When it comes to being a doctor, Michael Miller, D.O.’85, FACOS, FAPWCA, CWS, does it all and then some. He cares for patients in Indianapolis and rural southern Indiana through his two comprehensive wound care centers and in several nursing homes. He served his country as a major in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps overseas during Operation Desert Storm, and he’s since helped train health care providers around the world.
He has published more than 30 medical articles and book chapters, lectured at nearly 100 scientific programs and presented nearly 60 scientific posters. A principal investigator on numerous research projects, he serves on the editorial review panels of six major podiatric and wound care journals.
What’s more, Miller is an inventor who holds several patents on wound dressings and treatments. He makes house calls and, at least once a month, serves patients at a local free clinic.
For all Miller is and does, on Oct. 24 he was honored as the American Osteopathic Foundation Physician of the Year at the American Osteopathic Association’s Osteopathic Medical Conference and Exposition in San Francisco.
“Dr. Miller is always the consummate osteopathic physician who cares for patients in a holistic way, promoting the self-healing process,” stated Eric Newgent, D.O.’84, in his nomination of Miller for the award. A sleep and occupational medical physician in Baraboo, WI, Newgent and Miller were roommates at the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, now DMU.
“Imagine a five-foot-two Andrew Taylor Still,” Newgent adds, comparing Miller to the father of osteopathic medicine.
Miller finds “joy” in enhancing his patients’ quality of life through care, innovation in wound treatment and the education of other care givers. He holds renewable licensure in China, where he helped train the first group of university physicians on wound care and healing in 2004. He has worked with physicians and given presentations in the U.S., Israel, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and, this spring, in Kuwait.
“Being a good clinician is important, but teaching others is equally important,” he says.
In August, Miller was in Miami Beach, FL, discussing his newly patented wound dressing with fellow attendees at the annual conference of the Federation of International Medical and Equipment Suppliers. He also consults insurance companies toward the goal of getting better care for patients, and he’s a medical advisor to Diabetic MD, a company offering nutriceutical products formulated to treat diabetic and other slow-healing wounds.
Miller says he feels “awkward” about the attention of the AOF honor. “The things I do, I do because they’re fun,” he says. “The travel, the discourse, doing the research, developing new dressings and helping patients we heretofore couldn’t help – I have so many joys in my life.”
