Osler Medical Symposium Kicks Off Lineup with Public Health Panel (Johns Hopkins News-Letter)

Thursday Mar 8th, 2018

The Osler Medical Symposium (OMS) kicked off its first event, “Baltimore in the 21st Century: A Commissioner’s Perspective,” on Friday, March 2 in Gilman Hall. OMS is a new student-run speaker series that aims to bring high-profile guests in the field of medicine to Hopkins. The series is named after William Osler, one of the four founding physicians of the Hopkins Hospital. 

The panel featured Dr. Peter Beilenson and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, both of whom served as former Baltimore health commissioners, as well as Dr. Michelle Gourdine, the former deputy secretary for public health in Maryland. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Leana Wen, the current health commissioner for Baltimore.

Wen explained that health is influenced by many factors, including housing, poverty and unemployment. “So often, we understand health to be what happens when you are in a hospital. But actually, that’s not what determines how long someone lives or how well someone lives,” she said. 

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