in with the unique way Still saw the world and his belief that Western medicine had too few tools.”
Foster joined WVSOM in 1978 as a family medicine physician and associate professor and went on to play a key role in the growth of osteopathic medicine in West Virginia with his commitment to teaching, advising and mentoring osteopathic physicians in rural communities.
COM Week also will include presentations for members of the WVSOM community by Teodor Huzij, D.O., who founded Trinity Institute, a Christian osteopathic psychiatry practice; Edward Stiles, D.O., who established the first hospital-based osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) service in the nation; and Ali Carine, D.O., a Columbus, Ohio-based osteopathic pediatrician who advocates for change in the structure of pediatric primary care.
Huzij’s presentation, “A Genuinely Osteopathic Psychiatry,” will take place at 11:30 a.m., April 14. Stiles’ talk, ‘’Sequencing Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment for Patient Well-Being,” is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., April 16. Carine will discuss “Doctor-Patient Communication and the Impact on Patient Well-Being” at 11:30 a.m., April 18.
WVSOM’s COM Week accompanies the American Osteopathic Association’s National Osteopathic Medicine (NOM) Week, observed this year on April 14-20. NOM Week is intended to bring members of the osteopathic community together to raise awareness of osteopathic medicine.
On April 4, Lewisburg Mayor Beverly White signed a proclamation declaring April 14-18 to be COM Week in Lewisburg and acknowledging NOM Week. The proclamation “urge[s] all citizens and community organizations to support these observances by helping to educate residents about D.O.s and osteopathic medicine.”
Jean Rettos, D.O., vice chair of WVSOM’s Department of Osteopathic Principles and Practice, thanked the Lewisburg community for its support of the school.
“The osteopathic profession has provided a distinct philosophy of health care for more than 150 years and is now the fastest growing segment of health care in the U.S.,” she said. “We’re grateful that the Lewisburg community is a key contributor to the success of WVSOM and its students.”
Osteopathic physicians can prescribe medicine and practice in all medical specialties, including surgical specialties. They are trained to evaluate the whole body and to use their hands to help diagnose and treat patients.