Given extensive resources, how would you realistically and effectively promote osteopathic medicine and the D.O. profession?

National osteopathic leadership, practicing osteopathic physicians, and medical students need to work together to effectively promote the osteopathic profession in our predominantly allopathic medical community. For several years, the AOA has tried an awareness campaign, and has invested money in opening up more schools. These efforts have not significantly improved public knowledge of our profession. If we change gears from expansion to quality improvement, we will increase opportunities for students to reach their full potential. When improvements are made to our educational system, quality osteopathic physicians will be the result, and our profession will thrive.

Let’s first start with improvement of our existing educational institutions. Increasing the quality of didactic and practical education during the first two years starts with investing in greater basic science material presentation. Each osteopathic school should be given the tools to start a summer program for the incoming class, where students can begin their biochemistry, genetics, and embryology curriculum. The same professors who teach this course should be recruited to teach these subjects during the school year. This thorough coverage of basic science should set precedence for the importance of mastering this material, and will boost board scores. OMM curriculum taught at each osteopathic school should be more standardized, so that the students at all schools are learning the same core techniques. Lab sessions can cover more than the basic techniques, but each school should be required to cover muscle energy, counter-strain, soft tissue, HVLA, facilitated positional release, ligamentous articular release, myofascial, and cranial osteopathy in depth. Coverage of these crucial techniques will give each osteopathic student an opportunity to determine what they want to practice on rotations and ultimately, which tools they prefer to use when treating patients.

Changes in the curriculum are essential to improving osteopathic medicine, but we also need to carefully screen the students who are accepted into osteopathic medical school. Each applicant should be carefully assessed to determine if he or she is truly open to osteopathic manipulation, and not just looking at osteopathic medicine as a backup. Each school should require their applicants to shadow osteopathic physicians, instead of just recommending it. Schools should recruit applicants who are interested in practicing rural primary care, as these people are likely to fill residency spots in rural areas, where there is high demand for health care of underserved communities.

In addition to ensuring dedicated applicants are chosen, and improving the first and second year education, we should invest in more clerkship opportunities for our third and fourth year students. Rotation opportunities should be expanded on the west coast and in major cities that have primarily MD residencies. The AOA and COCA should invest in a task force to prevent other schools from buying out osteopathic rotation slots.

In big cities, competitive allopathic primary care residency opportunities are continually increasing for osteopathic students as fewer allopathic students are choosing primary care. We need to give our DO students the tools to be accepted into these programs. When the best and brightest osteopathic students break barriers and start training at these powerhouse programs, the survival and growth of osteopathic medicine will be ensured. Expansion and improvement of Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education opportunities starts with education of the hospitals about what we do. One idea to better educate hospitals about OMM is to help them see it in action, and observe the real results. The AOA and AAO could help osteopathic graduates who enter allopathic programs open OMM Clinics in their respective hospitals.

Practicing osteopathic physicians nation wide can also help promote our profession by performing community outreach and service. CME credits and additional incentives should be provided for their effort. The goal would be to influence consumer choices and towards preventive, quality-based medicine. Physicians should be encouraged to become involved in city council and town hall events to expand knowledge in their respective communities.

Rather than advertizing through commercials and expanding in number, we should focus on improving the quality of physicians who enter the osteopathic profession, and increasing opportunities for osteopathic students to practice in the allopathic health care system. By improving osteopathic educational opportunities at our existing schools, infiltrating allopathic hospitals, and advocating at the community level, we can promote the values of osteopathic medicine to reach more people than ever before.