Q: What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned so far in your life?
BL: Live as much as possible by the Golden Rule! Life is on this Earth, indeed, short. You might as well treat others kindly and with compassion and dignity rather than any other way. It’s very good for the soul!
Q: How long have you been involved with RISOPS?
BL: I joined RISOPS right after I established my practice in 1989. As a non-Rhode Islander, I was in awe as to how together the osteopathic medical community was back then. We still had battles against discrimination to fight and the group was cohesive. I wanted to be a part of RISOPS and was brought onto the Board very early in my career.
Q: Who are your biggest heroes? Pick three.
BL: Dr. Larry Bouchard was a major mentor of mine who happened also to live in Narragansett, had been very involved with UNECOM, and who was an amazing DO who treated his patients and colleagues with great respect, care, and humor. Ans as a small-town GP, he rose to become President of the AOA! I miss him very much!
Q: Why is it important to you to be part of your state osteopathic medical association?
BL: What I have observed in my long career in osteopathic medicine is that, early on, when we had discrimination battles to fight, all the DOs banded together and worked together to fight the fight. Dr. Laurence Bouchard was the very first Rhode Island DO to be accepted in an allopathic hospital (which instantly became a mixed staff hospital with his staff appointment!). This opened the door for other DOs to be accepted there (South County Hospital) and then to many, but not to all, of the others. That’s right, some hospitals continued to exclude DOs from their staffs for years. To this day, there are similar restrictions still being upheld in some institutions! For the most part, DO’s today do not have to think twice about these restrictions. What bothers me terribly is that contemporary DOs, who did not have to fight and win the multifaceted DO- discrimination battles that had been to make the way clear to freely practice osteopathic medicine, care very much at all to support their local state osteopathic medical societies. The same is true for most DO’s who do not support their medical school alma maters. I have always stressed to my mentees and colleagues, that without OUR osteopathic medical institutions, we would not have our medical degrees, our careers, and our livelihoods and lifestyles. I strongly believe that we must pass it forward to those who helped us.
Q: What’s your go-to karaoke song?
BL: My Way by Frank Sinatra!