This summer PCOM South Georgia medical student Michael Abaskaron (DO '27) was one of 20 medical school students selected to participate in the Summer Research Externship Program at Ohio Health in Columbus. He focused on orthopedics.

“This program provides medical students with exposure to a field they might be interested in,” he said. “Basically, I was working with orthopedic surgery residents, orthopedic trauma surgery attendings and fellows helping them with their research projects.”

The eight-week program included research didactics for the first week. The rest of the time participants shadowed their mentors or assisted them.

“I have been interested in orthopedic surgery for a while, so seeing that firsthand, and shadowing physicians scrubbing into the operating room and seeing procedures was really cool,” Abaskaron said. “This experience reaffirmed my passion for this field.”

In addition to watching surgical procedures, Abaskaron's research also included retrospective patient chart reviews to gather data for research projects as well as specific case reports. At the end of the summer program, he made an oral presentation on one of the projects, which investigated demographic correlations in pelvic dysmorphism.

“Something I really took away this summer was how big of a part research plays in just any field, especially surgery, because there are always new techniques and new ways of doing things, better ways of doing things,” he said. “In any of the didactic sessions that I attended where the residents and the attendings would meet and talk about different surgeries, they also always brought up different research studies that were new and showed better approaches. Looking into that, I really think research is a huge part of any field.”

A first-generation American, Abaskaron was born in New Jersey. He and his family moved to the Cincinnati, Ohio, area when he was seven. For him, that's home.

He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the Ohio State University in Columbus and master's degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa. After working in cancer research for a couple of years, he began medical school at PCOM South Georgia.

Abaskaron said he chose PCOM South Georgia because of its small class size and facilities.

“When I was looking for medical schools, I wanted something a little bit more personable, and that's why PCOM South Georgia kind of stuck out to me,” he said. “Having the class size of around 60, and hearing from other classes that they're very close with their professors. They even play pickleball with them. I love that! Plus, it's really a state-of-the-art facility with a lot of new features.”

While Abaskaron is still working on a couple of projects with residents at Ohio Health, he now has ideas for other projects related to orthopedic patients in rural areas like South Georgia.

“There's a lot of data that really hasn't been tapped yet, so I would love to investigate that maybe with local doctors who are interested,” he said.