Abe and Faigi Derman
MIDDLETOWN – After attending four years of medical college, the first class of 128 students will graduate this Thursday from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Middletown.
From there, the new doctors will enter residency programs of three to five years in a number of locations, said Touro Middletown Dean Dr. Kenneth Steier.
“Many of them matched to Orange Regional Medical Center or Westchester Medical Center or other facilities within the Hudson Valley, but they are going as far as Hawaii and California and Florida; really all over the United States,” Steier said.
Abraham Derman of Monsey is one of those graduates, who is following in his father’s footsteps. He is also a doctor. A native of South Africa, whose family moved to the US when he was five, spent 10 years in Jewish studies prior to entering medical school and that gave him a unique perspective on the treatment of patients.
“Treating patients is treating a whole person; all different people from all different backgrounds,” Derman said. “You need to be open minded and I would say some of the analytical skills while studying Talmud will definitely help me figure out the best plans of action or how best to treat various patients in various situations and take a bigger picture of things. You don’t treat the disease; you treat the patient.”
Fifty-five percent of the first graduating class at Touro Middletown is female. Dr. Steier said that is following a nationwide trend of more women than men attending medical school and becoming doctors.
