Obviously, it will depend on the individual patient and the application of such treatment to specific ailments, but do you guys think you will use it a lot in practice?? I work for a DO who is really very allo-minded and he rarely uses it. Since I am keen on surgery, I was wondering about its applications post-operatively. Check out this study about OMM post CABG surgery:
http://www.jaoa.org/cgi/content/ful...INDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
I'm more interested specifically in orthopedic surgury, but this still seems really cool...
😀
You are asking the right questions. As for me, if I wanted to be an MD i'd have gotten an MD. I chose the DO route to master the art of osteopathy. This is no easy road, and unfortunately there are VERY few role models out there to learn from. I had to go all over the country and overseas to learn what I needed to learn to do what I do now.
As an OMM Resident, I obviously use OMM more than most (i.e. >90% of the patients I see), but osteopathy is far more than moving things with your hands. 99% of osteopathy is in the head of the practitioner- not the techniques you use. It is the will to learn the anatomy and pathophysiology of disease far more deeply than other doctors, as well as our focus on the host system that sets us apart.
As an OMM specialist i see much more than ortho chief complaints, however as an orthopod you can integrate the knife into your practice- one more great tool to use. The thought process is really the same for any osteopath.
Think of it this way- say you are a DO Orthopedic Surgeon.
You can be an MD wannabe ortho doc and go to a great MD residency, and do all the standards and practices, and treat symptoms all day every day- scope diseased knees, inject things, stick rods in places, etc. etc. You may do the same exact 10 procedures over and over again for the rest of your life. Patients feel better for a while, then they come back for repeat surgery and repeat injections. You manage disease rather than cure it. Eventually with enough improper mechanics their joints wear out and need replacing- and there you are. You will be paid well and you wont get flak for being a DO, in fact most people wont notice. But I know I'd be bored as hell like that.
Or... you could learn osteopathic principles. Some days you are just setting broken bones...(but you do so with care to lengths and function so your patients have better outcomes). But mostly, you are dealing with patients who become a complex maze of puzzle pieces... their history full of vital clues. If you are smart enough, you can solve the puzzle and make a single intervention that cures the problem for good.
Knee pain could be a postural strain, a knee injury, a hip injury, a foot injury, and there may be one of hundreds of causes... a cause you must find if you want them to get better without repeated procedures treating the same symptom.
Scoliosis in a child could be secondary to a cervical spine lesion years prior to the presentation. Say the trauma is unknown to the parents, but you figure it out. This child who would get a rod in their back for the rest of their lives in the hands of any other orthopod instead gets to go home with a normal back and no surgery because you fixed his neck and the back straightened out.
A patient could present with carpal tunnel syndrome- conservative therapy sucks and surgery pays well, but this is a fast fix in the hands of a good osteopath. With a good interosseus release they wont have symptoms again unless they are doing some activity that continues pinching the nerve. More often than not this is better in a few minutes and stays better.
The good news is that OMM is a procedure and if you can do it with reasonable efficiency you get paid quite well, even though you'll be doing fewer surgeries. You could quite easily charge cash at a higher rate than the insurance reimbursement and then let the patients be reimbursed by the insurance and save you the headache (normal orthopods cannot do this, since their service is really no different than the next guy and the next guy takes insurance).
Word of mouth about docs like this spreads like wildfire and you'd never have a shortage of patients from doc referrals nor patient referrals. Patient are your best and cheapest advertising tool (but it only works if you do outstanding work). If you are THE osteopathic orthopod in the state you'll get referrals from hours away, even states away. I would pay extra and travel hours each way to prevent myself from getting a surgery. That is the true test.
As an orthopod, osteopathic skill would be helpful in the vast majority of what you do... that is if you decide to use it and go above and beyond to learn from the best resources you can. If you don't learn it you wont use it, and if you don't master it, it may be more of an adjunct to your practice rather than the core of it... but if you make it the core of your practice you'll never be bored, always be in demand, and you'll help people that nobody else can.
I love this stuff. I jumped in with both feet and I'm very happy I did.
but thats just me.
