Single GME

JAOA editorial: Osteopathic recognition vital for DO trainees’ future

Providing residents with a viable pathway to continue their osteopathic training should be a top priority of educators, writes Martin S. Levine, DO.

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As the profession transitions to a single system of graduate medical education accreditation, providing osteopathic residents with a viable pathway to continue their osteopathic training should be a top priority of medical educators, maintains AOA Past President Martin S. Levine, DO, in a new editorial published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

In the editorial, Dr. Levine, who launched more than 140 residency positions as a director of medical education, urged residency program directors to apply for osteopathic recognition. Osteopathic recognition is a designation offered by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education; it recognizes programs that provide training in osteopathic manipulative medicine and the osteopathic philosophy. Dr. Levine also sought to dispel myths about the ACGME’s osteopathic recognition application process.

“Perhaps program directors view [the osteopathic recognition application] as too time consuming,” he wrote. “The fact is that the osteopathic recognition application is shorter, and much of the information requested is similar to what program directors have already provided to the AOA.”

The call-to-action section of the editorial outlined several steps program directors can take to get started on the osteopathic recognition process:

  • Enlist help and support from your osteopathic colleagues; email [email protected] for free support.
  • Learn about osteopathic recognition by reading the ACGME’s guide and watching this webinar from the Association of Osteopathic Directors and Medical Educators.
  • Start the application; be sure to answer each question on it before submitting.

“It is up to all of us to make sure that osteopathic medicine is embedded in the fabric of the US medical education system,” Dr. Levine wrote. For more information, read the full editorial in the JAOA, and check out The DO’s recent coverage of programs that are pursuing osteopathic recognition:

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