Introducing Osteopathic Curriculum for Family Medicine Physicians in a Community-based Allopathic Residency Program

CONTEXT: Will increased exposure to osteopathic medicine improve allopathic resident and attending physicians’ support of implementing an osteopathic curriculum in graduate medical education? The overall goal of this quality improvement project was to examine the familiarity and interest of allopathically-trained residents and attendings with osteopathic medicine before, and after, a brief educational workshop. METHODS: Setting: Mercy Health Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI. Participants included a sample of 27 Family Medicine (FM) residents and attendings who had been trained in allopathic medical schools. First, a one-hour lecture on “Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine” was given. The lecture included a PowerPoint presentation followed by a 15-minute hands-on demonstration of osteopathic diagnosis and treatment. A pre and post-workshop survey modified from another larger study was administered to all attendees. Primary selected outcomes included percentage of allopathic resident participation in attendance and pre-post-workshop response differences. RESULTS: Of the 31 allopathic residents in this community-based FM program, 23 (74.2%) were present for the lecture and completed both a pre and post-workshop survey. A total of 24 (78%) of participants had never attended a previous lecture on osteopathic medicine. Respondents’ overall attitude regarding the implementation of an osteopathic curriculum was generally positive after the workshop. Of the 27 participants (23 residents and four attendings) surveyed before the lecture, 23 (85.2%) were initially interested in learning how to perform osteopathic manual treatment (OMT), this increasing to 25 (92.6%) after the workshop. The Mercy Health FM resident respondents were initially first supportive of osteopathic medicine at 59.3%, improving to 77.8% after completing the workshop. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that many allopathically trained physicians may lack exposure to osteopathic medicine principles. In this allopathic-oriented residency sample setting, a relatively brief workshop increased attendees’ interest in osteopathic medicine. Results suggest that initial and refresher exposure to osteopathic medicine content and OMT practices during residency curricula can be used to elicit support from allopathically-trained resident physicians.