I'm not sure if MD students do surface anatomy lab, but because of OMM class, it makes finding stuff super easy. My palpating skills are off the chiz-ain and touching people isn't really awkward anymore. Also I love diagnosing innominates, something about seeing that physical side of medicine with bones and muscles is awesome. I don't really like OMM, but I definitely see it's purposes and the good things that come out of it. Also, not sure about people who complain about having to take an extra class, but it's pretty simple stuff if you practice and learn trigger words.
No, we don't really do surface anatomy lab. Surgeons and anesthesiolgists and the ED seem to know their surfaces OK for sticking needles in people without hitting a major nerve. Some rheums who do joint injections. In primary care they teach you landmarks for deltoid and glute IM injections. IM in hospital landmrks for IJ and paracentesis.
There were like 2 pages in Netter's on surface anatomy and probably 2 questions on the anatomy written exam, and we did like *1* one hour surface anatomy/palpation lab, and everyone left early.
I've never met a DO attending who uses OMM other than to threaten students with it - "if you order propanolol instead of propofol I'll deliver a high velocity low amplitude thrust to your face."
I'll stick to learning the physician's approach to diagnosis/treatment rather than osteopathic or allopathic approach - for patients' sake there should not be a difference.
Hilarious anecdote.
Right, there shouldn't be a difference, MDs should learn more OMM, like surface anatomy, and more about musculoskeletal medicine. I was lucky my school offerred an optional didactic lecture class so I got 12 extra hours of training from a PM&R doc, and my colleagues seem so impressed I can dx de Quervain's tenosynovitis and a really good ddx for LBP and know good manuevers to determine if a complaint is bony vs tendon vs ligamentous vs neurological in nature, the quality of my neuro exam, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle exam and indication for imaging. Some MDs seem to know all this, others seem scarily impressed by these skills I have, and my DO colleagues still seem to know more than the average bear on this stuff from my obseravtions by comparison. I wish I could add better palpatory skills, strain/counterstrain, and some other magic voo doo you guys know that I see really help in a pinch (no pun intended on the pinch thing), and some other skills. I've looked it up and I know about some of this craniosacral stuff and it sounds bogus but that's not the whole story.
As far as making it optional/available to allopaths, most of the course I looked into were like 1-2 year courses, or one that was like 12 weeks, and expensive. It's a bit of a shame not to just add it to the captive audience that are med students still in school. Obviously there are specialists that wouldn't gain much by these skills (endocrinologist, opthalmologists) but the ED, PCPs, other general fields, IM, surgeons, could all gain I think. (Surgeons don't just cut, the osteos and gen surg and neurosurg all Rx PT (most medicaid and medicare and cheap Obamacare DOES not cover) and home exercises pre and post surg.
MDs I think pick up on the difference in DO training better than the other way round, don't knock the extra skills you're gaining from OMM so easily.
So, a few things ---
1) Not meaning to be rude but from your sig, you're still a pre-med -- let's wait until you've been through the first 2 years of OMM training before you make a judgment call on "certain medication that can be treated with OMM" -- I think you meant to say that a patient cannot afford medications for a condition that can be treated with OMM -- at this level, it sounds as if you've got stars in your eyes about what OMM can/can't do --
2) As a pre-med, you may not have had the experience of listening to a patient tell you that they ran out of "their insulin" (70/30) and "borrowed" insulin from their father in law (Lantus) and gave themselves the same dosage (30U BID) -- or the mom who decided that eczema on her 13 year old's forearms was best treated with some Augmentin she had lying around -- or the --- you get the idea -- apply this to OMM and now you may have opened a door to liability -- "well the doc treated my back pain with this and showed me how" and the patient winds up having nephrolithiasis, delays seeking treatment and bingo, you now have hydronephrosis and possible sepsis depending on how it goes -- bad juju
3) Not trying to discourage you but recognize it's your license on the line (and your malpractice rates) and every time you want to go for credentialing, the forms WILL ask if you've ever had a malpractice incident or been reported to the national database or had any issues with the state medical board or been involved with a case involving harm to a patient --- Now, do you want to be $150k+ in debt, with a family and house to support without the ability to practice medicine because you taught someone OMM who just "promised" that they'd only use it for this one situation?
Again, no warranties expressed or implied, your mileage may vary ----
As an aside, I think I'd be more concerned about getting into medical school and doing well, rather than what my future as an indigent care volunteer would look like -- I went in with this sort of attitude also and I learned at the county hospital that most people don't want your help, they just want you to fix them enough so they can continue their chosen lifestyle -- hence the repeat pancreatitis from the 1 case every 2 days and 3-4 on the weekend patient who was told in bold, italicized, large font letters in discharge instructions that they would die if they kept up this lifestyle merely to show up again 3 weeks later with the same complaint --- and that was not an isolated case.
I don't see addiction as a "chosen" lifestyle, in fact, the very definition of it "increased use, lack of control of use, in the face of adverse consequences" and other evidence, pretty clearly classifies it as a brain disease. Not one that is untreatable, but as far as how much people can "choose" treatment, that's controlled by a lot of factors. Mental health and addiction services are severely lacking. Inpatient treatment for rehab is often not covered and/or prohibitively expensive. In my state, no coverage for medicaid recipients, the cheapest program $10,000 just for alcoholic detox, $20,000 for longer program that is 4 weeks. These programs want a bunch of it up front too.
I don't know how well these patients get set up for outpatient follow up, and certainly I'm sure there's quite a few that just head home straight for the case of booze and never bother to try to get help quitting. Da Nile ain't just a river in Egypt.
As far as other lifestyles like eating junk, there's plenty of studies linking obesity to factors including nutritional status of the mother affecting epigenetics of offspring, and most eating habits are formed in childhood, and difficult to break. For a lot of people all the soda and cheesburgers are almost an addiction, and definitely forms of self-soothing coping mechanisms later in life, even taking poverty out of the equation of why a lot of people eat like ****.
Congress ruled that tomato sauce counts as veggie for pizza for cafeteria school lunch for children.
I just react strongly when we start looking at people with addiction as something other than disease, especially when it's killing them. But then, most physicians don't have much personal or up-close family experience or solid scientific training on addiction. And understanding only helps so much when we don't have tools to effectively treat these issues, and a society that is a set-up for these problems. Easier to save our compassion for the ones who "deserve" it and can be helped more easily I guess.
