The AAO Journal, 2008/09, 18(3):11-15, type of study: ,art,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Free full text   (https://www.academyofosteopathy.org/aaoj)

Keywords:

article [2635]
osteopathic medicine [2109]
osteopathic education [65]
USA [1752]

Abstract:

Throughout its existence, Osteopathy has been challenged to demonstrate competence as well as distinctiveness. The osteopathic physician model, developed as a system of education paralleling a medical model, has advantages and disadvantages in maintaining this balance between competence and distinctiveness. From an international perspective, the American osteopathic profession may have tactically put itself at a disadvantage by modeling osteopathic education curricula along the lines of allopathic medical education. Although Osteopathy has been carried and separately developed outside the US for a hundred years, this process has accelerated in the last twenty years. While two models of Osteopathy have developed abroad, one includes an MD education, both pathways report more hours in osteopathic education than American trained DOs. Furthermore, the lower proportion of curriculum hours in the United States identified as uniquely osteopathic in contrast to hours similar to allopathic training suggests two things. First, American osteopathic medicine may be compromising its role as a profession distinctly different from allopathic practice. Secondly, the preparation for a distinctively osteopathic practice may not meet the level of competency achieved elsewhere. If American DOs are to continue to lead the profession, the remedy may lie in adopting an integrated osteopathic medical model.