Osteopathic College in Lebanon, Oregon?

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

In last night's "Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper it was announced that Samaritan Health Services and Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif are planning on developing a new college of osteopathic medicine in all places Lebanon, Oregon!

They refer to it as the first new medical school in over 100 years for Oregon. In the article the authors found it necessary to define what the hell "Osteopathy" is....which went like this....tell me if this doesn't sound a little familiar"

Osteopathy

"It's a field of medicine that focuses on the musculoskeletal system as well as other factors of the human body in healing itself. Osteopaths look at each patient's lifestyle and personal health factors - such as smoking, high blood pressure, cholesterol levels etc, - to help him develop a wellness lifestyle and preventive health care. Osteopaths earn a medical degree known as a D.O. and are licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgeries like their M.D. counter-parts. Where D.O.s and M.D.s differ is that osteopaths also incorporate manipulation of the skeletal system as part of a patient's overall treatment."

Sound a little like what we have been doing for sometime...Wellness eh? A branch of medicine eh? Would that be the same "health & wellness" profession that is responsible for:

Errors that makes them the 4th leading cause of death in this country roughly 98,000 deaths per year.

106,000 deaths each year due to "adverse drug events" a number which everyone on the face of planet is to low due to no reporting of such events....and at an estimated cost of $12 billion per year.

Hospital acquired infections resulting in 88,000 deaths per year.

Unnecessary procedures resulting in 37,136 deaths per year at an estimated cost of $122 billion.

32,000 deaths per year secondary to unnecessary surgical procedures at a cost of $9 billion.

Seems we really need to be consistent as a profession in defining ourselves to the lay public and do so as the natural, drug-free, healers we are.

Another interesting side bar in this article was that the rational for this new school was in hopes of filling the primary care physician shortage in the Mid Valley area of Oregon. The logical question is why do we need this school when we have Oregon Health Sciences Univ in Portland which is supposedly producing primary care doctors. The reality is only about 19% of first year medical school students are interested in primary care and that % is probably even gone down more since that study was done. Most med students opt for the more lucrative sub-specializes and starting a new osteopathic college in mid valley Oregon is unlikely to change this reality.

So what is it we need to do as a profession?

Vern Saboe, DC

Oregon