COSGP Quarterly Report

TouroCOM-NY Student Government Association

COSGP Quarterly Meeting Report

Marriott Baltimore Waterfront

April 13-17, 2011

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*Note: The COSGP (Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents) was established in 1972 as an official council of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) to serve as the official national representative voting voice of osteopathic medical students. See the COSGP official website for more information: http://cosgp.aacom.org/

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Fellow student doctors,

I had the privilege of attending my first COSGP meeting this past April in Baltimore along with outgoing SGA President Buck Stolberg. Held quarterly, COSGP meetings are unique opportunities for SGA members from D.O. schools across the country to interact. Several time-slots during the conference were reserved for open discussion, where a member could bring up an issue their school was dealing with and receive feedback and advice. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge to share with our SGA, club leaders and students. Issues like elections, the SGA constitution and academic integrity are just a few examples of areas I received feedback on. The COSGP also allows students from all osteopathic medical schools to have a voice within AACOM and the AOA. COSGP members are present at all major AOA and AACOM meetings. The meeting in Baltimore was held in conjunction with the joint AACOM/NBOME (National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners) conference. Many of the events and presentations hosted by AACOM conference were included in the COSGP agenda. Several key AACOM and NBOME members presented at the COSGP meeting.

This experience gave me the sense that the osteopathic profession is at a critical turning point. Many of the topics and issues discussed touched upon the nature of health care in the United States and the role of osteopathic medicine. Our nation faces serious challenges in delivering effective and affordable health-care as a wide-spread shortage of physicians looms. AACOM President Stephen C. Shannon, DO, MPH spoke about a special blue ribbon commission being created to tackle the health-care crisis. Osteopathic physicians are at the forefront of implementing a workable solution for health-care reform because of the principles inherent to the osteopathic philosophy. Our profession stands to gain a stronger standing because of this fact.

Making some of the resources available to allopathic students also available for osteopathic students was another topic heavily discussed. A special report, “Charting the Outcomes of the Match”, is produced each year outlining the match results and details for allopathic residencies. There currently is no such report for osteopathic residencies. The data made available is very useful when applying to residencies and having something similar for osteopathic residencies is ideal. The COSGP urged AACOM officials to develop this resource.

Concerning policy and resolutions, a tobacco-free campus resolution that was passed earlier this year will be brought for official recommendation to the AOA, and already many schools have adopted this policy. Also, a resolution was brought up and passed that added gender-identity and sexual orientation to the non-discrimination clauses within the COCA Commission standards.

In terms of special presentations, I wanted to highlight two topics to share:
Focus on Prevention:
An extensive presentation on the work currently being done to incorporate preventative medicine principles into medical school curricula. AACOM has a special task force that deals specifically with this issue. The U.S. government also has a task force, more info can be found at:
http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/
-->Check out this App created by the U.S. Department of Health (compatible with most handheld devices):

ePSS, the Electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS) is an application designed to help primary care clinicians identify the screening, counseling, and preventive medication services that are appropriate for their patients.

Download at: http://epss.ahrq.gov/PDA/index.jsp

AACOM Career Advising:
A career advising site set up by AACOM allows you to connect with a physician mentor and provides a wealth of information to help guide you on the path to becoming an osteopathic physician. Resources like a decision-making time-line, detailed specialty, match and practice information and advice are just a few of examples.

Visit http://www.aacom.org/InfoFor/students/careeradvice

Concluding remarks:

I gained a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience in my first COSGP meeting. After having extensive discussions and interacting with student government leaders from all of the other D.O. schools, I am proud to say that what we have at TouroCOM is something special. A combination of a highly talented student body, unique location and supportive faculty and administration has served to create an environment of success and creativity. We have the potential for even greater success, and I encourage all of you to be more proactive. Our school’s success truly hinges upon your continued dedication and participation.


Sincerely,
Ali Abdallah
Student Government Association President
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York

Spring cleaning...

The website will be undergoing some construction in the next few weeks. The basic framework will remain the same, but some components will be revamped and updated...

Legislative Informant, COSGP

Vol. 2, Iss. 3

Jan. 21, 2010

The Fate of ObamaCare

On January 19, 2011, the House of Representatives approved legislation
to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The final vote was 245-189 with 3
Democrats voting with the Republicans in favor of repeal. The Senate
has no plans to consider this bill at this time.

The House of Representatives also voted on a measure to instruct four
committees to draft alternative health care proposals that reflect
Republican priorities.

Taxes for All Residents

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the U.S. Treasury Department acted reasonably in promulgating a rule that says medical residents are not exempt from paying employment taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research v. United States, U.S., No. 09-837, 1/11/11). Furthermore, the decision means that taxes are due only on residents’ stipends paid after April 1, 2005.

The high court opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. dealt with regulations providing that medical residents who work more than 40 hours per week do not qualify for the student exception under Section 3121(b)(10) of the Internal Revenue Code. Chief Justice Roberts said the regulations address an area “to which Congress has not directly spoken,” and because the regulations were “a reasonable construction of what Congress has said,” they had to be upheld.

The case involved a rule change by the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2005 providing that the student exemption from the FICA tax does not apply if the individual works full-time. Eight of the nine Supreme Court justices considered the case, in which the U.S. Department of Treasury argued that the IRS should be allowed to collect Social Security and Medicaid taxes from medical residents who work and study at teaching hospitals. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case because she signed the Justice Department's brief on behalf of the IRS while she was solicitor general.

In August, the AOA submitted a joint amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the case along with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) and several other higher education associations. In the brief, the AOA and the AACOM supported the eligibility of medical residents for exemption from FICA taxation

Thought of the Week

What do you think about the time and effort the government has spent on the ACA and now the government wants to repeal ACA? Is this productive, counter-productive?

New Physicians in Congress

Six new physicians will join the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress, including Joe Heck, DO (NV-03), the first osteopathic physician representative in the modern era. Other freshman joining Dr. Heck in the House of Representatives will be:

* Larry Bucshon, MD from the 8th district of Indiana
* Nan Hayworth, MD from the 19th district of New York
* Andy Harris, MD from the 1st district of Maryland
* Dan Benishek, MD from the 1st district of Michigan
* Scott DesJarlais, MD from the 4th district of Tennessee

The Senate will receive its third physician. Senator Rand Paul, MD won the election in Kentucky and will join physicians, John Barrasso, MD (Wyoming) and Tom Coburn, MD (Oklahoma).

2011 will bring a total of 20 physicians to the 112th Congress.

Important Upcoming Dates

DO Day on the Hill registration begins January 3! DO Day on the Hill, Thursday, April 7.
2011 Paul Ambrose Scholars Program Applications due Feb. 7
COSGP Meeting! January 26, 27, 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/19/10

Student D.O. of the Year

An email was sent out this week with the nomination form for the SDOY award.  This is a very prestigious award and the selected individual will be in the running against nominees from all over the country.  If you know a fellow classmate that you think deserves recognition for their commitment to our school, the community and the osteopathic profession, please fill out a nomination form.  The deadline for all nominations is December 10, 2010 at noon.

Study Room Rules of Common Courtesy:

1. Do not cover the window or leave your belongings unattended in the room for hours at a time.

a)      Your stuff can be moved or stolen.

b)      Share. As you may have noticed, we have a limited number of study rooms. Out of consideration for others, share your room with your classmates if you are the only one in the room. Sharing is caring! 

2. Clean up after yourself.

a)      There’s a trash can in here, please use it.

b)      Also, if you eat in the room and there’s food residue on the table or walls, Wipe it!

c)       REPORT SPILLS! Call maintenance immediately so that the new stain doesn’t become another permanent decoration. 

3. If you take chairs out of this room, return them when you’re done.
4. Try to keep the noise to a minimum, so people in the rooms next door can study, too.
5. No sleeping for long periods of time – your bed at home is MUCH more comfortable. :)

We all want clean accessible study areas and by working together, we can make that happen!

Guest Speakers

-We now have TouroCOM coffee mugs to give to our guest speakers as a token of our appreciation.  Club Leaders please contact one of the SGA members if you are bringing in a speaker. 

Survey Question of the Week

I have attached your responses to last week’s question to this email.  Once again, we strongly encourage you to take the 10 seconds to the weekly survey.  This is the only way we can really get the consensus we need on certain issues that we plan to address in the future. 

Library

We want to remind you that eating and drinking beverages other than water is prohibited in the library. While SGA continues to gain more privileges for students, (i.e. exam viewing computers, extra exam viewing hours, extended library hours, etc.) we need some simple cooperation from your end.  We have been warned that if students continue to break the rules, the library may not be open when it’s not fully staffed:  7:30-8:00am and evening proctoring hours.  Please just follow the rules so it doesn’t have come down to cutting the few hours that we do have in the library.  Thanks!

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/12/10

Streaming

We are now able to download lectures and watch them without any streaming interruptions.  As of now, downloading can only be accessed while on the TouroCOM network.  Instructions are listed below.  Please direct any questions/technical issues to the IT department.

Windows:1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. On URL/address type: ftp://vod.med.touro.edu
3. You will be prompted for username and password
(use your MED domain username, "med\firstname.lastname") and password for MED domain. (The username and password that you use to log into the library computers).
MAC:It's same as above. Mac users has to use Firefox/Chrome or any web browser that support ftp protocol. Safari DOES NOT SUPPORT FTP protocol.

*Please note that most of videos are in the “Hidden” folder. Anything that starts with “screen_2010...wmv “is the video from the podium computer capture and there is no audio with those files.  All files that start with “video_2010...wmv” have the video from the lecture camera plus the audio.

Study Rooms

In order to be courteous to your classmates, please do not block the door windows with your belongings. It’s not fair to other students when individuals leave their belongings all over the room, cover the door windows, and then leave the rooms for hours at a time. We will be enforcing this new rule this following week. Thanks for your cooperation!

Kaplan schedule

2^nd years- Reminder: our Kaplan COMLEX prep runs from May 11^th – June 9^th 2011.  If you haven’t registered for your exam(s) yet, it’s definitely something to start looking into!

Google Groups:

Google groups have been enabled for clubs!  Clubs leaders, please make a Google Group for your club so that your emails can be directed only to your members. We have received too many complaints regarding the high volume of emails being sent through the list serve.  Now that we have finally gotten permission for this resource, please utilize it.  The link below will lead you to instructions on how to set up a group:

https://groups.google.com/a/student.touro.edu

Club calendar

Once again, please put all your club events on the calendar.  This is the only organized way that students can look up events for the week without having to search through tons of email for the date/time/location of an event.  Its purpose is to benefit your club and encourage attendance.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Fembed%3Fsrc%3Dstudent.touro.edu_7hp69favkj5lv48pnmeompj07s%2540group.calendar.google.com%26ctz%3DAmerica%2FNew_York

Rotation information:

The SGA is working on setting up our rotation selection mid-Feb, bringing in program directors before our selection, and making the 3^rd/4^th year evaluations available to students.  We want this process to go as smoothly as possible while keeping everyone informed. For now please look through the resources provided and stay tuned for more information to come!

Core rotations

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/core-rotations

Elective Rotations

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/rotations

SGA Blog:

Check out our blog for information you may have missed!

http://tourosga.blogspot.com/

TouroCOM site for current students:

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/05/10

Streaming
The IT department is currently working on a solution for our streaming network.  There have been many complaints regarding the speed and quality of streaming.  We hope to see some changes soon.


Study rooms
Thank you to those who have cleared their personal items out of the study rooms. If you haven’t had the chance to yet, please remove your personal belongings and keep them in your locker or at home; any items left in an unoccupied study room may be removed & thrown out. Once again, be ready to vacate the room between 7-9 PM every night for a few minutes, when facilities come through to vacuum. Make their job easier and help keep our study rooms clean!


Faculty Meeting Regarding Powerpoint Names & Posting
The SGA president, Buck Stolberg, presented at the last faculty meeting.  He went over the importance of properly naming powerpoints, since we do receive close to ~1000 presentations over 2 years.  He also has stressed the importance of putting up class material in advance and providing supplementary resources. Thanks Buck! Below is the list of filenames, per syllabus. Encourage your professors to use the names provided or something similar.


Primary Care Skills Evaluations
-This is another reminder for 2nd years to fill out the PCS faculty evaluations. They are located under assignments in your PCS folder.

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 10/29/10

COSGP Update
COSGP is the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents and it is the group that represents
all osteopathic medical students.

Topics we addressed were:
• COMLEX/NBOME (National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners)
o Remember, COMLEX is not JUST the USMLE with OMM. It is designed differently!
o Use the COMSAE exams on the NBOME website. They contain actual COMLEX questions
that have been retired!
o Find out all kinds of information about the COMLEX tests on the NBOME website.
• Resident Duty Hours
o With the recent change in ACGME rules around intern/resident duty hours, the AOA is
considering changing to a similar standard.
• Check out the COSGP website for links to all kinds of useful interesting things:
o http://www.cosgp.aacom.org/
• An AACOM resource that might help you with COMLEX/OMM is a free resource called The
Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology. The link is below:
o http://www.aacom.org/resources/Documents/Downloads/GOT2009ed.pdf
• Updates from every COM and so much more! We will make sure to distribute information to
different students/clubs.

Study Room Cleaning and Availability
We’ve heard you loud and clear! In response to your concerns and complaints we are coordinating with
Building Services to clean out and clean up the study rooms!

Please remove all personal belongings from the study rooms by 7pm Wednesday 11/3/10. As a courtesy
to other students please keep your personal belongings in your locker or at home, any items left in an
unoccupied study room may be removed & thrown out.

Be ready to leave the room between 7-9 PM every night for a few minutes, because that is when
facilities come through to vacuum. Make their job easier and help keep our study rooms clean.

TouroCOM Club Calendar
Every event put on by a TouroCOM group will be on our TouroCOM club calendar, so check it often and
add it to your own personal google Calendar. Use this communication tool to make sure you don’t miss
out on an event!


TouroCOM Weekly Survey:
-Each week there is one new question that is asked. This gives us an idea of how many students are
interested in certain topics and what to pursue in the future. First and second years, please fill out your
surveys! We appreciate your feedback and it literally takes 10 seconds to do so. Thanks!
Here is the response to last week’s question:

Primary Care Skills Evaluations
-This is a reminder for 2nd years to fill out the PCS faculty evaluations. They are located under
assignments in your PCS folder.

Topics for Faculty Meeting
Our SGA president will be speaking at the faculty meeting next week. Please add any issues you would
like for him to address.