Spreading Osteopathic Principles and Techniques Around the Globe
Live Still Point / Oct 2014 11
Shalease Adams, OMS II
National Representative, Touro University Nevada (TUNCOM)
A doctor traveling around the world to offer their medical skills is not a rare experience in today’s medical field. In fact, there are small and large organizations that sponsor and assist doctors, medical students, and many allied health professionals in visiting other nations to provide care to residents in need. In addition to volunteering, osteopathic medical professionals have the unique opportunity to teach the world about osteopathic principles and techniques.
In June 2014, a global medicine organization called DOCARE, hosted a group of TUNCOM students in Guatemala for a 10 day developmental journey. Students worked in a clinic alongside attendings where they were given history-taking and physical-exam duties. Besides the challenging logistics of seeing hundreds of patients in that short amount of time, students were faced with language barriers, cultural differences, lack of advanced medical equipment, and limited facilities. Due to lack of advanced imaging or laboratory work, students experienced the importance of having strong physical exam skills. Although OMT was not a major treatment option, there was an OMT specialist available for select cases. This provided an excellent platform to inform the Guatemalan patients about osteopathic medicine and show them that OMT provides relief for a variety of ailments.
On the other side of the world, between the cities of Kampala and Entebbe, Uganda was TUNCOM’s very own Claire Galin, DO. Dr. Galin was invited to Uganda to educate a small group of physicians and nursing staff about osteopathic medicine and techniques—the goal was to implement basic OMT into patients care plans. Dr. Galin gave weekly lectures to the staff and provided donated materials for the physicians and nurses to reference. Once Dr. Galin shadowed for a week, she was given an office and began to see referred patients. At first, Dr. Galin received a menagerie of complaints as the resident staff did not quite know what type of ailment should be referred for OMT. It wasn’t until Dr. Galin treated a nurse for back pain did she start seeing patients for musculoskeletal complaints. Dr. Galin is very experienced in pediatric OMT and she manages a pediatric-OMT clinic at TUNCOM. So in addition to outpatient OMT referrals, she was able to work with inpatients in the NICU/PICU and nursery. It is an obvious observation that the culture of East Africa and Las Vegas are completely different, yet one thing in common is that osteopathic medicine is not a well-known medical specialty in either culture. Dr. Galin is helping to widen the reach of osteopathic principles by contributing education on OMT to Las Vegas/Henderson NV residents as well as Ugandan doctors and nurses.
Osteopathic medicine is still relatively unknown in the US, advocates for DO’s are working to change that. Osteopathic physicians and medical students that travel the globe to volunteer theirmedical skills also have the unique opportunity to inform the world about osteopathic principles and demonstrate the effectiveness of OMT.