Posts by: Patrick van Dun

The American Osteopathic Association requires the integration of osteo-pathic principles and practice in all specialty residency training programs that it accredits, but the 4 residencies with the most integration of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) have differences in training and emphasis on OMM as a primary treatment modality. The objective of this research was to study differences in OMM use for spinal pain between the neuro-musculoskeletal medicine/OMM (NMM/OMM), the family practice/osteopathic manipulative treatment (FP/OMT), the integrated FP/OMT and NMM/OMM (FP/NMM), and the internal medicine and NMM/OMM (IM/NMM) specialty residency training programs … ABSTRACT

Lymphatic pump treatment (LPT) is a technique used by osteopathic physicians as an adjunct to antibiotics for patients with respiratory tract infections, and previous studies have demonstrated that LPT reduces bacterial load in the lungs of rats with pneumonia. Currently, it is unknown whether LPT affects drug efficacy. The objective of this study was to determine whether the combination of antibiotics and LPT would reduce bacterial load in the lungs of rats with acute pneumonia … MORE

On April 14, 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a new statement on the public disclosure of clinical trial results. The WHO statement not only re-affirms the ethical imperative of clinical trial results reporting, it also defines reporting timeframes, calls for results-reporting of older but still unpublished trials, and outlines steps to improve linkages between clinical trial registry entries and their published results. This updates and expands WHO’s 2005 statement that “the registration of all interventional trials is a scientific, ethical, and moral responsibility”… MORE

The objective of this study was to determine whether motor cortical reorganisation in LBP can be identified using non-invasive surface electromyographic (EMG) recordings of back muscles at different lumbar levels, and whether cortical reorganisation is related to clinical features of LBP … ABSTRACT

Assessment of students is the cornerstone of health profession education programs. It is essential assessment methods are valid, reliable, fair, defensible and evidence-based. Assessment is a popular topic in health professions literature, although discussions specifically relating to assessment in osteopathic education are limited. This commentary provides an overview of the current assessment methods utilised to assess clinical competency and fitness-to-practice in the final year clinical practicum subjects in an Australian osteopathy program. This summary may be useful to other osteopathy programs in the development and implementation of assessments. Further, this commentary also introduces the concept of programmatic assessment and discusses its application in an osteopathy program. ABSTRACT

This Masterclass discusses findings from a growing body of qualitative research studies that have investigated the subjective experience of having persistent non-malignant low back pain. These studies have found that people with experience changes in self image, personal relationships and life roles. They have also reported on how subjectivity affects the therapeutic relationship, what patients have found helpful in dealing with healthcare professionals, and what it is like to go through a healthcare system for a pain that may not be curable or even diagnosable. The findings are of great importance for clinicians who wish to provide person centred care for patients with persistent low back pain, so this Masterclass ends with key lessons for practitioners. ABSTRACT

Recent studies suggest there is a relationship between intervertebral disc herniation and vertebral shape. The nature of this relationship is unclear, however. Humans are more commonly afflicted with spinal disease than are non-human primates and one suggested explanation for this is the stress placed on the spine by bipedalism. With this in mind, we carried out a study of human, chimpanzee, and orangutan vertebrae to examine the links between vertebral shape, locomotion, and Schmorl’s nodes, which are bony indicators of vertical intervertebral disc herniation. We tested the hypothesis that vertical disc herniation preferentially affects individuals with vertebrae that are towards the ancestral end of the range of shape variation within Homo sapiens and therefore are less well adapted for bipedalism … MORE