Osteopathic medical education: A personal pursuit, and contemporary students

The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine is the nation’s leading advocate for osteopathic medical education. President & CEO Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODM, said his decision to pursue osteopathic medicine grew out of his personal experience as an EMT, where he was drawn to osteopathic physicians’ philosophy of care, hands-on manual medicine, and emphasis on treating patients through a distinct way of thinking about health and healing. He said today’s students are attracted by the visibility and location of osteopathic medical schools and by a renewed interest in a health-oriented approach to medicine, rather than a solely disease-focused model, that has long been central to the profession’s identity.

Medical Economics: In your own career, can you talk about some of the factors that really attracted you or influenced your decision to pursue osteopathic medicine? And then maybe part two, what are some of the students bringing to the table right now in terms of, why are they attracted to osteopathic medicine?

Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODME: For me, it was actually a very personal experience. I was working as an EMT part time in western Pennsylvania when I was going to college, and the community I was in actually had two hospitals at the time. There was a general hospital, an osteopathic hospital, because there was still some segregation of the two degrees at that particular point in time. I had gone to college fully intending to become a physician. Really didn't know a lot about osteopathic medicine, but my experience as an EMT going into each of those hospitals, I was intrigued by the osteopathic physicians, and what I enjoyed was their interest to pull me to the side, talk to me not just about medicine, but about osteopathic medicine, and that it was medicine based upon a philosophy, a way of thinking about how patients should be treated, how care should be delivered, as well as the use of manipulation, learning to use my hands, not just to diagnose, but also treat. And because of personal interests, the philosophical piece was very attractive. The manual medicine piece was very attractive. The fact that I could learn to do any form of medicine and surgery, and ultimately chose to go that direction. But we were a much smaller profession at the time, and as I said, still a segregated profession to some degree.

I think when I look at today's students, and I talk with today's students, it is that visibility, this idea that the location of the medical schools, attracts me, but also more and more as we listen to our students, they're watching what's happening in the United States, this resurgence, perhaps, of a focus on health that really goes back to almost a century ago, but the thought that medicine could be approached differently, and that we could have a health orientation instead of a disease orientation. That's really been part of our identity from the very beginning, and something that they think they'd like to be part of.