UNE's Thomas Wickham first D.O. student elected to National Resident Matching Program Board of Directors

Thomas Wickham  (COM, ’20) has become the first osteopathic medical student to be elected to the board of directors for the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Wickham was one of two students chosen at the board’s May 2018 meeting. He was elected along with Eriny Hanna, a second-year student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. Their service begins July 1.

The election of an osteopathic medical student to the board is a symbolic step, as D.O. and M.D. programs move toward a single accreditation system for graduate medical education. D.O.s currently have a choice between multiple systems for post-graduate education. The American Osteopathic Organization (AOA), American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are in the third year of a five-year transition to a single accreditation system through the NRMP. Once that transition is complete, participants will have the opportunity to choose residency programs that received "osteopathic recognition."

Wickham earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health Science and a Masters of Public Health Degree in Urban Health from Northeastern University Bouve College of Health Sciences in Boston. He is President of the Student Government Association at UNE and served as vice president of the university's chapter of the American Medical Student Association. Wickham is also a member of the Maine Osteopathic Association Board of Directors and has served in laboratories at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He has presented at the American Federation of Medical Research and has been published in Stroke and the Journal of Investigative Medicine.

"Student directors are essential members of our Board," NRMP Board Chair Susan Guralnick, M.D. said in a statement. "Ms. Hanna and Mr. Wickham were selected from a large group of qualified and accomplished nominees, and we look forward to their contributions to the Board. We are especially delighted that our partnership with the osteopathic community continues to grow with election of Mr. Wickham as the first osteopathic student to hold a director position."

To learn more about the University of New England’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, visit www.une.edu/com

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions