Residencies in U.S. all meds or combo w/alternative (integrative)?

[Magic70]

I'm in the process of finishing up pre-requisites and I am currently finding out as much about residencies and fellowships. My areas of interest lie in OMM, physical medicine/rehabilitation, accupuncture, oriental and alternative medicine. From what I gathered, in order to specialize in OMM, rehabilitation, or sports medicine, the resident must first complete 3 years of either family practice or internal medicine, and then go on to specialize in OMM, Sports Medicine, rehab, etc (I'm assuming that each speciality would be considered a fellowship). Is that correct? Does there exist a residency that is purely, OMM, or rehab without doing the first 3 years of residency in internal medicine or family practice? I have no problem doing a residency for 3 years in internal medicine or family practice, however, I do have a problem with prescribing unnecessary pharmaceutical drugs. Are there internal medicine or family practice residencies that are more alternative/holistic/integrative in nature? I don't believe in prescription drugs in family practice, internal medicine, rehab, etc. (I believe they serve their purpose in the ER and with surgery, this is just my belief and I will not debate this issue, I'm just trying to get some questions answered). From the information I have gathered, with internal med. and family practice residencies, you practice medicine the way the attending practices. So if the attending prescribes drugs all day, that's what you will be doing. That's why I need to know if there are any residency opportunites out there that are alternative in nature with no prescription drug use incorporated? I highly doubt that these would exist in any type of hospital setting. Can an internal med. or family practice residency exist in a community health based practice? Essentially, I don't want to ever write a single script during residency or in practice. Also, does anyone know of any residencies that incorporate accupuncture? If no one knows the answers to these questions, does anyone know of anyone that does and that can help me? Please Help. Thank you

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[maxhealth]

If you don't want to write a single script, medical school may not be what you want to persue. You will spend countless hours studying pharmacology and you are not going to get around writing prescriptions.

 

[jonb12997]

If you don't want to write a single script, medical school may not be what you want to persue. You will spend countless hours studying pharmacology and you are not going to get around writing prescriptions.

I agree... I think you're going to want to look at something other than allopathic/osteopathic medicine. Maybe something like naturopathy or homeopathy would work a little better for your ideas, or even going over the Europe and getting trained as a non-physician osteopath... I'm afriad you're going to really not enjoy pharm. I won't speak to the residency thing, but what I can say is about the first two years, you probably wouldn't enjoy them very much because you do learn a lot of pharmacology.

 

[box29]

You'll also get asked questions about medications when on rotation for 3rd and fourth years as well.

 

[FS-Pro]

Go to school where Ricky Williams went.

 

[DOSouthpaw]

I know numerous DOs and DO students who are in the same boat as you. Yes you can do a residency in just OMM (actually it's called NMM now on the residency level). So basically this is what your education will look like:

Years 1&2- Classroom work, don't listen to the other folks about you not liking it; I don't know anyone who really enjoys doing this part of the education. Try to find the school with the best OMM program AND one that has many DOs in the area that do OMM. Many times you can learn more by hanging out in an office in your spare time than you can in class

Years 3&4 -Clerkship years- Here you are practicing medicine as the attending you are with is practicing it. If you are studious and go to a school that gives you alot of latitude in your rotations you can get quite a few alternative stuff going, but like I said you have to do your homework on where to go. Plus during all 4 years you can attend OMM classes that are held through the Academy, the Cranial Academy, the SCTF, Upledger Institute, Academy of Osteopathic Sclerotheraputic Pain Management, James Jealous, etc...

Internship: This is one year of hardcore medicine. Yes you will have to write meds this year, especially while on call. If you go to a place with an OMM residency, then they will probably be cool with you not writing as much in your continuity clinic.

NMM 2&3: Here is where you will be intering in the OMM part of the training. Basically you still rotate through the medicine service, the surgery service, the ER, etc, but you will be doing OMM.

So why do this instead of the other suggestions put to you?
1) You need to understand pharm and path in order to help people. One DO I worked with did not prescribe drugs, but her training in Anatomy and Physiology during her OMM residency enabled her to understand the disease processes going on even though she was not trained in a medicine residency. She also would throughly investigate everyone's drug regimine to make sure they were on the least and best drugs (many times people go to specialists with no one coordinating their polypharmacy care). She functioned as a coodinator and informant to her patients, along with OMM care.

2)You need to understand path so you don't get sued. If you can't recongnise that a patient needs prompt medical tx you can be held liable.

3)ER work. Some of my friends who do not write much medicine in their clinic (some none at all) still work an occasional ER shift for some extra cash and to keep sharp on the medicine side of things. ER is where medicine really shines.

Anyway, if you want to know the name of a program that has good OMM, good medicine opportunities, and a good accupuncture clinic, just PM and I'll point you in that direction.

Good luck!

 

[kahoo99]

Do you have a link to places with this NMM residency?
Thanks

 

[jpwa1988]

http://www.academyofosteopathy.org/certification_neuro.cfm

 

[OSUdoc08]

I'm in the process of finishing up pre-requisites and I am currently finding out as much about residencies and fellowships. My areas of interest lie in OMM, physical medicine/rehabilitation, accupuncture, oriental and alternative medicine. From what I gathered, in order to specialize in OMM, rehabilitation, or sports medicine, the resident must first complete 3 years of either family practice or internal medicine, and then go on to specialize in OMM, Sports Medicine, rehab, etc (I'm assuming that each speciality would be considered a fellowship). Is that correct? Does there exist a residency that is purely, OMM, or rehab without doing the first 3 years of residency in internal medicine or family practice? I have no problem doing a residency for 3 years in internal medicine or family practice, however, I do have a problem with prescribing unnecessary pharmaceutical drugs. Are there internal medicine or family practice residencies that are more alternative/holistic/integrative in nature? I don't believe in prescription drugs in family practice, internal medicine, rehab, etc. (I believe they serve their purpose in the ER and with surgery, this is just my belief and I will not debate this issue, I'm just trying to get some questions answered). From the information I have gathered, with internal med. and family practice residencies, you practice medicine the way the attending practices. So if the attending prescribes drugs all day, that's what you will be doing. That's why I need to know if there are any residency opportunites out there that are alternative in nature with no prescription drug use incorporated? I highly doubt that these would exist in any type of hospital setting. Can an internal med. or family practice residency exist in a community health based practice? Essentially, I don't want to ever write a single script during residency or in practice. Also, does anyone know of any residencies that incorporate accupuncture? If no one knows the answers to these questions, does anyone know of anyone that does and that can help me? Please Help. Thank you

Rehabilitation: Do a physical medicine & rehabilitation residency.

OMM: Do a family medicine/OMM combined residency, an NMM residency, or do a family medicine residency + OMM fellowship

Sports: Do a family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or emergency medicine residency + primary care sports medicine fellowship

 

[futuredo32]

There is a PM&R residency at MSUCOM and a lot of the Dr.s there teach in our OMM lab. One of them also teaches an holistic medicine elective as well as an accupuncture elective. If you decide to go this route, I would definitely keep MSUCOM in mind.
Perhaps, once in medical school, you might alter your opinion about prescriptions drugs?

 

[kahoo99]

thanks for the link

 

[YogiDO]

Great thread. I'm in the same boat about not wanting to prescribe so much. True, at times it is necessary, but I find it interesting how on many of these threads there is lipwork paid to OMM, but it is rarely written about intelligebly. That leads me to believe that many of the students and applicants aren't really into it, and are likely going to practice more in the allopathic model.

DOs are in an interesting position to bring about some fundamental changes in patient care. I find it pretty sad that there are so few OMM residencies, but not unexpected. So, thank you for the insight into these residencies. If anyone has any further info on Integrative/Holistic residencies that will be coming into existence I would love to hear about it. Right now all I know of is Dr. Weil's fellowship at U of Arizona............

 

[Magic70]

Thank You so much.. I will PM you in the near future to get further detail.. but that was all very helpful.

I know numerous DOs and DO students who are in the same boat as you. Yes you can do a residency in just OMM (actually it's called NMM now on the residency level). So basically this is what your education will look like:

Years 1&2- Classroom work, don't listen to the other folks about you not liking it; I don't know anyone who really enjoys doing this part of the education. Try to find the school with the best OMM program AND one that has many DOs in the area that do OMM. Many times you can learn more by hanging out in an office in your spare time than you can in class

Years 3&4 -Clerkship years- Here you are practicing medicine as the attending you are with is practicing it. If you are studious and go to a school that gives you alot of latitude in your rotations you can get quite a few alternative stuff going, but like I said you have to do your homework on where to go. Plus during all 4 years you can attend OMM classes that are held through the Academy, the Cranial Academy, the SCTF, Upledger Institute, Academy of Osteopathic Sclerotheraputic Pain Management, James Jealous, etc...

Internship: This is one year of hardcore medicine. Yes you will have to write meds this year, especially while on call. If you go to a place with an OMM residency, then they will probably be cool with you not writing as much in your continuity clinic.

NMM 2&3: Here is where you will be intering in the OMM part of the training. Basically you still rotate through the medicine service, the surgery service, the ER, etc, but you will be doing OMM.

So why do this instead of the other suggestions put to you?
1) You need to understand pharm and path in order to help people. One DO I worked with did not prescribe drugs, but her training in Anatomy and Physiology during her OMM residency enabled her to understand the disease processes going on even though she was not trained in a medicine residency. She also would throughly investigate everyone's drug regimine to make sure they were on the least and best drugs (many times people go to specialists with no one coordinating their polypharmacy care). She functioned as a coodinator and informant to her patients, along with OMM care.

2)You need to understand path so you don't get sued. If you can't recongnise that a patient needs prompt medical tx you can be held liable.

3)ER work. Some of my friends who do not write much medicine in their clinic (some none at all) still work an occasional ER shift for some extra cash and to keep sharp on the medicine side of things. ER is where medicine really shines.

Anyway, if you want to know the name of a program that has good OMM, good medicine opportunities, and a good accupuncture clinic, just PM and I'll point you in that direction.

Good luck!

 

[Magic70]

I'm glad you share my beliefs and intersts. I'm aware of Dr. Weil's fellowship at U of Arizona. I'm wondering if there are anymore like it? Keep in touch and maybe we can figure out more options. Thanks...

Great thread. I'm in the same boat about not wanting to prescribe so much. True, at times it is necessary, but I find it interesting how on many of these threads there is lipwork paid to OMM, but it is rarely written about intelligebly. That leads me to believe that many of the students and applicants aren't really into it, and are likely going to practice more in the allopathic model.

DOs are in an interesting position to bring about some fundamental changes in patient care. I find it pretty sad that there are so few OMM residencies, but not unexpected. So, thank you for the insight into these residencies. If anyone has any further info on Integrative/Holistic residencies that will be coming into existence I would love to hear about it. Right now all I know of is Dr. Weil's fellowship at U of Arizona............

 

[DOSouthpaw]

Oddly enough Dr. Weil's program does not take DOs. At least when I checked it out 3 years ago they did not. When I checked it out, they only took American trained MDs, so no DOs or FMGs. Really strange, but maybe he feels like he needs to change his (allopathic) profession first? I don't know.