Visit the SOMA Foundation Scholarship Page for scholarship requirements, application, and past scholarship winners.

Honoring Osteopathic students that embrace Compassion... Remembering those lost on Flight #5966

The Osteopathic medical student that receives the Humanism in Medicine Scholarship should reflect the benevolent character exemplified by those members of our osteopathic family who perished on October 19, 2004. The eight members were flying to Kirksville, Missouri to explore ways of improving and developing a "Compassionate Campus" at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. The applicants will be judged on how well they demonstrate in their character the philosophy of Osteopathic medicine, unconditional love for their community and peers, leadership and dedication, compassion and empathy, spirit and enthusiasm. One OMS-III or OMS-IV SOMA member will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship.

Andrew Taylor Still, the Founder of Osteopathic Medicine, recognized the importance of compassion and empathy in treating patients, and incorporated these attributes into the Osteopathic philosophy that is practiced today. Osteopathic teaching emphasizes the importance of establishing a solid patient-physician relationship with each encounter to regain health and equilibrium. A. T. Still developed a system with two central emphases. The first highlights the treatment of disease while stressing the relationship between body structures and function. The second recognizes the importance of health in a broader sense by including mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing into daily practice, while also recognizing cultural and ethnic differences that influence health and illness around the world. Through the integration of the above concepts, a revolutionary form of medicine was born that provides comprehensive and individualized care with the patient at the heart of daily medical practice.

Some members of the osteopathic community have gone above and beyond the realms of this philosophy to provide superior care to patients and serve as inspiration to all osteopathic physicians and medical students. These members of the osteopathic family embrace and define the very essence of humanism. Tragically on October 19, 2004 in Kirksville, Missouri, several members of the osteopathic community who embraced humanism perished in the airplane crash of Flight 5966. This scholarship was established to honor the lost members of the osteopathic family and recognize osteopathic medical students who uphold the tradition of humanism in medicine and exemplify compassionate healthcare providers. The scholarship will be awarded annually at the fall SOMA convention.