A middle-aged man comes into the JayDoc Community Clinic with what turns out to be poorly controlled asthma. He’s a smoker and works in construction, surrounded by co-workers who share the habit. The smoking-asthma connection isn’t fully clear to him. The man is also a standardized patient whose fictional issues are real and common at Guadalupe Clinic, which serves uninsured Sedgwick County residents.

He’s just one of eight standardized patients at a November workshop that schooled clinic volunteers and other students from KU School of Medicine-Wichita and KU School of Pharmacy-Wichita on asthma, smoking cessation, and medications and equipment to treat pulmonological conditions. Standardized patients are people who have been trained and coached to simulate actual patients – their symptoms and their personal characteristics.

Kathy Melhorn, M.D., spent her career caring for children and closing gaps in care for the most vulnerable — those suffering from abuse and neglect. Mark Melhorn, M.D., spent decades as a hand and upper extremity surgeon guided by the “principle of treating each patient as if they were family.”

Both physicians — Kathy retired last year, Mark moved to a group practice after 35 years solo — trained at KU Wichita residencies, practiced in the city and had impacts across Kansas and beyond. Now, they’re giving back to KU School of Medicine-Wichita and the programs that nurtured them.

For fourth-year medical student Emma Kossover, a recent two-week clinical elective in functional medicine at KU Wichita Functional Medicine Clinic “opened up this whole different side of medicine that is important and emerging.”

This year, KU School of Medicine-Wichita became just the third medical school in the U.S. to offer a functional medicine elective, where students can gain experience in using a system-based approach to find root causes of a patient’s chronic disease. The elective is open to KU fourth-years and visiting med students.

Sisters Genevieve and Gianna Herrera, who are both Arkansas City High School students, say attending Doc for a Day at KU School of Medicine-Wichita helped them think about their future career paths, with Gianna confidently saying, “I can see my future as a physician.”

This is music to the ears of all the medical students and faculty members at KU Wichita who organize the Doc for a Day event each year. Through activities ranging from checking vital signs to CPR training, suturing and even delivering a baby from a high-tech manikin in the Simulation Center, the annual event aims to inspire high school students to pursue a career in medicine.

KU School of Medicine-Wichita students, faculty and staff recently participated in the A. Price Woodard Neighborhood Cleanup to be of service to our neighbors. The cleanup provides an important opportunity for residents with less mobility or less access to resources to create healthier living environments in their homes through the elimination of surplus items.

The 4-Wichita Board at KU School of Medicine-Wichita had their fall meeting this month at the Wichita Foundation, where a photo of the medical school was presented to Noreen Carrocci, Ph.D., for her service as chair from 2022-24. The photo was presented on behalf of KU Endowment by Dan Martin, president, and Ryan Butts (pictured), assistant vice president-medical development.

The engraved plaque on the frame reads: “Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work.” - St. John Henry Newman   

With most of the medical students at KU School of Medicine-Wichita facing testing on Nov. 15, a visit that week from dogs with Hapi Hands and Paws Inc. was a welcome break.

The activity was part of the Wellness Program coordinated by our Department of Academic & Student Affairs. The program promotes cultural, intellectual, spiritual, social, physical and emotional well-being among our students.

Our offices will be closed Nov. 28 and 29. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

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