By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Accolades keep coming for Dr. James L. Wierman, D.O.
The 16,000-member Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) selected him as one of 11 outstanding Michigan physicians to receive community service awards in conjunction with National Doctors' Day March 30.
In June 2006, Dr. Wierman became the second non-Rotarian named a Paul Harris Fellow by Dowagiac Rotary Club.
Elks Lodge 889 honored him as Dowagiac Citizen of the Year for 2003-04.
MSMS Public Relations Director David K. Fox said Wednesday an officer will be coming to a meeting of the Cass County Medical Society in the next few months to personally present the award to the internist, who has lived in Dowagiac since 1978.
He received the MSMS Community Service Award for decades of missionary medicine dating back to the 1970s.
Categories for nomination by their peers at the county level include volunteer medical service, overseas missionary work and volunteer health education.
Dr. Wierman began his work with extended service in Haiti and Rwanda and now leads an annual volunteer mission to rural Haiti sponsored by St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where he is a member and served on the vestry.
He also received the Barnabas Award from the Cass County Ministerial Association.
Dr. Wierman and his wife Denise – they went to Haiti on their honeymoon in 1969 – on May 7, 2003, opened the Cass County Free Health Clinic at Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital to help the estimated 6,000 county residents who lack health care.
Born in Saginaw, Dr. Wierman graduated from Asbury College in 1963 and earned his medical degree from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1968.
He completed his residency at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
He served at Berrien General Hospital from 1973-78.
He has been chief of staff three times at Borgess-Lee Memorial.
The Wiermans have two daughters.
Nicole has master's degrees in public health and social work.
Meredith is a doctor specializing in internal medicine.
"MSMS is honored to recognize our physician members for their compassion," said President Paul O. Farr, M.D., a Grand Rapids gastroenterologist. "There are thousands of physicians in Michigan who are not only providing quality care to their patients, but also charitable work to others around the state, the country and the world. We wish that we could find a way to recognize each and every one of them individually for their efforts."
Awardees also include: Mary Ellen Benzik, M.D., a Calhoun County family physician; Abdelmajid I. Jondy, M.D., a Genesee County general surgeon; Brian R. McCardel, M.D., an Ingham County orthopedic surgeon; Brian A. Adamczyk, M.D., a Jackson County family physician; James B. Kilway, M.D., a Kalamazoo County general surgeon; Vijay K. Dixit, M.D., a Macomb County plastic surgeon; Marjorie Mooney, M.D., a Muskegon County internist; Robert L. Vitu, M.D., a Saginaw County family physician; Terence A. Joiner, M.D., a Washtenaw County pediatrician; and Edmund T. Bott, M.D., a Wayne County general practice physician.
Two MSMS Alliance members also received community service awards, Carol Horowitz of Ingham County and Jeannette Rivera of Genesee County.
Nearly two-thirds of MSMS members provide charity care for an average of 3.7 hours each week, according to the most recent MSMS Physician Data Survey on Practice Characteristics.
Additionally, MSMS physicians provide an average of 5.6 hours of medical volunteer service and 6.2 hours of non-medical volunteer service each month.
"Doctors' Day is a wonderful way to thank those physicians who take care of us 365 days a year," said Dee Loge-Wacker of Laingsburg, president of the MSMS Alliance, an organization of physician spouses. "Doctors endure decades of education, of training, incredibly long work hours and overwhelming administrative and regulatory burdens, just for the privilege of taking care of others. Often without recognition."
Doctors' Day has been held annually since 1933 to honor physicians who dedicate their careers to the care of their patient and to advancing medical knowledge.
The first Doctors' Day honored Crawford W. Long, M.D., of Georgia, who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic in surgery. Previously, surgery was done without painkillers.
Many people do not know that the title "doctor" before a name does not necessarily mean that the person is a physician.
Physicians are individuals who have earned a degree and fulfilled other requirements to practice medicine as an allopathic physician (M.D.) or an osteopathic physician (D.O.).
Because there are so many types of care currently offered by people who have had training that permits them to be called "doctor," the MSMS says it is important for patients to understand the qualifications of physicians – that is, M.D.s and D.O.s.
Becoming a physician takes at least 11 years of schooling and sometimes 13 years or more.
To be a licensed M.D. or D.O., one must first graduate with a bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college, then graduate from an accredited medical school, generally a four-year program.
Then the physician-in-training serves one to four years as a "resident physician" on a hospital staff where medical teaching programs are offered. At this point, the young physician studies one of many medical specialties, from family practice to brain surgery.
A physician must also successfully complete a comprehensive examination for licensure by the state Board of Medical Examiners.
Maintaining ethical standards of the profession and continuing medical education throughout his or her career also are required.