Today's entry comes from my--and probably your--favorite guest blogger, Marcia Faye, Manager of Editorial Projects for the Downers Grove Campus. She writes about four CCOM students (two of whom are now alumni) who published a study guide for the board exams. These students were all fellows in CCOM's prestigious Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) Fellowship Program, evidence of their special expertise in both the topic of OMM and the ability to teach. The OMM Fellowship Program provides exceptional students the ability to extend their training in OMM while participating in the OMM teaching program and research efforts.

As a writer who actually gets paid to write as part of my day job, I still harbor a dream that many writers who don't get paid to write have: to author the next Great American Novel. Evidence of my novelesque attempts can be found on my alleged writing desk at home in the form of stacks of colored notebooks filled with outlines and phrases in cursive and in research texts book-ended on one side by my goldfish aquarium. They also can be seen in the many images of butterflies--some whimsical, others elegant--central charcters in my story, winging their inspirational way around each floor of my tri-level suburban Chicago home.

Well, enough about pathetic book writer moi. Allow me to introduce some real authors--four fellows of Midwestern University's Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine: Zachary Nye, John M. Lavelle, Stockton M. Mayer, and Rachel Laven. The four authored a review text on the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination, better known as the COMLEX. The book, part of the First Aid Series published by McGraw-Hill, became available to osteopathic students through online and academic bookstores in February 2007, just about one year from the time the four first began the writing process in earnest.

Dr. Nye, now a resident in anesthesiology at Oregon Health Science University in Portland, spearheaded the project, which was passed on to him by one of his CCOM predecessors. "Since our first year in medical school, many of us realized the need for a comprehensive yet high-yield board review book for the OMM portion of the COMLEX," said Dr. Nye. "The sources available at the time were adequate but too lengthy and difficult for the type of streamlined review necessary for board studying. One of my classmates, Aaron Bruce, sent a mass e-mail to several publishers of medical texts to see if there might be any interest in publishing such a review book. About a year went by with no response. Just prior to his graduation in 2005, the publisher for the First Aid Series from McGraw-Hill replied, saying that she may be interested in such a project. Since Aaron knew of my interest and background in OMM, he gave me her contact information. I called her and explained that we at CCOM could produce the type of review book that osteopathic students throughout the country have been asking for for years. After reviewing some preliminary chapters, she agree to publish First Aid for the COMLEX," recounted Dr. Nye.



Photo: Student Doctors Lavelle and Mayer pose with their new book.

With an unusually swift timeline from start to finish, it was necessary for the fellows to produce a strong first draft. "We made some significant changes to organization and style," said Mr. Mayer (Class of 2008), noting that "most of the content stayed." Dr. Nye and Dr. Laven (now an obstetrics/gynecology resident at Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago) served as the group's principal editors and upon their graduation, left the remaining revisions and discussions with the publisher in the capable hands of Mr. Mayer and Mr. Lavelle (Class of 2008). "It was definitely a group project, not only with the fellows but with the whole OMM department," said Mr. Lavelle. "It wouldn't have been possible without the great professors we have here and the learning base they have given us to get this project done." The authors are hopeful that there will be subsequent editions and that First Aid for the COMLEX will stay in the CCOM family. "We hope to review a lot of feedback from students at other schools so we can continue to make this universally helpful to all students regardless of where they go to school," said Dr. Nye.

The first on-line feedback from a student at another school should make Dr. Nye and his fellow authors more than pleased with their efforts. An osteopathic student in New York awarded First Aid for the COMLEX five out of five stars and had this to say: "It is great to now have a book osteopathic medical students can use that is geared specifically for our licensing exams. It has helped me understand the OMM concepts tremendously. Thanks!"