manual medicine

[stwei]

Which osteopathic school prides itself on teaching the most about manual medicine, and what are the student responses to such a topic? (i.e. how receptive are they and how many actually consider doing it in their practice?)

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[Doctor Peloncito]

Which osteopathic school prides itself on teaching the most about manual medicine, and what are the student responses to such a topic? (i.e. how receptive are they and how many actually consider doing it in their practice?)

All of the schools teach us what we need to know (if we are receptive to the teaching). Some are better than others. I was really impressed with Dr. Ed Stiles who runs the program at PCSOM. UHS is mediocre. We learn what we need to, but have to put a lot of hours in on the side if we want to get good. I hear that Western is pretty good. KCOM puts in a lot of hours, but I heard a lot of complaints from their students when I visited last month.

If anyone has something different to say, feel free to correct me .

Edit: forgot to mention hours. We have 2 hours a week of mandatory OMM.

 

[DOSouthpaw]

Yep yep, Ed Stiles, DO, FAAO is the man!!! PCSOM all the way baby! Thanks for your support WannabeDO!!!

 

[luckystar]

The OMM department here at DMU is great. We also practice a lot outside of class and lab, but that's the only way we can fine-tune our skills. There has been quite a few discussions about ways people plan on using OMM in their future practice, and I'd say there's an overall enthusiasm about learning it and trying to understand how it works better. It's evident by the number of M2s who sign up to TA for the labs. It usually works out to one TA per table during lab.

There are going to be people who don't plan on ever using OMM in practice and people who do, at every school. If you're serious about learning OMM, I'd highly recommend DMU.

 

[s42brown]

5-10 hours a week.
long long days, but this year is almost over.

 

[dcratamt]

PCSOM and Ed Stiles.

 

[dcratamt]

By the way PCSOM spends 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab time each week and they don't provide you with a free portable OMT table just for the hell of it.

 

[DireWolf]

I'd say DMU and KCOM. They spend a lot of time on OMM and consistently score great on the COMLEX OMM questions. I'm not familiar enough with PCOM or PCSOM to have an opinion.

 

[sophiejane]

Steer clear of TCOM if you want to learn OMM and want to be in an atmosphere where people are enthusiastic about it and take it seriously.

This is quite sad and ironic, since the NATIONAL center for osteopathic research is here.

 

[sdude]

Steer clear of TCOM if you want to learn OMM and want to be in an atmosphere where people are enthusiastic about it and take it seriously.

This is quite sad and ironic, since the NATIONAL center for osteopathic research is here.

Hi!

Thanks again for the TCOM info you gave me before. Could you tell me more about OMM at TCOM?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[LukeWhite]

I'll throw in an AZCOM opinion, though it might not be terribly representative:

I'm rather unimpressed with the department here; the facilities and faculty knowledge are top-notch but the program organization and evaluation are in (what seems to me) such disarray that it's difficult to feel as if one's learning much. Imagine having a somewhat scattered course in heart surgery first year, and I think that tends to approximate AZCOM's OMM style and curriculum pretty well.

As for how seriously the students take it, there's a pretty broad continuum. Some are deeply into it (and are rewarded for their devotion with the excellent fellows program) while some, like me, are receptive to the general idea but unwilling to devote much time to arcana that seem unlikely to be used in practice.

For my money, if I were to go to a school for OMM I'd probably pick KCOM or PCOM.

 

[dcratamt]

LukeWhite,
I am sure you are accurate with your description of AZCOM's program. If you get a chance there is a great osteopath in your area, his name is Dr. Stephen Davidson. His practice is in Phoenix. I believe he is on the admissions commitee at AZCOM. Ask around or do an internet search for his address. I would be surprised if he didn't spend some time at the school as a guest lecturer. Anyway he has developed an interesting treatment modality called neurofascial release and if you have time in your busy schedule i would try to observe with him.

 

[LukeWhite]

dc,

Thanks! Sounds fascinating--I'll keep that name on my list, particularly when rotations come around.

 

[dcratamt]

dc,

Thanks! Sounds fascinating--I'll keep that name on my list, particularly when rotations come around.

No prob LukeWhite

 

[sophiejane]

Hi!

Thanks again for the TCOM info you gave me before. Could you tell me more about OMM at TCOM?

Thanks,

Dave

We have 3-4 hours a week in lab, and occasionally and hour in lecture, but no more than 4 hours in class total per week. We are spread out in three large rooms, two to a table. The lectures/demos are given in a room with live video feed and there is a monitor between every few tables. There is a presentation/demo, then we practice what we were just taught with a partner while residents, fellows, TAs and faculty circulate to help out.

The written exams are often full of obscure, poorly written questions, and there are few organized formal reviews for practicals or written exams.

Written exams are worth 2/3 of the grade and practicals are 1/3. Practicals are scored on a point basis--they are not pass/fail. This gets very frustrating because it totally depends on who your grader is.

Much of the teaching is done by fellows and TAs who are 2nd and 3rd, sometimes 4th year students who in my opinion are not that qualified to be doing the amount of teaching they get to do. Some of the more complicated lectures are done by faculty, but most are done by students and residents. Some of the TAs (all 2nd years) didn't know what was going on any more than the rest of us. It's great for them, because the best way to really learn something is to teach it...but it sucks for the rest of us who really need people who know what they are doing, especially in the first year.

Our OMM guru is Jerry Dickey, who is well-connected in the OMM world and really does know his stuff. I learn a lot from him one-on-one, but the time we get with him is precious little. Some of the other faculty are quite good--but again, it just depends on whether or not they circulate around to your table at the time when you need them...which usually doesn't happen.

If you put in a lot of outside effort and go get help on an individual basis, you get a lot out of OMM here. If you rely on class time and the (poor) organization of the course to get you through, you get a pretty sub-standard experience of learning OMM.