Thought you would all benefit
from reading abou DO’s and their relationship to US healthcare. Enjoy
the long weekend!
Dear Advising Colleagues,
You have probably read or heard about the health care crisis
facing the United States regarding a shortage of Primary Care physicians.
This issue was raised at the regional NAAHP meetings. At the Update
Sessions, I shared with you what osteopathic medical education was doing to
address this issue. Yesterday, The
American Academy of Family Physicians, published an article which I
share with you below. The URL link for you to share with your students
is: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/professional-issues/20090519dos-prim-care.html
I hope that you find this article valuable when advising
your applicants and students interested in going to medical school and how the
role of an Osteopathic Physician is playing a critical part in addressing the
primary care shortage.
Best regards,
Gina
___________________
Gina M. Moses, M.Ed.
Associate Director of Application Services
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
5550 Friendship Blvd., Suite 310
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7231
Tel: (301) 968-4184
Fax: (301) 968-4101
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.aacom.org
By Barbara Bein
5/19/2009
Like many students graduating from the
nation's colleges of osteopathic medicine, Richard Gray has chosen family
medicine as his specialty. In fact, Gray, an AAFP student member from Fort
Worth, Texas, and other soon-to-be doctors of osteopathic medicine, are an
important part of the primary care workforce, says an Academy physician
workforce expert.
"Traditionally, the osteopathic medical
schools have attracted a larger proportion of young people interested in family
medicine," Perry Pugno, M.D., M.P.H., director of the AAFP Division of
Medical Education, told AAFP News Now.
For the past several years, enrollment at the
25 member colleges of the American
Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, (2-page PDF; About PDFs) or AACOM, has been growing steadily.
Last fall, first-time enrollment among osteopathic medical students reached
4,768, an increase of 360 students, or about 8 percent, compared with the
enrolling class of fall 2007, according to Tom Levitan, AACOM's vice president
for research and applicant services.
Most of the increase stemmed from the opening of two new osteopathic medical
colleges in Yakima, Wash., and Parker, Colo. AACOM is expecting even more
students to enroll this fall, with the opening of three new satellite campuses
in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The first-year enrollment growth in the osteopathic medical colleges parallels
that in U.S. allopathic medical schools, which enrolled a historic high of
18,036 students last fall, according to the Association of American
Medical Colleges (6-page PDF; About PDFs)
D.O.s have a long history of choosing primary
care specialties, including family medicine, general internal medicine and
general pediatrics, Levitan said. Even so, he noted, the results of annual
AACOM surveys of graduating osteopathic medical students have shown a decline
in self-reported interest in primary care from 40 percent of osteopathic graduates
in 1999 to slightly less than 28 percent in 2007.
Interestingly, Levitan said, more osteopathic medical students opt for primary
care specialties at the time they graduate than the number who said they
planned to go into primary care when they entered school. For example, nearly
22 percent of students entering the nation's colleges of osteopathic medicine
in 2004 said they were interested in primary care. When those students
graduated in 2008, slightly more than 29 percent chose primary care specialties.
According to the National Resident Matching Program, 45.1 percent of overall
Match participants in 2008 chose residencies in family medicine, internal
medicine (categorical) or pediatrics (categorical). By comparison, 55.3 percent
of osteopathic medical students who participated in the 2008 Match chose one of
those primary care specialties.
Levitan said he believes that osteopathic medical schools may provide a model
for ways to produce more students interested in primary care careers.
Pugno agreed. For one thing, faculty at the osteopathic medical colleges who
serve on admissions committees seem to seek students with characteristics that
make them more likely to choose family medicine and primary care, such as
coming from a rural background, he said. He noted that admissions policies are
one component of the Academy's overall strategy for attracting students
interested in family medicine.
Gray became a newly minted D.O. when he
graduated May 16 from the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, or TCOM. In a
few weeks, he will start his training in the St. Louis University/Scott Air
Force Base family medicine residency in Belleville, Ill.
Gray said he learned about osteopathic principles as a physical therapy student
at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. He worked full time as a
physical therapist for eight years before entering TCOM in 2005.
During his first two years at TCOM, Gray said he was exposed to primary care
repeatedly in the classroom, the clinic and the hospital. He did a
preceptorship with a family physician in Fort Worth who still delivers babies.
He also did a rural rotation with a group of four family physicians -- three
M.D.s and one D.O. -- in the town of Littlefield in West Texas where he
observed them practicing the full spectrum of family medicine.
"Excellent experiences with good family medicine preceptors throughout my
four years at TCOM sparked my interest in the specialty. I believe that a
family medicine residency will help me become the kind of physician I have
always wanted to be," Gray said. About 45 percent of the 128 students in
his graduating class plan to go into primary care, he added.
Jason Dees, D.O., of New Albany, Miss., the new physician member of the AAFP
Board of Directors, graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic
Medicine, or WVSOM, in Lewisburg and did his family medicine residency at The
Medical Center in Columbus, Ga.
Dees said he considered becoming a surgeon, but chose family medicine as his
career after his third year of medical school.
"WVSOM required every third-year student to do community-based family
medicine as our first rotation," he said. "As I saw the relationships
that developed between doctor and patient, I was hooked. The focus on
whole-person care was also very appealing to me."
Pugno said both allopathic and osteopathic physicians are needed to meet the
demand for more primary care health professionals in the coming years. ''We are
partners with the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and other
osteopathic physicians' groups in our endeavors to make a difference in
American health care," he said.