Dr. Laura Rosch: Pursuing Osteopathic Internal Medicine as a Pathway to Lead, Transform, and Heal Patients

Laura Rosch, DO, CS, MS, FACOI, entered osteopathic internal medicine to help save the lives of people like her grandfather, who died of heart disease when she was 14.  

“What drew me into medicine is that I loved science,” Dr. Rosch said. “I love studying the body. I love understanding physiology. Like a lot of things, you might have health problems of your own [or] you want to figure out a solution for someone in your family who has heart disease, which was the case for me." You want to be able to solve it “but more importantly, prevent it.”  

Dr. Rosch was inaugurated as the President of the Illinois Osteopathic Medical Society in 2014. Pictured with Isaac Kirstein, DO, FACOI.

Her belief in whole-person care is what led her to pursue osteopathic medicine as an internist. Dr. Rosch sees the DO approach and internal medicine as distinct disciplines but interconnected ones that work together in complementary ways to improve the health of patients and advance quality care.  

“Just like anything in life, we are always stronger together. Individually we can go very fast but together we can go very far. And I think it’s true with the management of medical issues, taking care of patients, and working together in teams, in systems, and in communities. It works better.”

Dr. Rosch first witnessed the power of internists to transform situations from chaotic to calm in the earliest days of attending Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (CCOM), where she graduated in 1990. She recalled watching internists serve patients by addressing their needs at every stage of the life cycle in a continuum of whole-person, osteopathic, evidence-based care.  

“As a student, not having been exposed to that before, you just see the chaos gelled together by the wisdom and the leadership of the internist, who’s managing the situation and saving the person’s life” by coordinating care, often in volatile, complicated circumstances.

 

Dr. Rosch with Gary L. Slick, DO, MACOI, who encouraged her to join ACOI as a resident. She received an Internal Medicine department award at graduation. 

After serving in the field for over 30 years, Dr. Rosch sees how osteopathic internal medicine gives physicians unique interpersonal skills to get to know their patients as whole persons to optimize health outcomes.  

“You realize, after you’ve been out for a long time, [that serving patients] isn’t just all [about] the medicine, and it isn’t just all about the tests that you run and following the checklist. It’s about addressing that person as a whole individual… What do they do when they get up in the morning? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? How do they feel about managing their issues? Would they be interested in working together as a team to be able to solve this? That’s so osteopathic and that’s so internal medicine… Internists are like the detectives.”

When patients know their physicians care about them, Dr. Rosch underscores, it is much easier to get them to communicate transparently and listen, because a mutual foundation of openness and trust has been established.

“People need to know how much you care about them. They need to know how much you care about their health, you care about their choices, you care about them taking care of themselves. As a physician and as an educator, that relationship is paramount, and the trust that develops as a result of that relationship” can make all the difference.  

Dr. Rosch with Ken Heiles, DO, Past President of the American College of Osteopathic Family Medicine at the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians Annual Conference in 2020.

A passion to share the insights and expertise gained from her years of service to patients is what drove Dr. Rosch to help educate and train aspiring physicians as the new Campus Dean of Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine (RVUCOM) in Utah.

“I got into medical education because I realized that it’s important that we turn around and put our hand back and extend it to the next generation and say, ‘You got this, I’m here for you,’” in the same way others have done for her as she progressed on the DO path.  

“Medical school is hard,” she said. “I’d like to encourage students, first, to believe in themselves. That’s what I look forward to is helping students get from [the beginning of their medical school journey] to the end, be successful in their residency,” and as doctors.

Dr. Rosch is excited to embrace this leadership position as an opportunity to model traits she learned from her own mentors that are critical for physicians to embody, including kindness, listening, patience, hard work, the ability to navigate complex situations, and more.  

It is these characteristics that will help RVUCOM students, most of whom are pursuing primary care medicine, fill an essential role in healthcare.

“We really need good primary care doctors,” she emphasized. “They are your first step in prevention. We know that in communities where there is a higher percentage of primary care doctors that disease prevalence is lower, and they have more access to preventive services.”

With Darrin C. D'Agostino, DO, MACOI, MBA, MPH, and G. Michael Johnston, DO, MACOI.

Dr. Rosch also encourages residents and students to continue integrating self-care practices into their academic and professional lives, a trend she believes will help strengthen the physician workforce.

“It’s so cool to see the vicissitude they survive. They are so smart. They work so hard. And now students realizing boundaries around their own mental health and their safety [will] help with burnout and increased job satisfaction. If you want your patients to get the best care, the smartest way to do that is to give yourself the best care so you can bring it to them.”

Dr. Rosch looks forward to joining residents and students, and the entire osteopathic internal medicine community at ACOI 2024, October 30-November 2, in Scottsdale, AZ. “The Annual Convention creates connections and builds relationships that help us sustain and manage our practices. Connect with old friends and create new ones!” 

Dr. Rosch with fellow ACOI Board member, Charlene LePane, DO, FACOI.