A recent Ohio State University (OSU) medical school graduate flew to Honduras three days after his hooding ceremony to take part in a medical mission. Dr. Russell “Rusty” Bonneville III has returned home to Columbus for a brief break and will soon begin a six-year physician scientist training program at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
Physician scientists both care for patients and seek new knowledge about health, disease or delivery of patient care through research.
Bonneville was among 14 OSU medical students, four attending physicians and two pharmacists who formed what’s called a brigade for the university’s Partnership for Ongoing Developmental, Educational and Medical Outreach Solutions (PODEMOS) program, which provides essential primary care services to marginalized communities in Honduras and an educational experience to its student participants.
PODEMOS has sent brigades to Honduras twice a year since 2008, providing long-term outreach and clinical care rather than being a one-time effort.
“We set up temporary clinics in schoolhouses in a rural area and provided care for both chronic (long-term) and acute (immediate) complaints,” Bonneville said.
“The range of ailments was wide – anything people would come to a family doctor for. We had to do our best with what we had, but we knew that for many of our patients, it was the first time they had seen a doctor in years or since the last brigade visit.”
Bonneville said the brigade treated about 500 people in total and was open for six or seven hours per day “or until the last patient was seen. We never turned anyone away.”
“I wanted to take part in PODEMOS after graduation because it was a way to help people in a setting I’d never have been involved in otherwise,” he said. “I grew up in a strong Catholic family which taught me the value of service to others, and this was one way of living out that belief.
“It also will make me a more well-rounded physician because of what it’s shown me about how medicine is practiced in a different area of the world and how to work with limited resources.”
The M.D. degree Bonneville received in May is in addition to a Ph.D. degree he earned from OSU in 2021.
“This means I can be called a doctor, but I do not have a type of practice yet,” he said. “That’s why I’m working toward being a physician scientist, to be able to both see patients and lead a research team.”
His next six years will include a two-year residency in internal medicine, a three-year fellowship and a year of research.
“It’s a long haul,” said Bonneville, 32. “It’s easy to look at my next goal as being far away, but in the meantime, you do good work along the way that makes the effort worthwhile.
“I got great satisfaction from one of my areas of research as a graduate student involving a genetic pattern known as MSI (microsatellite instability) in cancer patients.
“MSI had been well described as something often found in cases of colon and uterine cancer, but as part of a laboratory team I helped my laboratory define MSI in a patient whose cancer came from an unknown cause. This made me wonder about the possibility of MSI existing in other forms of cancer.
“I studied more than 11,000 cases of cancer in a national database and found other unexpected occurrences of MSI in 39 different types of cancer. Finding MSI in so many unexpected cancer types is significant because this will allow some people to be candidates for different types of treatments they never would have been considered for otherwise.
“It’s a small breakthrough that will have an impact on many people’s lives – one of many small steps toward the larger goal of controlling cancer.”
Bonneville also has personal reasons for working on cancer research. His father, Russell Bonneville II, died of cancer in 2017, a deceased grandmother also had cancer, and an uncle has been diagnosed with cancer.
Bonneville attended Columbus St. Mary Magdalene School and Bishop Ready High School before pursuing his undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees at OSU.
“I am grateful for my Catholic education and the support and guidance of my teachers, which provided me with a strong intellectual and faith foundation,” Bonneville said.
Another major influence in his life has been Dr. Sameek Roychowdhury, the principal investigator during Bonneville's Ph.D. work, whom he considers both a mentor and a colleague. “He truly went above and beyond the norm in working with me,” Bonneville said.
His mother, Sandy Bonneville, has been involved with the annual community Thanksgiving dinner at St. Aloysius Church in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus for more than 25 years. Bonneville began working with his parents at the dinner as a child and has continued ever since.
Several physicians including Roychowdhury have volunteered at the dinner. “Dr. Roychowdhury always has been enthusiastic about this – and he’s a vegetarian!” Bonneville said.
Bonneville’s family also has been part of many other outreach efforts at St. Aloysius and St. Mary Magdalene churches, particularly the Take It to the Streets ministry, which distributes hot meals and essentials directly to the unsheltered at least twice a week on the Hilltop.
“Taking meals to the streets has been a privilege and a blessing for me,” Bonneville said. “I’m truly grateful for the love and support of my parents through my journey. Being raised in the Catholic faith has allowed me to care for others along the way and to put my faith into action.”
