The Medical Mission

Scott McLean, MD, PhD
Todd Brickman, MD, PhD

Drs. Brickman and McLean are being honored for founding Students for Medical Missions at what is now The University of Toledo's College of Medicine and Life Sciences.

As MD/PhD students working in the Department of Pharmacology
in 1998 at what was then known as the Medical College of Ohio, the pair decided to start Students for Medical Missions to help raise awareness about the medical mission experience and create a forum for students to become involved with and participate in medical missions. Their outreach stemmed from a clinical rotation that McLean had with Dr. Richard Nelson in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Nelson had planned a mission to Peru, and McLean participated in that trip. When McLean returned, he shared his excitement with Brickman.

Students for Medical Missions formed when the pair attended an MCO student organization fair in September of 1998. More than 100 students – including those in allied professions – signed up to join their group. Soon afterward, Brickman and McLean were contacted by then Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who requested their assistance in organizing a relief mission to Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch.

Media coverage of their work and Students for Medical Missions resulted in community philanthropic support, which subsequently allowed additional students to improve the human condition while gaining hands-on experience in some of the most underserved parts of the world. Their efforts also formalized the process of health-care students applying for missionary work, making the process streamlined. The new organization was advised by Dr. Richard Paat, a 2013 inductee into the Medical Mission Hall of Fame. Dr. Paat remains as the adviser to Students for Medical Missions.

Now an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Dr. Brickman completed bachelor's degrees from The University of Toledo in chemistry and exercise science in 1993. He earned his medical degree from MCO in 2002 and his PhD in biomedical sciences from UT in 2007. A surgical intern at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center, he also completed his otolaryngology residency there in 2007. In 2007 and 2008, Dr. Brickman served as a microvascular/head and neck fellow at Saint Louis University/Washington University School of Medicine and Saint Louis University Hospital/Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Now a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan, Dr. McLean completed a bachelor's of science degree at the University of Michigan in 1991 and his MD/PhD at MCO in 1999. He served an internship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 2000, and finished his residency in otolaryngology at the Mayo Clinic in 2004. A fellowship in the Cranial Base Program at the University of Michigan followed in 2005.