Taking Osteopathic Muscular Manipulation (OMM) as an MD student?

[Phange]

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I'm going to an MD school in the fall, but a number of my family physicians knew OMM when I was younger and I've always felt like it'd be a good skill to have. Do any of you approve of taking OMM classes, and are they even offered to MD students?

 

[Goforbroke]

I don't think many people would object to you learning OMM. I know several of our professors who are M.D's learn OMM from class/conferences. They're usually involved in Sports Med or Family, so they say it really comes in handy.

 

[bonsaipalmtree]

There's no harm in learning anything. In fact, that way, you can make an informed decision about whether or not you should/can actually use it.

 

[Phange]

You guys make a valid point. Extra knowledge and skills are almost always valuable in some degree. Before I was accepted to medical school I earned a Master of Public Health and I can tell you that public health knowledge will be extremely valuable to me (it already has been!)

 

[NJDIF]

approve? what's to disapprove of. my school offers an elective where we talk to horses. crack as many backs as you want, buddy. 👍

 

[wiscorobby]

First year DO student here,

Honestly, take the course. It'll be a great review of musculoskeletal anatomy and will greatly enhance your palpation/physical diagnosis skills. If you decide to do it, give the content some time and PRACTICE (your friends/family/significant other will appreciate the treatments anyways). Pick up a $75 massage table from ebay and you'll be set.

 

[Old Grunt]

I'm going to an MD school in the fall, but a number of my family physicians knew OMM when I was younger and I've always felt like it'd be a good skill to have. Do any of you approve of taking OMM classes, and are they even offered to MD students?

There is no harm in learning something. As you are just entering school, I'd put it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy on the back burner until you have time for some electives for pragmatic reasons. For instance, you might decide you don't want to go into primary care or a field where you will be dealing with a lot of musculoskeletal problems. In that case, you would have invested time learning something that might not be terribly useful to you.

I'd also be careful not to overstate the efficacy of OMM in the future. There isn't a lot of evidence based medicine behind OMM. The only study I can really think of was done by Andersson. The results were modest and it was so biased that many DOs wrote the NEJM and pointed out the flaws in it. You can read up on that if you are interested:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199911043411903

Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of DOs (over 90% if I recall correctly) never utilize OMM in their patient care.

I am not blasting OMM, I think it could probably be a useful treatment modality, just pointing out that it's value shouldn't be overstated.