Friday, June 22, 2007

A St. Pauls doctor uses his art to tell medical stories

By Tina Ray

The Sandspur

http://sandspuronline.com/article?id=265414

http://www.markacadeey.com/

Sandspur photo by Andrew Craft

Dr. Mohamed Osman stands in front of

two of his paintings, ‘Serenity,’ left, and

‘Hope,’ in the waiting room of Primary

Care of St. Pauls.

ST. PAULS -- Dr. Mohamed Osman of St. Pauls meshes art with medicine. A native of Merka, Somalia, he came to America in 1992 to practice medicine and to distribute his artwork.

He spent his last two years abroad as a physician with the United Nations in Somalia and began to practice family medicine in Ohio in 1995.

Osman worked for practices in Wade and Fayetteville before opening his own office, Primary Care of St. Pauls, in March 2005. The office is located at 125 Broad St.

He said that art is linked to medicine and he is not the first doctor to paint about medical issues.

Rembrandt painted about anatomical human dissection, Osman said. One of Rembrandt's most famous works was done in 1632. It was called "Doctor Tulp's Lesson in Anatomy."

Osman said he believes that art can illustrate medicine. Images tell the story that people cannot arti culate.

He has worked to "create as many images as possible in health issues."

In one of his images, called "Bipolar Disorder," a person's head is divided vertically in half. In the corner of the left and right side of the brain are images depicting fire and ice.

In another called "Breast Cancer," the symmetry of a woman's chest is distorted. Her hair has nearly disappeared from her scalp due to stress and treatment.

In a painting called "Infertility," a condition that he said is often disdained in his native African culture, a woman is constantly overwhelmed by the number of pregnant bellies in her midst.

Osman has painted about 70 topics related to medicine, and his work has been well received. His paintings have appeared on the cover of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Journal and "The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa."

In 2005, he was a featured artist of the Arts Council of Fayettevi lle/Cum berla nd County, where his color, acrylic paintings brought to life the agony of young AIDS victims.

Notwithstanding Osman's artistic pursuits, it was the love of patients that brought him to St. Pauls.

"I go to work every morning at 6 a.m. and read two hours a day to be able to provide best care for this community," he said.

It is a community he has found to be plagued with diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

When Osman reads the numbers given out by the spirometer, a device that measures a person's breath, some patients struggle with the machines results. They struggle with being newly diagnosed with lung disorders such as emphysema or asthma.

Yet, Osman tells them, "It's not me telling you. It's the machine. We teach. We explain."

But, when a patient is a borderline diabetic or a high blood pressure candidate or stricken with any chronic disease, Osman offers them counseling.

For instance, he warns that recurring circulation problems may lead to limb amputation. It is one of the downfalls of having untreated or unmanaged diabetes.

“We made a difference in their lives. They were not getting a lot of good care,” he said of residents in St. Pauls prior to his arrival.

Osman said that he was instrumental in bringing a dialysis treatment center to St. Pauls.

A typical day in his office may be filled with checkups for some patients. On this day, a male patient was in for follow-up lab work that included blood sugar testing and a circulation check to determine blood flow in his legs.

Another was in for a hypertension test.

Osman also provides adult, child and DOT health physicals, child immunizations and contraception management. He has an on-site laboratory to be able to quickly give out patients’ results.

He has five people on staff, including his wife, Natalie. He met her when they were both medical students in Tver, Russia.

Osman is fluent in five other languages besides English, including his native Somalian, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Arabic. He said it helps him communicate with patients.

As a 9-year-old boy growing up in Somalia, Osman watched his mother die of an illness that was never diagnosed because the family could not find a practicing physician.

He remembers her wearing long sleeves in the summer and shivering, so he believes it was a fever-related illness.

He went into medicine, he said, so no family would have to search for a doctor and to save others because he was not able to save his mother.

“I came here to help, and that was my intentions,” he said.

For more information on Osman’s practice and paintings, visit his Web site at www.primarycareofstpauls.com.

Staff writer Tina Ray can be reached at rayt@sandspuronline.com or 426-7787.

posted by Nuredin Hagi Scikei | 11:02 AM