On Saturday, October 5th, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM) hosted the Ohio Medical Education Day (OMED) for undergraduate students across Ohio. In attendance were 24 Miami University MWC premedical students, who were able to attend several different exciting panels and workshops with topics ranging from interviewing skills to medical school case studies and bioethics and situational judgment tests. 

The day started out early at 8 am with registration and refreshments. We then all sat in the atrium of OUHCOM’s Heritage Hall, their main medical school building, for a warm welcome from John Schriner, the Associate Dean of OUHCOM. Dr. Schriner, after a brief overview of OUHCOM’s mission, discussed the process and timeline of applying to medical school. We then discussed how AI is actively changing the healthcare sphere in a multitude of different ways, and received an important warning in regard to avoiding the use of AI to assist with our admissions process, as admission committees screen out essays and activities that are written or strongly assisted with AI. Following this AI discussion, we heard from Don Batisky of University of Cincinnati’s medical school admissions program, Kathy Lee of Case Western Reserve University’s medical school admissions program, and Mollie Hartup of Youngstown State University’s on how to highlight core competencies in your application, and allow us an insight into the minds of admissions officers.

After this full-group session, we broke out into elective groups discussing the admissions process, including growth year opportunities and options, interviewing, secondary applications and catering to a school’s mission statement, and crafting your own unique personal statement. On the topic of growth year opportunities and options, the importance of taking time to engage in a field that interests you is important. Danielle Dougherty, an admissions officer of the University of Toledo, highlighted the notion that growth years can help you to ensure that medicine is the right path for you and allow you an opportunity to take time to mature and realize your character prior to entering the long process that is becoming a physician. 

Then, following another admissions-related elective session and a wonderful bistro turkey sandwich catered lunch, another elective option opportunity commenced, where students chose between sessions titled “Diversity in Its Breadth”, “Case Studies”, “Financing your Medical Education”, and “Bioethics and Situational Judgment Tests workshop”. As an attendee of the Bioethics and Situational Judgment Tests workshop, we worked in groups with other premedical students from undergraduate universities across Ohio to address some controversial topics in healthcare, such as the place (or lack of) euthanasia in healthcare, how to approach a case of a patient refusing treatment for life-threatening conditions, and patient autonomy under extenuating circumstances. The biggest lesson many of us took away from this session is that your opinion matters, though it is important to see the ambiguity of any decision by understanding all sides to an argument. Hospitals have internal ethical boards where many of these decisions come to light and are discussed, formed by a wide variety of professionals, including social workers, hospital chaplains, and physicians, to name a few, where we learned that, especially in interviews, it’s okay to not know a correct answer, but to know that you can turn to other professionals to share opinions and deliberate on decisions.

After this very academic day, we were able to speak with admissions committees from a wide variety of Ohio and surrounding state schools, as well as go on a tour of OUHCOM’s facilities, seeing where medical students take each of their classes, cadaver labs, and the rooms where Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) is performed. Rounding this experience up by speaking to current medical students about their experiences getting into medical school and how they are currently involved outside of academics was a great opportunity to give an insight into what each of our futures may hold.