For more information, contact: Boonshoft School of Medicine Marketing and Communications, Cindy Young at (937) 775-2951, or Phillip Neal at (937) 775-4587.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2009

WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine to graduate 97 new physicians

Following commencement ceremony on May 22, graduates will begin prestigious residencies in Ohio and beyond

DAYTON, Ohio—After dedicating four or more years to intense study and rigorous, specialized training, the 97 members of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine class of 2009 will receive their M.D. degrees during the school’s commencement ceremony on May 22.

In addition to the conferring of degrees, the evening event, held in the Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton, will include a “hooding ceremony” in which graduates receive traditional regalia denoting their status and profession. The graduates will also take a professional oath to mark the start of their medical careers and sign a registry to commemorate their first use of the initials “M.D.” following their names.

All 97 graduates will move on to prestigious residencies and receive advanced training in a primary care field or one of dozens of medical specialties. The physicians will be entering outstanding programs in Dayton, throughout Ohio, and across the country, including Duke University Medical Center, Stanford University, the University of Chicago Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins University.

Nearly 56 percent will remain in Ohio during residency, and 44 percent will enter a primary care field such as family medicine, internal medicine or pediatrics.

Barbara Lee Bass, M.D., FACS, who is the John F. and Carolyn Bookout Distinguished Endowed Chair of Surgery at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, will deliver the commencement address. Bass is also the executive director of MITIE™ (Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Education), and professor of surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. She is internationally recognized for her leadership in American surgical education, surgical health care quality policy and gastrointestinal and oncologic surgery.

Each year the graduating class presents an Appreciation Award to recognize an individual or organization for significant contributions to the medical school. The class of 2009 will honor the Academy of Medicine, a community-based service organization founded in 1977 to support the medical school. Among other activities, the academy has provided more than $2.7 million in low-interest loans to Wright State medical students, enabling hundreds to avoid the high costs of commercial loans.

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Editor’s note: Located in Dayton, Ohio, the community-based Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine is affiliated with seven major teaching hospitals in southwest Ohio. In addition to providing medical education leading to the M.D., M.D./Ph.D., M.D./M.B.A. or M.D./M.P.H. degree, the medical school provides residency training in 13 medical specialties and continuing medical education programs for the community’s practicing physicians. Its nationally recognized research programs include centers of excellence in genomics, toxicology, neuroscience, substance abuse and treatment, and human growth and development.

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