Lasting Impressions | Summer 2017

COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE © 45 Dmitriy Kravchenko, left, and Ryan Semensohn, right (in both photos), will walk in two commencement ceremonies to receive their D.M.D. and their D.O. degrees. “It’s not a program for everyone,” said Abby J. Brodie, D.M.D., M.S., associate dean for academic affairs in the CDM. The year-round, continuous program is demanding, with a heavy course load. The D.O./D.M.D. program launched in the fall of 2007 after 18 months of planning, Brodie recalled, adding that “the curriculum was the most challenging aspect.” The over- arching view was for the program to “create a role for those who want to go into interprofessional practice,” she said. The new physician-dentists might practice in under- served communities or take faculty positions that would “integrate dentistry into the primary core,” Brodie added. The thinking also was that they might train new academic leaders and create leadership opportunities for the next generation, she said. “We felt the world was their oyster. It’s kind of ‘wherever the student wants to take it.’ ” Delia Harper-Celestine, Ed.D., M.P.H., CHES, assistant dean of student and alumni affairs and assistant professor of public health in NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM), said the dual-degree program is rigorous. “It’s a select student who gains admission,” she said. Semensohn and Kravchenko are “high achievers” and disciplined, hard workers, Harper-Celestine added. “They are leaders,” she said. “They have mentored students behind them.” Hilda De Gaetano, D.O., assistant dean and professor at the COM, said, “They have a lot of knowledge they can apply to provide the full spectrum of patient care.” Before a student is accepted into the dual-degree program, he or she must matriculate in the College of Osteopathic Medicine or the College of Dental Medicine. Semensohn and Kravchenko entered the program as dental students. Semensohn grew up in Coral Springs, Florida, and received a bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton before earning an M.B.A. from NSU. Semensohn was advised to pursue dentistry because dentists “can use their hands.” He said he has long had an interest in being a physician and surgeon and wants to practice oral maxillofacial surgery. Kravchenko emigrated from Russia to the United States with his family when he was five years old. The family settled in Los Angeles, California. Kravchenko received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Southern California. Enrolling in the D.O./D.M.D. program may be “an unorthodox route to dental surgery,” Kravchenko said. But he wanted to “separate myself from the herd.” NSU, he added, has “the only combined program.” Among the 33 accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States, only NSU-COM offers a D.O./D.M.D. program, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The dual-degree program at NSU does not favor one field of dentistry or medicine, Brodie said. “There’s a tremendous interconnection between oral health and systemic health, and it goes in both directions,” she added. “Osteopathic medicine is about treating the entire person,” and oral health affects overall health, Harper-Celestine said. Continued on next page