Endorsements

The best way to learn more about In His Image Family Medicine Residency is from those who have witnessed and experienced the program first hand. Since our program began over 15 years ago, we've made numerous friends around the world who believe in our efforts to restore medicine's missing factor - the healing power of Jesus Christ. Here's what a few of them have to say...

"It is my privilege to commend and recommend the In His Image Family Medicine Residency Program. This fine program is co-committed to excellence medically as well as spiritually. It's faculty and residents are among the finest available. Their ethics and practices are stellar. Their medical and community services are known in this and the many other countries in which they serve."

-- Walter L. Larimore, MD
Medical Journalist and Family Physician Educator
Co-author of the Saline Solution Series and numerous books 
 

"It is my pleasure to give my whole-hearted endorsement to the In His Image Family Medicine Residency. I have been acquainted with this program for over eight years and have recommended many medical students to join this residency program because of the superb training it provides.

Its integration of faith and health, vision of overseas service and the high quality of medical care they teach is being emulated by many programs across the country. In His Image sets the standard that others shoot for.

I have spent time speaking to the In His Image residents and have been very impressed with their compassion, comprehensive knowledge and desire to serve the less fortunate. In His Image creates the kind of physicians that all of us want for our doctors."

-- David L. Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)
Executive Director
Christian Medical and Dental Associations

"Whether you want to prepare for a lifestyle witness as a Christian family physician in the USA, or in home-based or cross-cultural missions, In His Image (IHI) Family Medicine Residency will give you an excellent opportunity to do that.

We have known Dr. John Crouch, IHI Executive Director, for 15 years. His love for Jesus, his commitment to excellence in medical practice, his compassion for the sick and hurting in body and spirit and his vision for medical missions is contagious and will inspire you to go and do likewise.

We have participated in several seminars and also a full weekend retreat for IHI residents, and have been impressed with the quality of all of the IHI staff as well as of their resident physicians. We highly commend this residency program to anyone seeking an academic and spiritual environment designed to foster growth, commitment to excellence and devotion to Jesus Christ."

-- Thomas Hale, Jr., MD, FACS
author, On Being A Missionary
co-author, The Adventure and Challenge of Medical Missions
InterServe Missionary Partner
-- Cynthia B. Hale, MD, MPH, FAAP
co-author, The Adventure and Challenge of Medical Missions
InterServe Missionary Partner

Article edited from CMDA Today's Christian Doctor

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of Family Practice Educators are teaching Residents how to be Soul Doctors.

"Ask many doctors for a one-word description of their residency years, and you hear: exhaustion, depersonalization, cynicism, humiliation, frustration, or something similar. But the single word that describes the In His Image Family Medicine Residency Program in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is integration. It's not just that the thirty residents represent nine nationalities, or that 20 percent are women, or that seven are osteopaths. It's not even that these doctors come from a variety of Christian denominations, although this last factor is a major contributor to the most important integration that takes place in the program--the integration of faith and medicine.

Without this central element, In His Image (International Medicine and Graduate Education) would not exist. In fact, In His Image almost didn't exist, at least in its present form - an accredited community-based Christian Family Practice program at Hillcrest Medical Center, a secular institution. How is this possible? "Simple," Dr. John Crouch, the program's executive director, will tell you. "But not easy."

In fact, finding the right formula took months. Crouch will never forget the day he got the lawyer's "final word." After months of negotiation, that word was, "It can't be done the way you want. But you can contract with the hospital to provide a typical program, and keep your religious activities on the side. Just don't let religion impact your recruitment." "Why can't we do it?" Crouch replied. "We did it at the City of Faith," referring to the program's origination in the Oral Roberts School of Medicine which had recently closed. "That was a religious institution," the lawyer said. "Then how do we become a religious institution?" Crouch asked, expressing his own conviction and that of his colleagues, Drs. Pat Bolding, Mitchell Duininck, and Ed Rylander, that anything less than an up-front, avowedly Christian program would not be acceptable. "I don't think you can," the lawyer replied.

Discouraged, Crouch sought a second opinion. "Lord," he prayed, "I don't know what to do. If you're going to save this program, I don't know how. It doesn't look possible." That's exactly what I wanted, God seemed to whisper. I wanted you to give it up. Now watch what I can do with this. Within days, the seemingly impossible became possible through the help of a California firm, whose expertise was medical education law. Their opinion was that the only way to do what this group intended was to establish the program as a religious organization and then contract with hospitals to provide services.

From the onset, In His Image has had three purposes: to establish and maintain a distinctively Christian family practice residency program; to support worldwide medical care; and to provide health care for the underserved. The first of these is maintained by adhering to these principles: Only Christian residents and faculty--there are now fifteen attending physicians, plus three behavioral medicine faculty involved--are recruited. All participants must maintain a strong personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Patient care and education are viewed as a ministry. This requires a commitment of excellence and compassionate care. Interpersonal relationships among participants reflect "brotherhood" in Christ. This prohibits selfish ambition, abuse of authority, one-upmanship and dumping of duties. By contrast, participants support each other's sense of calling to and involvement in international medicine through taking one another's call when necessary. Fellowship and unity are pursued through regular times of group worship, Bible study (weekly), and prayer (daily). Personal and family growth are pursued through periodic activities, including an annual retreat. Work commitments, including night and weekend call scheduling, reflect a commitment to the well being of the residents and faculty and their families.

The second purpose, supporting international medicine, has far exceeded Crouch's expectations. In the past three years, residents, faculty and alumni have made more than sixty trips to nearly thirty countries.

"When we first started," he said, "we thought people would do long-term overseas medical care in either in a hospital or clinic setting, or that our people would go on short-term trips. But we've discovered that there's a huge variety of opportunity for international medical work, including doing consultation with governments, and working with churches in foreign countries who want to set up continuing medical education for national physicians. In that setting, we combine medical education with spiritual skill courses and rural health training. One niche we've really enjoyed is providing medical clinics in support of evangelistic outreaches set up by different ministries."

A few years ago, Loretta Farrell, M.D., then a second year resident, traveled to Malaysia on just such a cooperative venture. Making the trip especially meaningful was that Farrell's husband, Tom, was also able to go, enabling them to work side by side.

"We conducted a ten-day course for professionals and lay people.," Dr. Farrell explained." The course included both biblically-based and medically-based information. One of my topics was community health. The idea is to teach people in rural areas good health practices involving water, sanitation and food preparation.

"I went on an international trip during medical school that was mostly clinic-oriented. Of course there's a place for that. But when we go abroad, we are respected as professionals, so people will listen to what we say. My husband and I came from New York to this program specifically because it was Christian-based, and we've not regretted it once. The opportunities here have just been excellent."

Opportunities for service also abound in the Tulsa area, where In His Image seeks to fulfill its third purpose. Residents rotate through the nearby Claremore Comprehensive Indian Health Facility, and develop skills in geriatric medicine through involvement with the University Village Retirement Center. Beyond this, the residents gain broad-based obstetrical exposure through the program's affiliation with a north-side clinic affiliated with the Tulsa City-County Health department, which services up to two hundred expectant mothers at a time.

This feature of the program is especially valuable to doctors planning to do obstetrics, Dr. Ed Rylander, Image's Maternal Health Program Coordinator explained. "This more that doubles the obstetrics experiences that a resident would have in a normal family practice setting," he said. "This is a very concentrated obstetrics experience with a high number of patients our residents can follow through their prenatal care, their delivery, their hospital stay and then their postpartum care, including care of the newborn. Not only that," he added, "the majority of the program participants are exposed to Christ through their interviews with the residents prior to their delivery. Then they're also exposed to the salvation message during their hospital stay. And usually after the baby is born, every mother welcomes prayer for her newborn. I'm describing a real continuity of care, which establishes the physician-patient relationship, and increases our ability to truly minister to these patients."

Lest anyone be misled, Rylander emphasized that this whole-person care is more, not less, demanding of doctors in training. "I would certainly not want someone to come to this program expecting it to be less time restrictive than a regular residency program" he said. "It's not. Nor is the program easier. It's actually more challenging because the same, if not better, academics are required, and in addition to that, spiritual development and integration of Christianity with medicine is insisted upon. "

A sense of calling is what drives Rylander. "I don't have a calling to be another family practice doctor in a city that's overrun with them. I do have a calling to take care of people who might not be taken care of if I didn't do it." He's looking for others who want to be able to say, with him, "Hey, I've done a good day's work. I've helped people that wouldn't have help without me. I've done something that I can be proud of. I enjoy relationships with people, with families, seeing their babies born, then watching them grow up and go to school, and then eventually doing their physicals for college. To me," Rylander said, "there's nothing more fulfilling than having that longitudinal relationship in a primary care setting where you can see people grow and develop."