Why don't DO schools have CAM or Integrative Medicine Programs?

[gioia]

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Call me disallusioned, but I thought it was a 'let-down' that A. Weill's program does NOT accept DO students or residents (although osteopaths teach in his program).

Aren't DO's the one's who've esposed the 'whole body' approach to medicine and brought it to the American Public?

Isn't it sad that allopathic schools across the country get NIH funding for CAM programs to study things like: the effect of massage therapy on stress relief - when DO students are constantly defending OMM?

Do you know why the NIH is shelling out funds for CAM programs? Because the American public spent over 15 billion dollars last year - OUT OF POCKET- for alternative medicine or health care. They want to make sure standardized care doesn't miss the people.

I just wish there was a way that DO's could benefit from this trend since it is osteopathic medicine that even cared to address some of those issues in the first place.

I want to make a difference in my world and I chose Osteopathic Medicine as my platform.

Are we doing all that we can to highlight our strengths?

What can be done?

 

[VentdependenT]

publish research in acclaimed peer reviewed journals.

Stop the AOA from trying to maintain an isolationist stance when it comes to our allopathic counterparts. Join forces says I.

There ya go

 

[LovelyRita]

Excellent excellent points!!!

Do you think that Weil's program doesen't take DO students b/c we are exposed to the "whole person" approach through the osteopathic philosophy? And that MD students are at a "disadvantage" in some sense?

I sure hope not, because gioia, you are right, OMM is constantly a point of scrutiny, however I guess we have to think of it as being mainstream since it's a core part of the osteopathic philosophy. I'm under the impression that overall the world of osteopathy does NOT want OMM looked upon as an alternative treatment, that it is an integral part of the DO degree. (It's a big part of comlex, yes?).

Now. There is Integrative Medicine. It is a practice in which the miracles of modern science and medicine are joined together with the innate healing ability of the body. Healing is promoted through proper diet, exercise, balanced mental health. These things can be influenced by non-medical treatments: yoga, tai chi, relaxing breath work, natural easily-obtainable remedies. So I too say: why aren't DO students given the same opportunity at the Program for Integrative Medicine at U of A to learn about these things?

It truly makes no sense to me.

At UHS-COM, we just applied for a grant from AMSA to implement a more formal CAM curriculum. This is great news. At our school, students in the future will be able to take classes in CAM.

And I'm trying to figure out how to get to the inner circle of Dr. Weil's Self Healing newsletter so that I can get some subscriptions for the members of the Integrative Med Club @ UHS. If you OR ANYONE has any details on how to get through, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for starting this thread!
M.

 

[Shinken]

Don't get too discouraged. That's the reality of osteopathic and allopathic medicine. Allopathic medicine has the money and the influence and osteopathic medicine does not.

There was a very interesting editorial on CAM on the Jan/Feb issue of Alternative Therapies. In it, the author quoted Dean Radin's "4 stages" of acceptance that ideas go through when introduced into the mainstream scientific community:

Stage 1 - "No way, that doesn't have any scientific basis."

Stage 2 - "Well, it could be true but I don't think there's enough proof."

Stage 3 - "Wow, this stuff looks like it works."

Stage 4 - "I thought of it first!"

It's starting to happen to CAM and even some manual therapies used by DO's for decades. If cranial therapy is ever proven to be real and useful, some allopathic organization will conduct a study and publish it in JAMA, and next thing you know MD's get the credit for "discovering" cranial therapy.

What I find extremely ironic is that Andrew Weill is (supposedly) a big fan of osteopathic medicine and even devoted an entire chapter in one of his most popular books to explaining osteopathic medicine and promoting the skill of the late Bob Fulford. I guess now that he stands to make some money he wants to capitalize as much as he can.

Yes, people are starting to realize that five minutes with a doctor and a prescription for Vicodin aren't exactly quality care. Now that the allopathic community is realizing that some alternative therapies actually work and money can be made off of them, they're saying "We though of it first!"

 

[gioia]

VentdependenT : I would LOVE to publish some peer worthy research! To that, I have 2 Q's: Which ones should I aim for, coming from an osteopathic perspective (I start med school in July but have a research background). And, What topic to focus on? I have a TON of ideas but we need mentors to oversee our projects.

To push my enthusiasm even further: What about a DO student hosted 5 minute blurb broadcast on the 5am local news?


DrMaryC : I almost went to UHSCOM and I am so glad you guys are doing that! I didn't know you had an Integrative Medicine club!

I'll let you know what I find.

I agree with Shinken to a point, but I think we can be a loud enough voice to be heard (so to speak), or at least market our strengths - oh my gosh, look at the great marketing that emminates from the chiropractic field!

 

[VentdependenT]

Anything that supports OMM as an adjunct therapy. If you are into research, then the possibilities are a plenty for backing OMM. However, any solid research in any field of medicine comming out of a osteopathic school is good for our profession.

Keep your enthusiasm. It can be infectious if its kept below the level of a zelot. You will see that lots of your classmates share your interest in expanding osteopathic research.

Best O' luck with your future.

 

[gioia]

Thanks VentdependenT, I 'ppreciate it!

😉

 

[PublicHealth]

Osteopathic medicine needs more research like the following. Here is a list of ongoing osteopathic research supported by the NIH: http://nccam.nih.gov/clinicaltrials/osteopathicmanipulation.htm


Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2003 Sep;157(9):861-6.

The use of osteopathic manipulative treatment as adjuvant therapy in children with recurrent acute otitis media.

Mills MV, Henley CE, Barnes LL, Carreiro JE, Degenhardt BF.

Department of Pediatrics, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa 74107, USA. [email protected]

OBJECTIVE: To study effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment as an adjuvant therapy to routine pediatric care in children with recurrent acute otitis media (AOM). STUDY DESIGN: Patients 6 months to 6 years old with 3 episodes of AOM in the previous 6 months, or 4 in the previous year, who were not already surgical candidates were placed randomly into 2 groups: one receiving routine pediatric care, the other receiving routine care plus osteopathic manipulative treatment. Both groups received an equal number of study encounters to monitor behavior and obtain tympanograms. Clinical status was monitored with review of pediatric records. The pediatrician was blinded to patient group and study outcomes, and the osteopathic physician was blinded to patient clinical course. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We monitored frequency of episodes of AOM, antibiotic use, surgical interventions, various behaviors, and tympanometric and audiometric performance. RESULTS: A total of 57 patients, 25 intervention patients and 32 control patients, met criteria and completed the study. Adjusting for the baseline frequency before study entry, intervention patients had fewer episodes of AOM (mean group difference per month, -0.14 [95% confidence interval, -0.27 to 0.00]; P =.04), fewer surgical procedures (intervention patients, 1; control patients, 8; P =.03), and more mean surgery-free months (intervention patients, 6.00; control patients, 5.25; P =.01). Baseline and final tympanograms obtained by the audiologist showed an increased frequency of more normal tympanogram types in the intervention group, with an adjusted mean group difference of 0.55 (95% confidence interval, 0.08 to 1.02; P =.02). No adverse reactions were reported. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest a potential benefit of osteopathic manipulative treatment as adjuvant therapy in children with recurrent AOM; it may prevent or decrease surgical intervention or antibiotic overuse.

 

[umasskid]

Weil's program does accept osteopaths into the Integrative Medicine residency. If you look at the page more closely youll see that a few osteopaths have trained under Weil. However, osteopathic medical students cannot rotate through the integrative medical school elective, that's all.

 

[PublicHealth]

Originally posted by umasskid
Weil's program does accept osteopaths into the Integrative Medicine residency. If you look at the page more closely youll see that a few osteopaths have trained under Weil. However, osteopathic medical students cannot rotate through the integrative medical school elective, that's all.

Can you provide us with the link?

 

[louren]

"What I find extremely ironic is that Andrew Weill is (supposedly) a big fan of osteopathic medicine and even devoted an entire chapter in one of his most popular books to explaining osteopathic medicine and promoting the skill of the late Bob Fulford."

This was posted by Shrinken on 2/16 (I don't know how to do the fancy cut & paste thing). Can someone tell me in which book of Dr. Weil's this is discussed?


Thanks!

 

[umasskid]

Here's the link : http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/fellowship/index.html

 

[LovelyRita]

Originally posted by louren
"What I find extremely ironic is that Andrew Weill is (supposedly) a big fan of osteopathic medicine and even devoted an entire chapter in one of his most popular books to explaining osteopathic medicine and promoting the skill of the late Bob Fulford."

This was posted by Shrinken on 2/16 (I don't know how to do the fancy cut & paste thing). Can someone tell me in which book of Dr. Weil's this is discussed?


Thanks!

Spontaneous Healing. 🙂

 

[Runtita]

Originally posted by gioia
Do you know why the NIH is shelling out funds for CAM programs? Because the American public spent over 15 billion dollars last year - OUT OF POCKET- for alternative medicine or health care. They want to make sure standardized care doesn't miss the people.

I just wish there was a way that DO's could benefit from this trend since it is osteopathic medicine that even cared to address some of those issues in the first place.

Ironically, osteopathic manipulation is being seen less and less as alternative and more as mainstream by funding orginizations such as NIH. OMM research is now likely to be thrown into the vast proposal pot with allopathic research, and, as a result, must be extremely competitive to be funded.

Gone are the days when NCCAM was the sole NIH agency to contact regarding OMM research; now we are being told to funnel proposals to all branches of NIH!

We're damned if we do.....you get the idea.

 

[kristing]

Originally posted by umasskid
Weil's program does accept osteopaths into the Integrative Medicine residency. If you look at the page more closely youll see that a few osteopaths have trained under Weil. However, osteopathic medical students cannot rotate through the integrative medical school elective, that's all.

This is a good point.

Also realize that U of A is the school that had an administrator state in the Arizona Republic (the largest newspaper in Phoenix) that there was no medical school in the Phoenix metro area. (U of A is in Tucson 2 hours south and AZCOM, hello, is in the Phoenix metro area.)

While the U of A houses Weil, he is light years ahead in terms of cooperating with his peers in other realms of medicine as compared to the administration of U of A.