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most DO schools will have you do the bare minimum of OMM, to pass the COMLEX. Plenty of DOs don't even use OMM, or very sparingly.

Of course, some people will also do anything to try not to go to a DO school. I have a family friend that finally got into an MD school after 3 cycles, though it ended up being his state school. I would imagine if he applied DO, he would've gotten in on his first try. This cycle in particular has been ruthlessly competitive.
 
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OMM is something you cram one weekend per month then immediately forget. Caring about it long term is totally optional. Otherwise our curriculum is the same as any MD school - we're all preparing for the same board exams and will be attending the same residencies.
 
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Then don’t go to a DO school. OMM research is absolute trash, and stuff that’s known to be pseudoscience, like cranial, is on the board exams.

Unfortunately the true believers of osteopathy will cling to their “distinctiveness” until the bitter end.

Most of us just get in and get out, but knowing what I know now I cannot recommend the DO path to anyone.
 
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Osteopathic palpation skills routinely help me as a double board certified anesthesiologist and pain physician. It has little to do with OMT.

You guys are too close to it.
 
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Your perceptions are misguided and uninformed. I would encourage you to Google misguided to grasp my true meaning. This is thread is immortal as it never dies. DOs dont crack your neck to treat hypothyroidism. They train very much the same way as the MDs. Many DOa have completed ACGME ( MD), residencies prior to the merger., and are board certified by one or several of these ACGME bodies. I am one of them. When you read snarky comments about DO training, it's usually from some frustrated DO student who couldn't get into an MD school and didn't want to take a gap year to enhance their chances at the MD degree. As for OMM and the complaints about it, it's the tax, as many say, to being a doctor. Some, not all aspects of OMM might be suspect, but so are many things in the MD world. The use of muscle relaxants for back pain, stimulants to treat ADHD, prescribing narcotics for pain and suggesting you can't get addicted if you take narcs while in pain, vaccines and autism. All published in prestigious medical journals. OMM studies have also been published in mainstream medical journals , so maybe not pseudoscience. You would never believe some students just might want to become DOs by reading comments on SDN. However, things are changing quickly with the ACGME merger with the AOA. Many who championed this merger are learning that it was not in our interest, but was a move to force DOs into primary care residencies and make it harder to match into specialty residencies. This will become more evident as the students from the newer schools , MD and DO, graduate their inaugural classes. The merger wasn't all bad,, some DO residencies closed, which needed to happen as they were substandard. Some specialty residencies like DO neurosurgery and ENT stopped taking DOs and only took MDs. As for Chiropractors, do you really need to do a double blinded randomized study to suggest they are helping their patients? Merely look at their full parking lots for your answer. People don't fork out hard earned cash/ co pays if it's not helping. But no one forces anyone to spend 300k to go to med school, so life is full of choices. Do your research and make good ones.
 
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I apologize in advance if my concerns/questions here step on any toes...

So I have long been critical of chiropractic medicine (I promise this is relevant), especially its origins, legitimacy, and authenticity in its ability to treat illness. If I am truthful about my thoughts, I consider chiropractic medicine to be largely a pseudoscience that relies on placebo effect and positive thinking – I have a very negative view of it.

When it comes to osteopathic medicine and its philosophy, I see many similarities between it and the tenants of chiropractic medicine. As I understand it, a major part of the osteopathic philosophy and curriculum is bodily/skeletal manipulation in the treatment of illness, which seems to just be a side training as a chiropractor. I agree that the body needs to be treated as a whole (i.e. a symptom in one body system may be due to an issue in another body system), however, I cannot support a philosophy that puts forth a treatment which has no scientific association with a given illness (i.e. spinal subluxations and sinus infections, colds, hormonal imbalances).

The question/discussion I am interested in having, is one, whether or not my perception of the philosophy of osteopathic medicine is accurate in this respect, and two, if there are osteopathic schools that have distanced themselves from this philosophy and instead adopt a more modern/science-based approach than their counterparts?

Thank you for your thoughts in advance, and again, if anyone is offended I also apologize in advance – I am not looking for a fight or a debate.
Osteopathic medical education has some flaws in that it does engage in pseudoscientific notions such as cranial manipulation and the existence of Chapmans's points. That said, it has more unproven claims as opposed to than chiropractic, which relies on the true quackery of subluxations.

The philosophy of Osteopathy has some merits, given the stress on actual physical contact, which always has a comforting modality, and as mentioned above the usefulness of palpation. Now throw that it's also the practice of Medicine (note the capitol), which simply arose out of a different doctrine of how to practice. The whole body/whole person/holistic business may have been true 50-100 years ago, but now, we teach Medicine. My students will be doctors and their clinical colleagues and patients don't care about the difference.
 
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You are correct in your comparison to chiropractic. If you go to a DO program you will inevitably learn about somatic dysfunction (subluxations by another name) impeding autonomic output and organ function. The pseudoscience isn't limited to Chapman's points and cranial. Some OMM techniques are more comparable to physical/massage therapy and have potential usefulness for MSK issues, but, ultimately, you're going to be spending at least 2-3 hours a week suspending your critical thinking while you learn an alternative medical practice.

That's a small amount of time, and the remainder of your curriculum (AKA the strong majority) is generally going to be modern, evidence-based medical science. The real question is whether you have the patience to deal with those few wasted hours a week memorizing nonsense. I don't regret going DO, but it can be really frustrating at times.
 
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Yes, osteopathy is quackery. Osteopathy is ridden with pseudoscientific dogma, confirmation bias, and appeals to authority and tradition, and it has no rightful place in a modern medical curriculum.

With that being said, it’s worth noting that most DO students couldn’t care less about OMM. Students with uncompetitive academic credentials just use the DO path as a backdoor into the medical profession. They accept the extra burdens of a DO curriculum (OMM, extra board exams, inferior clinical education, etc.) for a chance to become physicians. The burden of OMM serves to disincentivize strong medical school applicants from considering DO schools, and this creates room for underdogs with weaker stats who are willing to bite the bullet.
 
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I felt pretty much the same way as you about the OMM stuff, even after working with many amazing DO physicians. I would have never used the pseudoscience in practice, but if I didn't get an MD acceptance, I would have happily went to a DO school and still come out a physician.
I also feel the same way about chiropractors, yet I still visit my chiropractor frequently because his eastern medicine magic sugar pills make my chronic injury feel better than neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and physical therapists have.
If the DO philosophy bothers you enough to the point that you don't want to go to a DO school, then don't apply and understand you better be competitive enough to make it into an MD school or suffer as a reapplicant. Simple as that.
 
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OMT is pure quackery, you are correct. Some schools are far more obsessed with it than others; Midwestern schools (from what I've heard from students who attended, can't confirm it) don't really focus on it very much. UNECOM is basically a bunch of cultists who worship AT Still (DON'T GO TO SCHOOLS WITH THIS MENTALITY).
With the recent merger (and I've been privy to some behind the scenes stuff) I'd give it about a decade until OMT starts to become optional or outright eliminated at some schools.
 
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