Meritus Scholar-Con highlights research, scholarly activity

The inaugural event displays academics of Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine faculty and staff, and the greater Meritus Health community

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — The Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine recently held its inaugural research and scholarly activity conference — known as Meritus Scholar-Con.

Organized by the school’s Office of Research, 43 abstracts were submitted for the March 13 event in the school’s newly constructed D.M. Bowman Academic Hall. Of those abstracts, 37 were poster presentations and six were picked for podium presentations.

The posters and talks focused on the following areas:

•    Clinical research, quality improvement or health systems science
•    Clinical case studies
•    Biomedical and translational science
•    Population, community health and health equity research
•    Outreach and community-engaged research
•    Medical education research

“This inaugural event highlights the research and scholarly activity of our Meritus Community, including our MSOM faculty and Meritus Health providers and staff, in addition to the larger Meritus community of residents and rotating clinical students,” said Murray Berkowitz, D.O., interim dean.

One poster on display by Heather P.M. Theibert, D.O., Evan Curry, M.S., and Ajay Bhandari, M.D., focuses on drug use in regions similar to Hagerstown and Washington County, Md.

“Perceptions of Opioid Use and Treatment in Rural Appalachia: A Quantitative Review of the Literature” examines published surveys and interview-based research “to identify trends in perception of opioid use, harm reduction initiatives and barriers.”

“This information can help advocate for people who use opioids by identifying ways and populations to educate about opioid use,” the trio wrote in their abstract on the poster.

One of the podium talks — “Go for Bold: Improving Health Outcomes One Pound at a Time” — was presented by Allen Twigg, L.C.P.C., chief operating officer of Meritus Health affiliate Brook Lane Health Services, and Remi Patel, M.H.A., Meritus administrative fellow.

The talk looked at Meritus Health’s bold goal of getting the community to collectively lose a million pounds by 2030. The goal comes from obesity being a significant population health challenge in Washington County, Md. Twigg and Patel highlighted the successes and challenges of the program, which has more than 7,700 participants who have logged more than 167,000 pounds lost.

“We were blown away by the range and depth of the abstracts submitted for our first Scholar-Con,” said Audrey Vasauskas, Ph.D., associate dean of research at MSOM. “This demonstration of academic prowess by our faculty, staff and health system community shows the kind of learning environment our students can expect when our first class starts in July.”

More information on the presentations, including full abstracts on each poster and podium talk, is available at msom.org/academics/scholar-con-2025.

The Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine is to welcome its first class of more than 90 students this summer on the Meritus Health campus near Hagerstown, Md. The medical school, the first to open in Maryland in more than 100 years, was created to reduce the shortage of doctors in the region and the nation. Learn more at msom.org.

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Meritus Health, Western Maryland’s largest health care provider, is located at the crossroads of Western Maryland, Southern Pennsylvania and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The mission of Meritus Health is to improve the health of the region by providing the best healthcare, health services and medical education. As an anchor organization for the community, Meritus has 4,000 employees and serves more than 200,000 residents of the tristate region through Meritus Medical Center, Brook Lane Health Services, Meritus Medical Group, Meritus Home Health, Meritus Equipped for Life, and the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine. More information can be found at www.MeritusHealth.com or visit our Facebook page or LinkedIn page.