Collegium Newsletters

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Newsletter May 2008

President's Message

Years ago, I left the first Collegium meeting that I had ever attended determined to be a more kind and compassionate physician. I wanted to serve others more fully. This was a medical meeting unlike any other I had ever attended. The spirit I felt then and have felt in subsequent Collegium meetings brings me back again and again. I have certainly enjoyed my membership and association with you. I feel that I am becoming a better physician and person as I seek to achieve the balance espoused and encouraged by the tenets of the Collegium Aesculapium.

The Executive Board recently contracted with Spencer Woolley, MBA, to work on some projects to assist with the day to day administration of our organization. Already, he has done some wonderful things with the Web site. We encourage you to visit our site: www.collegiumaesculapium.org and check it out. He will also help with recruiting, registration, surveys, communication, member services, etc. We anticipate great strides moving forward with Spencer's help and are extremely excited and pleased with his assistance.

Once again, we enjoyed a wonderful Spring Meeting in Salt Lake. Thanks to all who participated. Elder Dallin H. Oaks' address to the Collegium will be in the next issue of the Journal, which is at the printer's now. Those who participated in the Alaska cruise have stated that it was the experience of a lifetime. We also anticipate another fulfilling, enjoyable, fall conference in Philadelphia. Plan to join us there October 7-11.

The members of Collegium Aesculapium have enjoyed wonderful sociality and collegiality over the years. This unique organization strengthens its members, provides opportunities to serve and helps us to remember who we are and the privilege of providing care to the sick and afflicted. Please invite your friends and collegues to join us as we move forward. Thankfully, D. Glen Morrell, MD

THANK YOU, JEFF SMITH

Dr. Jeffrey R. Smith has completed his term as President of Collegium Aesculapium. He has been involved in important advances for our organization. Thanks to Jeff for enhancing our meetings with strong faculty who have presented relevant clinical and ethical issues. He has frequently stated that he joined Collegium to attend meetings where each meeting contributes to a balanced enhancement of professional, family, and moral and ethical values. Jeff's vision of camaraderie and friendship among fellow members of Collegium is clear and significant. Thank you, Dr. Smith, for all you have done to strengthen and build Collegium.

INTRODUCING GLEN MORRELL

Born and raised in Brigham City, Utah, Glen Morrell is part of the fifth generation in his family to call Brigham City home. He has always been proud to be a "Stinging Bee" from Box Elder High. A mission to Austria followed a year at Ricks College. Glen and his wife Nancy met on a hike up Rock Creek Canyon during a BYU 22^nd Ward activity. Upon completing a B.S. degree in Zoology at BYU, he attended a year of MBA School and then graduated from Medical School at the University of Utah. General Surgery Residency took the young Morrell family to the University of Kansas-Wichita.

Glen currently practices at the Tanner Clinic in Layton, Utah. Nancy and Glen are the parents of seven children. The oldest is serving a mission in Puerto Rico. Glen loves family history, drawing and painting, skiing with his sons, hiking with scouts, and a chance to get into the garden. Politics intrigues and frustrates him greatly.

FALL MEETING - PHILADELPHIA, PA

Anthony Temple, MD, a long time resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Collegium Board member, along with Marcie Ewing of Boomerang Tours have planned an exciting itinerary for the fall meeting to be held October 7-11, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Mainline Hotel. Information for the meeting is enclosed and on the Collegium website. Plan now to attend. We hope to see you there!

PERPETUAL EDUCATION FUND DONATION

Collegium has recently sent a check to the Church Perpetual Education Fund in the amount of $13,000 to be used in helping educate international returned missionaries in health professions. These young people are then expected to practice in their native countries. Collegium's executive board approved a $10,000 donation and the other $3,000 came from the donations of members. Thank you for your generous contributions.

BYU EDUCATION WEEK CLASSES FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

This year Collegium will participate in the 2008 BYU Education Week by providing classes designed for health professionals. It will be held August 18-23. Times and places will appear on the webpage. Donald Doty, MD and Bruce Woolley, PharmD will teach two series of lectures during the weeklong sessions. Although any participant at Education Week may attend any lecture, the content will be taught particularly to answer questions of health professionals. Collegium will provide certificates of attendance for each health professional attending the lectures. The first series will be 'Serving a Mission as a Senior Citizen' with individual lectures entitled: Tues) What About Finances; Wed) Am I Healthy Enough to Serve Internationally?; Thurs) How Do I Prepare to Serve?; Fri) What Is Missionary Medical Services? The second series will be 'Global Health Issues: Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Missionary Work with individual lectures entitled: Tues) Global Health Issues Affecting Missionaries; Wed) Immunizations; Thurs) Preventing Parasites; Fri) Is Water Safe?.

MATCHING FUNDS FOR COLLEGIUM CME ACCREDITATION

The Executive Council has begun efforts for Collegium to become its' own provider of continuing medical education. In order to achieve this goal the board has established a fund to cover the expenses of the accreditation process. Roger L. Hiatt, one of the founders of Collegium has donated $5,000 to match the money donated to the fund. We are now about 50% of reaching our goal. As you renew your membership for 2008 consider donating to this fund. Your dollars will be doubled through Dr. Hiatt's generous match. Collegium has established the Hiatt Endowed Lectureship to be presented at each annual meeting.

2008 MEMBERSHIP FEES ARE NOW DUE

If you have not already done so, please renew your annual membership to Collegium. A membership form is enclosed with this newsletter. Please use the 2008 form and discard all previous applications. If you have friends or acquaintances that could benefit from Collegium membership please refer them to our website.

COLLEGIUM WEBSITE UPDATES

Collegium's official website is: www.collegiumaesculapium.org. You can now access, manage your membership status, register for events and update your personal profile on the Collegium website. If your membership is current you will receive an email by June 15^th with your user name and password. A copy of this newsletter will also be available on the website.

SERVING AS A SENIOR MISSIONARY IN GUATEMALA

Second Report to Collegium Aesculapium ---- May 2008

Greetings to you all! We will soon mark one year of seeking to overcome the curse of the Tower of Babel, here in Chiquimula, Guatemala. Time races by as we thoroughly enjoy our work. We continue with our teaching of English to medical students at CUNORI (Centro Universitario de Oriente). Since I reported to the Collegium, in November, there have been a few major occurrences here.

Of note, Dr. Benjamin Pérez left his post at CUNORI in order to take the position of director of public health for the Department (state) of Chiquimula. This brings to him some opportunities that he welcomes for the betterment of water, waste management, etc., for all of the people in this area. We continue to have close ties with Benjamin and his wife, Dra. Arlet Remis. The new curriculum director at CUNORI, Dr. Rory Vides and the faculty have been most supportive of our efforts.

In February the campus was visited by two members of the Collegium, Drs. Thomas Spackman and Randle Thomas, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. During their week-long visit here they gave clinics and master classes in anesthesiology and cardiology. They also lectured as part of a formal convocation which served to honor Dr. Pérez and install his successor.

In March and April an exchange occurred between CUNORI and UVSC. First, three CUNORI med students and three faculty members traveled to Utah County, where they spent a week 'shadowing' clinicians in the hospitals and clinics of the Provo area. This was followed in late April by six UVSC pre med students coming to Chiquimula, and spending time in clinics, classes and labs here. A highlight for them was attending rural clinics in the mountain villages. Dr. Mark Bracken, pre-med advisor and Biology Department Chair at UVSC, and his wife, Debbie, worked hard to make this exchange a success.

We enjoy our English classes immensely. It is a joy to work with bright, motivated people who really want to learn. I think that we are getting better at it, also. Our faculty class members have now been with us for eleven months, and the progress they've made is remarkable. We have two classes of medical students, beginner and advanced. The advanced class, although relatively small, is vibrant and progressing rapidly. We get into advanced medical terminology, translate journal articles, and have case presentations. It is regularly attended by seven students who are hungry to learn more.

The beginning class has been more challenging. Students that come to medical school with little or no English skill find it extremely challenging to balance their medical studies with trying to learn a new language. Since there is no 'pre med' here, the classes start with approximately two-hundred students in the first year. By the second year that is down to about forty, and by the third year, twenty, with three years more to go. We've noticed that following each 'exam week,' fewer students return to English class. We are now close to the end of the semester, and again, we are seeing attendance dwindle. We continue to meet with the administration in order to fine tune the program and better meet the needs of the students. We feel that this is an inspired program and it is our hope that it will continue to bless the lives of other medical students into the future.

Teaching English at CUNORI isn't a full time job and so we have lots of time to spend in other missionary activities. We teach English classes two nights each week at one of the local ward meetinghouses. Suzanne continues to teach piano, and now has more than thirty students, with almost twenty keyboards placed. She held a recital with twenty-five of those students in March. I have been asked to help fill a void created when the area mental health advisor had to go home early. I've boned up on psychotropic pharmacology, and I've become the telephone counselor with a group of elders and hermanas as my patients. It's been quite rewarding. Suzanne and I are busily involved in reactivation and fellowshipping in both of the Chiquimula wards. We've also been involved with several convert baptisms.

This experience has far exceeded our expectations. We couldn't be happier with what we're doing, and we are grateful every day for this wonderful opportunity to serve. Elder David G. Limburg, M.D.

COLLEGIUM ALASKAN CRUISE

A group of twenty participated in a wonderful seven day cruise to Alaska May 16-23rd. The weather was perfect and many stated that it was the experience of a lifetime. The ship's crew commented that this cruise was very unusual because there was no rain or wind. There were three ninety minute education sessions held where all the physicians participated in presenting aspects of their individual specialties. Topics included: issues in missionary health; cataract surgery; podiatry; forensic psychiatry; physical, mental and spiritual abuse; FDA drug approval process; sleep disorders; intricacies of nerve conduction; and the 'parable of the banana'.

On-shore excursions were available in Sitka, Juneau, and Ketchikan, Alaska, and Victoria, British Columbia. The trip included visits to the Hubbard, Valorie, and Mendenhall glaciers. This experience was a great opportunity to make new friends and to reaffirm the principles of sociality for which Collegium was organized. Thanks to Marcie at Boomerang Tours for suggesting this great trip!

COLLEGIUM AESCULAPIUM ANNUAL MEETING

The annual meeting of Collegium Aesculapium Foundation, Inc was held on April 3-4, 2008 at the University Park Marriott Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Thursday night fireside speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Council of the Twelve Apostles who spoke on the Power of Ideas, Laws, and Service. Elder Oaks was also presented the Collegium 2008 Humanitarian Award. The Friday morning CME session speakers included: John C. Nelson, MD, spoke on Lessons Learned While President of the American Medical Association; Raymond R. Price, M.D. spoke on Improving Surgical Care in the Developing World; David Sundwall, MD, Executive Director of the State of Utah Department of Health spoke on Public Health in Utah: Better than Before?; and Paul Godfrey, MBA, PhD, BYU Marriott School of Management spoke on Economic Development and Medicine in the Developing World. The afternoon session was devoted to presentations on missionary physical and mental health and missionary safety. Don Doty MD, Chair of Missionary Medical Services presented a lecture titled "Lessons Learned at the Panama Canal Applied to Missionary Health in Tropical Climates". Bruce Woolley presented an "Update on Immunization of Missionaries." Brent Sharman, PhD, discussed "The Status of Support of Missionary Mental Health". A highlight of the conference was a question and answer discussion consisting of members of the Church Missionary Medical Services Executive Committee. Seven and one-half hours of CME were provided by Intermountain Healthcare Continuing Medical Education.

The list of nominees for 2008-2009 Collegium officers was presented and approved by the membership in attendance. The Immediate Past President is Jeffrey R. Smith, MD; the President is D. Glenn Morrell, MD; the President-elect is Johnnie Cook, MD. New board members are Anthony R. Temple, MD and Val R. Hemming, MD.

THE JOURNAL

Thanks to Ken Meyers who has served as Copy Editor of the Journal of Collegium Aesculapium. Ken has been responsible for the layout of the journal for the past thirteen years. We appreciate all of the talent and many hours Ken has devoted to Collegium and the Journal. The new Copy/Production Editor will be Matthew Wright who comes to the Journal with extensive experience in publishing and editing. Matthew is the director of publishing for World Vital Records.com and he previously published the magazine for Ancestry.com. The next issue of the Journal is in the final work of printing and should be mailed to current Collegium members in the next few weeks. It contains the presentation of Elder Oaks at the annual meeting and articles on missionary emotional and physical health, stem cell research, a new academic paradigm for the next generation of LDS physicians, and Great Britain's role in the publication of the Doctrine and Covenants. This is an issue that contains something for everyone.