EAST LANSING, Mich. — MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine has awarded four outstanding individuals with the college's highest honor: the Walter F. Patenge Medal of Public Service.
The award, named for the first president of the Michigan Osteopathic Medicine Advisory Board, is given each year for excellence in medicine, government and public service. On May 26, the college honored longtime assistant professor and educator William Joseph Pintal, Michigan's first surgeon general Kimberlydawn Wisdom, former college Dean Douglas L. Wood and Patrick E. Lamberti, president and chief executive officer of POH Regional Medical Center in Pontiac.
- Pintal, an educator his entire adult life, has worked with students at the elementary, secondary, community college, university, osteopathic medical school, residency and continuing medical education levels. A Korean War veteran, Pintal graduated from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1975 and then joined the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine as adjunct professor, becoming an assistant professor in 1983, focusing on biomechanics and then family medicine. Though he retired in 2003, Pintal continues to serve as a small-group osteopathic manipulative medicine instructor, an instructor in "Spirituality and Medicine" and a volunteer at local free clinics.
- Wisdom, appointed the nation's first state-level surgeon general in 2003, was charged with addressing Michigan's declining health status. Also named the vice president of community health education and wellness at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit in 2007, she leads quality initiatives to address health care equity, provides clinical leadership and directs a $5 million project to enhance health in children, called "Generation with Promise." An emergency medicine physician, Wisdom practiced for 20 years at Henry Ford, where she founded the Institute of Multicultural Health and a community-based health screening for black men.
- Wood served as the College of Osteopathic Medicine dean from 1991 to 1995 and associate dean from 1987 to 1991. Currently the senior vice president for academic affairs for the A.T. Still University of Health Sciences, Wood was the inaugural dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona from 2005-2010. From 1995-2005, he was president of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees and the Phillips Medal for Public Service, he has been honored by the Michigan Kidney Foundation and the Michigan Senate for his work with kidney disease.
- Lamberti is the president and chief executive officer of POH Regional Medical Center in Pontiac. He has served as chairman and board member of several organizations, including the national College of Osteopathic Healthcare Executives, the Bureau of Hospitals of the American Osteopathic Association and the Michigan Osteopathic Hospital Association. Lamberti also is a positive force in his community, serving as an advisory board member of the Oakland University Department of Health and Sciences and Department of Business. He also has worked with the Greater Area Pontiac Consortium, United Way of Oakland and the Boy Scouts of America Oakland.
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