Unknown Speaker 0:00
Hello, this is Bill beakman, Vice President and Director of intercollegiate athletics and today on MSU. Today I'm joined by the Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University. Dr. Andy amalfitano. Welcome to the show, Andy.

Unknown Speaker 0:18
Well, thank you, Bill, I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk with you and have a little conversation about the college.

Unknown Speaker 0:26
Yeah, so let's start out with a sort of big picture question. And, you know, when you go to your doctor as an A, just sort of as a person in need of medical care. There, there are some doctors that have MD after their name, and there are doctors that have do after their name, and, and doctors of Osteopathic Medicine are of the do variety. And they come with a unique perspective. And so would you share with us a little bit about the history of Osteopathic Medicine, you know, what it means to be an osteopathic physician, and, you know, and how how osteopathic doctors you know really uniquely helps serve our community.

Unknown Speaker 1:14
There's a couple of points to that. First, I'll start out with that the the osteopathic profession is really booming right now. It's actually the fastest growing of the health professions. If you compare it to like PhDs or nursing or MDS, it's literally one in five graduates of a medical school right now are graduating from a deal medical school, one of those is ours. And then one in four, you know, medical students entering medical school this year in the United States is entering an osteopathic medical school. So even within that four year gap, it's increasing rapidly. And there's a reason for that, why are contemporary kind of want to be doctors wanting to become an osteopathic physician, and that primarily stems from our history and sort of philosophical tenants and how we view individuals and our long standing, you know, over 130 year history of rather than treating symptoms and having people come in and treat an acute symptom and send them on their way. We really longed to preserve health and prevent illness. It's what we call it holistic view, to anybody who seeks us out for care. And the last thing we want to do is cause harm. And what we want to do is provide maximum benefit to anyone who seeks us out. And that's been a tenants for, you know, the late 1800s, when the profession was established, that it was established out of, you know, back back then there wasn't much that doctors MD do had to offer anybody you know, but you know, maybe a some strychnine, some arsenic, a good bloodletting maybe a quick hand with the sigh You know, it was there wasn't much there. And in fact, many times Doc's inflicted more harm than good, because you can imagine. And so there was a doc by the name, an MD, actually, by the name of Dr. Andrew still, who saw this and just kind of got fed up with the whole situation and really set out to preserve health, not incur harm, and try and just find those ways to promote spiritual wellness, you know, overall wellness preventing disease, and instilled in that it started the first deal medical school based on those tenets. It's more through the years. It For example, we had for a while there, our own do hospitals, do residency. Now those have sort of gone by the wayside as the profession has gotten so large that it's actually merged with the greater medical institutions of the country. And that's why we have the numbers that I spoke to today. So it's really got to do with understanding that person is not just a symptom, they're a whole person, they have a family, they have a community they interact with, and we really work hard to try and bring that at every visit 100% of the time, and and that holistic view, though it's not unique to the profession, we certainly stand by it strongly.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
Yeah, absolutely. It's a it is a it's really amazing the the the growth of the profession just over the last handful of decades. And you know, and we here in Michigan may not really appreciate that. Because the the do tradition, the tradition of Osteopathic osteopathy in Michigan has really sort of, at least from my perspective, then we had a richer, richer tradition here in Michigan maybe than in many other states. And yeah, at some level, that started with The College of Osteopathic Medicine here at Michigan State being the first College of Osteopathic Medicine associated with a public university. And so we really were groundbreaking in that regard. So, share with us a little bit about the college that you're responsible for, for the maintenance of and what what kinds of, of unique things we're doing in the College of Osteopathic Medicine a bill. It's

Unknown Speaker 5:28
great and great to bring that out. Yeah, Michigan's been very welcoming to the osteopathic profession, you know that. And Michigan State in particular should take great pride. Because if those numbers I gave you about the rapid rise in the profession, if you look back 1969 was the year that that started to really escalate, it had been fairly stagnant for half a century. And it was because of this University's faith in our college that the whole profession took off. So we do a number of things. So we've been here 50 years now we just celebrate our 50 year anniversary. And we have about 7000 alumni, of which last count about 65 to 70%, depending on how you want to actually practice in the state of Michigan. And the majority of those graduates are in primary care. So you know pediatrics family practice, internal medicine, if you want to add on psychiatry, internal even emergency room medicine, many times er Doc's are out in rural areas providing primary care. And so those are the two big, I would say, evidence of our success in the state of Michigan that in fact, if you look at us, compared to most other medical schools in the state, those numbers we lead are close to leaders, we really pride ourselves on we have our classes primarily derived from students from from the state of Michigan, and a heavy influx from Michigan State. And so what we do is we capitalize on that, and these individuals want to go back to their communities and practice that type of medicine that we espouse. And so it's been a beautiful sort of synergy there where we can send send our graduates back into the communities and take care of everybody in the state of Michigan as best we can. And I think that's a huge legacy that we're going to continue with the other one is we've graduated more doctors, we've graduated more doctors, let's say since 2014, who self identify as a minority, again, than any other med school in the state that are based on public data. And so we're trying to and we got a long way to go on this. I'm not saying that we've got an answer. But we pride ourselves in trying to meet that challenge as well. And so we're going to be stepping up to that in the coming years. And hopefully, we'll be able to even broaden that, that capacity. So those are the main things is supplying, you know, sort of like the proverbial land grant mission of this university to serve the people of Michigan, and I can't think of a better way than providing them physicians to take to help in that.

Unknown Speaker 8:09
Well, and I've always thought that one of the one of the interesting aspects of both of our medical schools is that, you know, we don't have a hospital, a university owned University run hospital. And so our medical students are then required to go into community hospitals for that component of their medical school education. That is really yeah, that's, that's once you get past the the classroom based activities, that is the hands on part of medical education. And so on the in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, you've got a statewide campus, a system, a consortium of hospitals, that really allow our students to practice all over the state of Michigan. And so we're impacting not just people here in East Lansing or the Greater Lansing Community, but, you know, but points all across the state. So share with us a little bit about how that model works and, and how it impacts so many lives.

Unknown Speaker 9:14
It's wonderful for a couple of reasons, even though at first, you might think, well, we don't have a university based hospital per se, for our students. But what it turns out we have 23 hospitals, for example, that our students in our college can advantage themselves of as they enter their clinic, what we call the clinical years, the third and fourth years of medical school, you're really out seeing patients and taking care of them full time. And those locations are throughout the state. And they afford our students the ability to choose a locale you know, a rural areas, suburban area, hybrid area, urban areas, we're all over the place and so students can already in those third and fourth years, start crafting their career path and get exposed To the type of medicine and patients and venue and environment burns that they'll encounter once they go out and graduate early on, and they can make those decisions very informed at an early stage. So

Unknown Speaker 10:14
we have

Unknown Speaker 10:16
on top of that, and this speaks to what I spoke to earlier about our graduate staying in the state of Michigan, we have an even broader umbrella code called our statewide campus system. This is a network that involves 40, hospitals, okay, all the ones I just talked about, then additional. And within this framework, when you graduate from medical school, you go into a residency or fellowship program, and you specialize in pedes, or surgery or the PBX or genetics or whatever it is. We have 2000 residents and fellows distributed over those 40 sites in the state of Michigan. That's an incredible network that we have established, and it took 50 years to get here. But with that, our students continue to then pick out areas that they can still stay affiliated with the college, and also learn about what's available throughout the state. And as they get comfortable in those networks, I'm convinced that's why they stay in the state of Michigan, because I know it's not the weather, I mean, the weather is something but it's really got more to do with establishing these networks of comfort and knowing that you've got support, and these systems are waiting for you that has really grown this through the years. So it's it's quite an opportunity. And I'll tell you that in the in the era of COVID. I am aware of other hospitals and medical schools in the nation that have had trouble with their students, if you can imagine if you were depend on one hospital, and that hospital shuts down because of COVID are can't take students because they can educate them. What a shame that is, well, we were able to pivot, we have 23 hospitals to choose from. And, you know, we pulled back momentarily during those critical months in March and April. But quickly, all of our hospitals partners, were able to bring those students back and get them back learning so that they could graduate on time. I mean, I can't think of a worse thing than during a pandemic, you can't you can't train physicians to graduate and treat treat people. And luckily with that network in place, we were able to do that,

Unknown Speaker 12:25
that really is incredible. So So we've talked a little bit about the students experience and and our academic mission in the college, and a little bit about your clinical activity. But I think one of the one of the real differentiators of the College of Osteopathic Medicine here at Michigan State is your your research activity. And the and one of the symbols or one of the sort of key components of that maybe is a better a better way to put it is the do Ph. D program. So you explain what what a D do PhD program is what kind of people that that produces and what they do for the for the benefit of society?

Unknown Speaker 13:12
Well, it's great, you know, I happen to have a conflict of interest here because I am a graduate of msus do PhD program. But in a nutshell, let me back up a little bit. The profession because of its heavy, you know, notions on entering primary care and Rural Health has not participated in biomedical research to the extent probably that our MD colleagues had through the years, it's just, you know, the profession focuses on primary care, and if you look across primary care, that's true. So being at MSU, it's sitting on top of the big 10 University allows our college to advantage ourselves of this, it you know, top 70 you know, research institution in the world, you know, if not, you know the universe. And and so we, we want to promote research every opportunity we get and so our students get access to any research activities. But for those students who see a more specialized and intense focus on research, we develop this do PhD program which is I don't want to say how old it is, but I was one of the early graduates of it. And what it is, is you simultaneously get your do medical degree while you undertake a Ph. D program, traditional Ph. D Pro, it can be anywhere from cell molecular biology, genetics, we even have anthropology PhDs. That's the breadth of who we want to teach at this level. These individuals now will get out they will get their medical experience and bring their research expertise to bear on contemporary medical problems that are facing us today. And I firmly believe that that osteopathic holistic view is of incredible benefit in this area as well. not losing the forest for the trees, if you will, not zeroing in down to something. So, such minutia, whatever you want to describe that all sudden, yeah, that's true, but what impact does it have on society or the patients we see, we hope that this kind of philosophy can pervade even the research endeavors of the students. So we have graduates in all these various programs going out and populating the other med schools in the country, becoming researchers and academicians as well with their clinical activity, several of which are at you know, we, we get them to come back to MSU, as well. So it's a, it's a program we're proud of, we want to expand it. And it's just that at MSU, we have the capacity to have such This is a large program, we have about 50 students in the program right now, this is this is large across the nation, not just locally. And we're committed to this. And we're fortunate Michigan State supports us in this in all kinds of ways, other colleges we interact with, etc.

Unknown Speaker 16:20
I think that's, that's one of the really great aspects of being part of a big 10 University is the the the breadth that we have in the strength that we have, in so many of the basic sciences that grew out of our College of Natural Sciences, literally 100, over 100 years ago, that between the College of Natural Science, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, the College of human medicine, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Nursing, you've got a sort of Health Sciences sector, that really can play upon the strengths of each one of those units, for the for the betterment of all and that that's really one of the great great things about Michigan State and, and the collaborative nature of our institution. So your your your day job is being Dean and and that's probably an enough job for three or four lifetimes. Truth be told, but but but I understand that every now and again, you get to sneak back to your your first passion, which is, as you say, with your your do PhD training is as a researcher and and as I understand it, your your research is being used to develop some vaccine platforms that will hopefully have an impact in cancer and cancer treatment, as well potentially as the the current covid 19 pandemic. So tell us a little bit about that research and and what you're doing.

Unknown Speaker 18:00
Oh, well, thanks. Thanks for asking. It actually stems from my, you know, so I bleed is green as wide as anybody I did my undergraduate at MSU in microbiology. I did my PhD, my do degree here and very early on, I had a notion How can we harness viruses and use them as potential medicine that was really, you know, my sort of neophyte view at the time, way back, I shared that with many faculty during my training, and when I'm in my laboratory work actually developed a virus that we inactivated. It's a common cold virus and kind of tore took the DNA out of that virus. And now we can engineer it to produce any protein or antigen we want. that's now been taken by several companies. And they've been using it primarily as an immune vaccine platform. And, for example, we can, in cancer patients started about 20 or 30 different clinical trials targeting the most, you know, the most brutal of cancer, pancreatic cancer gi cancer system,

Unknown Speaker 19:14
you know,

Unknown Speaker 19:16
metastatic colon cancer, and what we do is we take this virus and we put genetic information into the virus that then is delivered into these cancer patients and it trains the immune system to attack the cancers that these individuals possess. And, and that has seen some, it's moving into phase three studies right now, which is just on the verge of being licensed. So, you know, cross your fingers. That is one thing we did prove is it's extremely safe, we could give doses of this vaccine, this cancer vaccine to prove we could stimulate these immune responses. So with that, when COVID-19 hit, one of the companies pivoted and actually you know, swap the DNA out and put in COVID 19 inflammation into our vaccine platform, manufacturer data. And we're actually that that company is now in the late phase one studies, testing it for its efficacy to prevent COVID-19. And a couple of unique aspects of this, I mean, I wanted to use this virus early on, because I knew it could be scaled, you know, hundreds of millions if necessary, we preserve that. But it actually can be produced in a tablet, you can actually with a lyophilized, this he dehydrated and then put it into a tablet. And so in fact, this study is looking at the tablet form of this vaccine for COVID-19, which is, you've heard a lot about, you know, needing to refrigerate vaccines and will have tablets, you know, they can ship those anywhere. The other thing is that the particular flavor of vaccine we've developed, that this company has developed is targeting two different aspects of COVID-19. You've heard a lot about the spike protein, but there's another protein called the nuclear protein NP, and this vaccine has enough capacity to target bolts. So we think i think that it'll it will be useful should these you know, these new variants you're hearing about that may vade, existing immunity, this platform may come in and mop up, if you will, and prevent that. So that's where that stands right now. It all evolved out of some, you know, my undergraduate days, at MSU pondering, can we take a virus and turn it into a medicine and, you know, it happened?

Unknown Speaker 21:34
Well, that's, that's a great message for the young people that might be listening that, you know, sometimes is, is as young people, you get what you might feel like, is a crazy idea. And but if you have some stick to itiveness, and, and and continue to learn and grow and in your case, get it you become a researcher, then then those things can can come about and potentially change the world. Well,

Unknown Speaker 22:08
we're hoping we're open. And, you know, we're not the only ones working on this, you know, but I really do feel that MSU gave me the competence to pursue these things. No, you have to have the right training to feel confident and then chasing this stuff. And you know, I'll never look back with regret. It was a great experience. And I love moving forward on this.

Unknown Speaker 22:31
Yeah, no, it's quite extraordinary. So to to wrap up, the College of Osteopathic Medicine here at Michigan State and the osteopathic profession itself are really in in a in a great place and growing and helping greater and greater numbers of people across our society. What do you see as the future of the College of Osteopathic Medicine? What are what what's on the horizon for the college?

Unknown Speaker 23:04
Well, a number of things, I think more of the same, because it's, you know, these are great things. We want to continue our focus on primary care and her students desire to pursue that. But we certainly can train for those who want to specialize out in surgical specialties or even more specialize. The big goal is continuing to address this issue of lack of diversity in the medical profession. You know, if you just look at the numbers across the nation, the number of physicians that come from under underrepresented minority populations is inadequate. It's a long standing institutional problem. Racism is contributed to that. And, you know, I love being Dean, but we can only I can only do so much. But what I can do is make sure that our college is a welcoming place, place that we can attract the best and brightest and a diverse student body. Because we get knowledge from that, you know, diverse experiences empowers our entire curriculum. And so I really see our college really going after trying to be inclusive, increasingly, to just graduate that type of a doctor that has that perspective. And so we will stay true to that. On top of that, I think our research we want to expand that and really step it up. And I want us to capitalize on the statewide campus system in particular, you noted with our access educationally to 40 hospitals, that's quite a catchment area. And we think that through this network, we can start addressing community wide medical issues in research, you know, things affecting the community's diabetes obesity, hypertension, the the the the opioid crisis, some some of these things can only be answered by looking at large populations, the laboratory will not yield the answer that impacts the entire society. And so we're looking at ways how we can harness this educational network and craft it into a research network. And so that's another another area of, I hope we can expand. So those are two of the major ones, we we continue with our clinical activities in East Lansing and beyond that. We continue with our affiliations with all of our hospital systems, I want to see those grow. And I want to these hospitals to know that their future physicians are coming from our med school. So they have a vested interest in making sure we we we continue in this path, and I want them to understand that we we appreciate their partnerships. And going forward, we want to facilitate that as well. So I think more of the same with some highlights.

Unknown Speaker 26:07
That's that. That's great. So today, we've been joined by the Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University, Dean Andy amalfitano. And Andy, I will close with with one brief question. We've already talked, we've talked in great length about the college, a little bit about your personal research interests. But But I'm hopeful that at least a little bit of time during the week, you can find some time to not spend on work related things. So what what things do you do and what things do you enjoy doing in your off time?

Unknown Speaker 26:45
Oh, boy, it's kind of tough with COVID-19. You know, and unfortunately, I like cooking. You know, it's the Italian Italian gene in me. And, you know, so I do that a lot. I know, you know, my dad owned a pizzeria. I mean, when they came from Italy, that's what they started. And so I really learned how to work in those venues of restaurants. And, and so I enjoy doing that. So I just got to, you know, keep a lid on it sometimes because I get out of control. But I enjoy that. And hopefully when when COVID-19 will reserve, you know, we'll turn the corner on this. And we'll get back to normal, like traveling and visiting various areas. So, but those are the two main things.

Unknown Speaker 27:37
Sounds good. Well, Andy, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been great getting having an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the College of Osteopathic Medicine, and what you do as its Dean, and we will look forward to great things to come. Great.

Unknown Speaker 27:53
Thanks for thanks for the opportunity. I really appreciate all you do.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai