Students Attend the 2nd Annual Heartland Pre-Med Conference

This time last week, a group of students returned to classes after a weekend spent traveling to Kirksville, Missouri, to attend the 2nd Annual Heartland PreMed Conference at A.T. Still University's School of Osteopathic Medicine. This school is the first osteopathic medical school in the country and was established in 1892 by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy and osteopathic medicine. The legacy of A.T. Still is described in the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, which is located on the Kirksville campus. Our students were able to tour the museum during their time at the conference. The museum featured lots of interesting artifacts from A.T. Still's life and a collection of medical antiques that show the progression of osteopathic medicine through time.

One of the displays at the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine.

VP for Academic Affairs at ATSU, Lori Haxton,
delivers the welcome message at the conference.

Three of our fantastic pre-health students embarked on their journey to Kirksville on a Friday morning. We spent 11 hours riding in a school vehicle talking about life, the universe, and everything before finding our way to our hotel and settling in before the next day's conference. The next morning began with a good breakfast and arriving early for registration check-in. Everyone was given a bag with information about the conference and we were able to pick up fun conference t-shirts before the welcome message that began at 9am.

After welcoming students and their advisors to A.T. Still University, attendees were able to select from two presentations during the first session. One of the presentations was Professionalism and Ethics in Healthcare, which I attended and thoroughly enjoyed. The other session was Navigating Interview Formats, which all of our students attended and reported was helpful information regarding the different types of interviews that one can go on when applying to medical schools. This was especially useful for the two students who had signed up for doing a mock interview later in the day.

AdaptPrep MCAT Project Manager, Elizabeth Heeg,
talks to attendees about preparing for the MCAT.

The second session featured a presentation about ATSU's Biomedical Sciences Program titled An Opportunity to Improve Your Medical School Application and a presentation titled Strategies for MCAT Prep, which all of us from SD Mines attended. This session was sponsored by AdaptPrep and gave students a list of Do's & Don't's for MCAT preparation. AdaptPrep also donated free subscriptions to some of their test-prep products for all conference attendees.

The third session was hosted by ATSU's admissions department and focused on preparing applications for AACOMAS, the centralized application service used for applying to osteopathic medical programs. While specific to AACOMAS, much of the information shared was applicable to other centralized application services for professional programs in healthcare.

After this session, lunch was sponsored by the US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force. During lunch, there was a panel discussion with two ATSU students, one in the osteopathic medical program and one in the biomedical sciences program. These students provided insider information on preparation for and success in professional programs.

ATSU students demonstrate OMM.

There were two additional sessions after lunch. The first session allowed student attendees to choose between Strategies for MCAT Prep or Single GME & Residency Selection Process Explained. Because our students had already attended the MCAT prep presentation earlier, they all attended the other session to learn about the residency process. The second session allowed students to choose between Osteopathic Principles and Practice or Caring for Your Mental Health in Medical School. Because two of our students were still learning about osteopathic medicine and the third is planning to go into osteopathic medicine, the group decided to attend the first presentation, where they gained a clearer understanding of the profession and learned more about the holistic approach that DOs take when caring for their patients. Meanwhile, there were concurrent sessions for pre-health advisors that included panel discussions with representatives from various medical programs (both DO and MD schools) followed by a group discussion about letters of recommendation.

The afternoon was comprised of lab demonstrations of ultrasound, osteopathic manipulative medicine, patient simulations, and immersion room experiences. These were exciting experiences for our students, who saw live demonstrations, solved a simulated patient case using a robotic patient, and learned how to triage during an emergency scenario in the immersion room. Two of our students also participated in mock interviews, where they received feedback to use in future interview preparations.

SD Mines students, Lauren Wipf and Isabel McClachlan, work with Bill, a simulated patient, to diagnose his pneumonia.

Students learned how to triage and then entered an immersion room where they put their skills to use in a live scenario.

Students speak with a VCOM representative
during the medical school meet and greet.

Additionally, we all walked through the medical school meet and greet. This meet and greet featured booths with representatives from a variety of programs sharing information and lots of fun, branded freebies for us to take back with us to Rapid City. (You know what that means...free stuff available in Dr. J's office!)

After the conference was over, our group said goodbye to ATSU and made our way back to Rapid City. In reflecting on our experiences, the students agreed that the conference was a fun, worthwhile trip, despite the long drive. While the meet and greet and informational sessions were useful, everyone agreed that the hands-on activities were the most interesting and reaffirmed their choices for pursing a career in medicine. One student remarked, "It is a very insightful way of learning the basics of medical school." Another stated, "It helped me confirm my desire to go into medicine and helped me to understand what I needed to do to prepare." All three students would like to attend the event again next year and would recommend it for other students interested in a pre-medicine pathway.

Students attended the 2nd Annual Heartland PreMed Conference at ATSU.
Left to Right: Lauren Wipf, Isabel McClachlan, and Alex Reader