Almost three years ago, when Santhosh Koshy, MD, MBA, arrived at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) as the new chair of the Department of Medicine, he knew he had big shoes to fill.
Even more evident, he said, was the incredible legacy his predecessor – Mark Loehrke, MD – had forged at the medical school during a 34-year career as a physician and educator in Kalamazoo.
“Dr. Loehrke has made an impact on a lot of people and mentored numerous residents and students, including many who are working right here in this community and across Southwest Michigan,” Dr. Koshy said. “That kind of impact is difficult to achieve unless you are dedicated to one single institution and you have the dedication to mentor and connect with people. That’s what he did and from day one I was impressed.”
Now, with the help of faculty and alumni from the Department of Medicine and the medical school’s Office of Development, Dr. Koshy is spearheading a fundraising campaign for what will become the Mark E. Loehrke, MD Endowed Lectureship.
MORE: Support the Mark E. Loehrke, MD Endowed Lectureship
Dr. Koshy said the launch of the new endowed lectureship, which he began pursuing shortly after coming to Kalamazoo in 2022, is the least he can do to honor Dr. Loehrke, a fellow physician who served as the inaugural chair of the Department of Medicine and impacted the lives of numerous learners and patients through his constant positivity and commitment to humanism in medicine.
“It is difficult to find a person like Mark,” Dr. Koshy said. “He is truly unique, and that legacy has to be remembered. His name must be remembered forever.”
The fund to support the endowed lectureship was unveiled in October at the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Physicians 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, which was held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel at Kalamazoo Center. Since then, Dr. Koshy said, almost $10,000 has been raised.
Dr. Loehrke’s career in Kalamazoo took root in 1981 when he was a resident in the Internal Medicine residency program at the Southwest Michigan Area Health Education Center (SMAHEC), a predecessor to WMed. His four years of training included a stint as chief resident before he moved on to Owatonna, Minnesota, where he spent two years as a primary care internist.
He would return to Michigan in 1987 and become a member of the faculty at SMAHEC. Five years later, he was named the interim program director for the Internal Medicine residency program and then associate program director in 1993 at what, by then, was called the Michigan State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies (MSU/KCMS). In 2000, he was named program director again and served in the role permanently for the next 17 years. He has also had the honor of serving as the medical school’s founding chair of the Department of Medicine beginning in 2013.
As a resident at SMAHEC, he was the recipient of four teaching awards and he was recognized with 17 teaching awards over the span of his career as a faculty member, including the Lifetime Faculty Excellence in Teaching in Medicine Award from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in 2012.
Like many faculty from MSU/KCMS, Dr. Loehrke was a part of the creation of the new medical school – WMed was founded in 2012 – and got the opportunity to work with and support first- and second-year students as they began their journeys into medicine. He saw firsthand the full spectrum of that journey as graduates from the medical school’s first two MD classes in 2018 and 2019 matched into the Internal Medicine residency program at WMed. The 2018 graduate, Dr. Eric Edewaard, became a member of the faculty in the Department of Medicine in 2021.
“I think when you first meet him the thing that really sticks out is how enthusiastic he is about life and medicine, and that he brings a lot of joy to that,” said Ross Driscoll, MD, a former Internal Medicine resident who is now an assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Humanities, and Law. “During my time in residency I really appreciated having a program director who brought enthusiasm to everyday life within the residency.”
For his part, Dr. Driscoll is helping Dr. Koshy and the Office of Development with the new endowed lectureship and the effort to raise the $50,000 that will allow the lectureship to operate in perpetuity after its launch.
“I wanted to be involved in this,” Dr. Driscoll said. “He has made such a huge impact, not only on my wife and myself, but also countless residents and students during his long career. I know that long after our learners graduate from residency and students move on to residency training, they reach out to him for career advice and personal advice because he is that well-respected and loved by the people he works with.”
When he learned of the work that’s underway to name an endowed lectureship in his honor, Dr. Loehrke said he was humbled and filled with joy. Although he retired in 2021, Dr. Loehrke’s presence is still very much felt in the Internal Medicine residency program and the Department of Medicine. He still gives the occasional lecture, pops in regularly for morning report and didactic sessions, and teaches residents during their assigned days in the Simulation Center.
“It’s obviously a huge honor,” Dr. Loehrke said. “I don’t know if you ever feel like you deserve something like this. I will say I was part of SMAHEC, KCMS, and WMed for 34 years and it was really important to me. My job meant a lot to me, and I poured everything I had into it so this is a really nice recognition.”
Susan Bannon, MD, who, like Dr. Driscoll, is an alumna of the Internal Medicine residency program, said Dr. Loehrke’s impact on the medical school and the Kalamazoo community can’t be understated.
“I think he really set the tone for medicine in Kalamazoo,” said Dr. Bannon, who serves as an associate professor in the Department of Medicine. “How we treat each other and how we approach patient care all stems from what he taught us and I think he made us help each other be better physicians and teachers.
“If you look around Kalamazoo, he’s touched so many of the doctors who are now practicing in town,” Dr. Bannon added.
As he tells it, Dr. Loehrke says that his success as a physician and teacher stemmed from his commitment to building relationships with learners and his fellow physicians that were rooted in trust and positivity, and the understanding that they were all part of a family within the department and residency.
Even more important, he said, was the emphasis he put on patient care, that the patient is always the most important person in the room and, ultimately, that’s the only thing that matters.
“Residency training almost by definition is incredibly rigorous and difficult and time-consuming with long hours, long nights and working weekends and holidays,” Dr. Loehrke said. “So, the flip side of that is you have to counter that with the building of trust and you have to make it as nurturing and as positive an experience as possible. If you’re asking residents to put in these long hours and deal with really difficult situations you have to support them in every way possible and one way to do that is to make clear that you love them and you would do anything to help them. You have to love them just like your patients.”
Dr. Koshy said as the work continues to raise money for the new endowed lectureship, he is hopeful the first speaker will be able to visit WMed in October of this year. Additionally, once the lectureship is fully funded, Dr. Koshy said he then plans to begin work on establishing a student scholarship fund in Dr. Loehrke’s honor.
“I really, really wanted this to happen,” Dr. Koshy said. “That legacy is very rare to have people like Mark who has committed the majority of his professional career to one institution and dedicated himself to mentoring people and making sure our learners are successful.”
As he looks ahead and considers the potential for the new annual lectureship, Dr. Loehrke said he hopes speakers who come to WMed in the future will be physicians and educators who can help faculty, residents, students, staff, and physicians from the community fully grasp and understand the joys of learning and providing care to patients. He said he is also hopeful that some future speakers invited to Kalamazoo will be alumni of the Internal Medicine residency program or students who completed their MD degree at WMed.
“If I stood for anything in my career, it was that teaching and patient care should be done with fun and joy and love,” Dr. Loehrke said. “So many people are trying to address burnout and moral fatigue in medicine and there’s no questions those things are legitimate concerns. I’ve always felt that the answer to those things isn’t free pizza and yoga sessions but focusing on the patient and if you can get back to focusing on the patient and focusing on patient care that’s where the joy comes from for all of us.”
If you would like to support the fund for the Mark E. Loehrke, MD Endowed Lectureship, please visit wmed.edu/loehrkefund.
Contact the Office of Development at giving@wmed.edu for more information about how you can support the medical school by making a gift or becoming involved in our efforts.