Osteopathic Founders Foundation

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women of most racial and ethnic groups in the united states. In the us, someone will suffer a heart attack every 40 seconds. Annually, more than 805,000 people in this county have a heart attack with more than 600,000 of those being a first heart attack. There are around 60,000 cases of cardiac arrest in the us every year but fewer than 1 in 10 patients survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Immediate initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (cpr) can at least double survival of such an event and defibrillation within 3 - 5 minutes of collapse can produce more improved survival rates. Cardiac arrests that occur outside the hospital are significantly more deadly than in-hospital cardiac arrests. A public health issue, in addition to our support of the american heart association, the foundation has chosen to address the need for continued training of health professionals by establishing an emergency cardiovascular care training site accredited by the aha. Training in advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric advanced life support and basic life support for healthcare providers is offered for physicians and other healthcare professionals. We also place an emphasis on providing training in the basic skills of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the lay community in hopes of improving survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac events through our friends and family program.

As stated in the mission statement, support of osteopathic medical education is central to the foundation's investments. At the pre-doctoral level, two scholarships are awarded to osteopathic medical students at oklahoma state university college of osteopathic medicine based on academic achievement, professional ambassadorship, and community engagement. Other scholarships are granted at osu which recognize leadership ability as well as medical research accomplishments. All of these awards assist students with the cost of tuition, fees, and books. Two additional scholarships, one recognizing the role of women in medicine and one encouraging careers in preventative medicine are granted with the assistance of the student osteopathic medical association foundation to students from medical schools across the country. Grants were also made to the osu foundation, the oklahoma educational foundation for osteopathic medicine, the student osteopathic medical association foundation, and the american osteopathic foundation to support their medical student scholarship programs. For those young physicians in post-graduate training, the foundation offers two programs. Each resident and fellow training at osu medical center is eligible to receive one textbook during each year of their training which is to be used in the didactic activities of their program. Stipends which support the costs associated with required conferences, courses, and out rotations are granted on a competitive basis to osteopathic residents and fellows enrolled in an acgme accredited postgraduate training program with osteopathic recognition who are participating in a component of scholarly activity during their travel. Additionally, the osteopathic founders foundation partners with the oklahoma educational foundation for osteopathic medicine to support the awards in their student/resident poster competition each year and is the sponsor of the awards for the graduate medical education patient safety and quality improvement symposium in oklahoma. In 2023 we began a partnership with osu department of graduate medical education to provide a program preparing residents/fellows in their final year of training to transition to practice by informing them of basics such as contracting, medical liability insurance, financial management, wellness, and much more. Much of our work is involved in the creation and presentation of continuing medical education for physicians. The cme mission of the osteopathic founders foundation is to continually improve patient care by providing timely, relevant, evidence-based clinical knowledge to osteopathic physicians and other healthcare providers. In 2009 the foundation received its initial accreditation from the american osteopathic association as a category 1-a provider. Since then, we have established relationships with community partners allowing us to provide access to our programs to all osteopathic physicians, pharmacists, nurses, counselors, and other health care professionals. During 2023, professional development programs were offered in a variety of specialties including psychiatry, addiction medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, internal medicine, neurology, and a wide range of topics in primary care. We also offered the first of our programs meeting requirements of the mate act which is required in order for physicians to renew their dea license. The challenges of continuing educational opportunities during the pandemic led to the creation of the ecme monthly medicine program which has expanded our reach to physicians across the united states. These programs have a growing audience each month as we address topics of interest across specialties at no cost to the learners. The foundation continues to offer programs addressing oklahoma's opioid crisis by presenting, with our partners, multiple sessions, both in-person and virtually which allow both do's and md's to meet the statutory requirement of education on the prescribing of controlled dangerous substances. The foundation continues to meet its mandate of serving the continuum of medical education from medical school through medical practice.