Oklahoma State University Center for Health Services
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In 1892, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still founded the field of Osteopathic Medicine by publishing The Philosophy and Mechanical Principles of Osteopathy when his philosophy of holistic medicine and tenets of osteopathic medicine became practice. Today in 2020 osteopathic physicians find their profession threatened by single accreditation and a decrease in the number of physicians incorporating Osteopathic Principles and Practices (OPP) in their patient care, despite rising numbers of osteopathic graduates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the osteopathic ancestry of instructors and graduates at Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OSU-COM) in order to unite past, current, and future graduates with their academic heritage in an effort to preserve a portion of the practice of osteopathic medicine.METHODS: Direct survey of current OSU-COM Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) faculty and their mentors was used to obtain the majority of data. Data was gathered in person, over the phone, and by email. Additional gratitude is provided to Dr. Amelia McConaghy for supplying information on the earlier generations of osteopaths. Once the information was collected, it was consolidated and simplified into a diagram styled after genealogical trees to visually demonstrate the generational connections.RESULTS: It was demonstrated that current OSU-COM students and graduates since 1993 are directly linked to the personal instruction of A.T. Still by as few as 5 generations of mentors. The OSU-COM lineage also includes other notable osteopaths such as Dr. Fred Mitchell Sr., who developed the muscle energy technique, and Dr. William Sutherland, who first conceptualized the primary respiratory mechanism.CONCLUSIONS: It is noteworthy that OSU-COM graduates can trace their techniques back to the physicians who developed those methods as manual skills that were passed from person to person. It is our hope that the information gathered and consolidated in this study will inspire current and future graduates to both incorporate OPP in their practices and pass along the knowledge acquired at OSU-COM to the next generation of osteopathic physicians. Though this study provides a significant analysis of academic mentorship and heritage, further studies and investigation should be conducted so as not to lose the value and roots of academic ancestry at Oklahoma State University
