Alumni Spotlight - Turning a Passion into a Career

Although one Penn State Science alumni knew he wanted to be a physician since he was a child, it wasn’t until he was much older that he realized osteopathic medicine is exactly what he wanted to pursue not only as a lifelong career, but also as his passion. Philip Miller, a 2000 graduate of life sciences, is currently completing his fellowship in neuromuscular medicine and osteopathic manipulation.

While at Penn State, he was very involved in activities including the Kappa Theta Epsilon co-op honor society, American Red Cross, and THON. During his undergraduate years, he had two co-ops in the areas of hematology and drug metabolism research. “The co-op program opened up a lot of doors and I think it really put my career forward, much faster than it would have been without the program,” Phil said.

After graduation, Phil was accepted to the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, although he wasn’t too interested in osteopathic medicine at first. He soon learned about the ideals of osteopathic medicine and realized it was more align with his goals of helping others than a medical doctor’s practice is. “What’s not to like about it? The body has an inherent capabilities to heal and repair itself,” Phil said, “It’s up to the osteopathic physician to help the body restore itself to health.”

Phil said osteopathic physicians take a different approach to healing patients than medical doctors. “We see the body as whole instead of one part,” he said, “The human heart has connections with rest of body, like the brain, tissues and everything around it. It is not a separate entity.”

Once Phil learned about osteopathic medicine, he said he became really involved with learning the science and philosophy behind it. He said there are so many things in the human body that can be affected by osteopathic physician in so many ways. Osteopathic medicine takes a preventative measures to help the body heal and regenerate instead of an after-the-fact approach to healing.

During Phil’s time at LECOM, he had to do many rotations. He even got to travel to Romania to do some rotations. “That opportunity opened up, so I jumped on it,” Phil said, “I went back several times to teach osteopathic students at a university based hospital.”

While Phil was in Romania, he worked with translators in the hospitals to correspond with students and patients. “There was one translator who I hit it off very well with. She is now Mrs. Carmen Miller!” Phil said.

After his time in Romania, Phil and Carmen traveled back to the United States. Phil finished medical school and began his residency in family practices at the Saint Joseph Medical Center in Reading. However, at that point, he really wanted to focus on osteopathic treatment. Today, he is currently finishing up his neuromuscular manipulation and osteopathic medicine fellowship. He was also offered the assistant director position for the LECOM osteopathic department, where he will continue to teach at LECOM giving lectures and labs, and working with patients.

Even though Phil has experience being both a medical doctor and osteopathic physician and is still working in family practice, he sees osteopathic medicine as his true passion for the future. “I think osteopathic physicians get the full picture,” he said, “Once physical, mental, and spiritual aspects are all in perfect alignment, it leads to good health.”