Clinical Education Working Group Paper I
The Value of Collaboration for the Osteopathic Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment
Authors: John Kauffman, DO, Thomas Boyle, DO, and Stephen C. Shannon, DO, MPH
This working paper, The Value of Collaboration for the Osteopathic Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment, features the work of AACOM's Models for Clinical Education Collaborations of the Future Working Group, a seven-member working group of leaders in osteopathic clinical medical education that was developed to formulate recommendations for collaborative models of clinical education that can provide support and services to foster a strong learning environment across the continuum of undergraduate medical education (UME) and graduate medical education (GME).
This paper begins with an overview of the osteopathic medical profession and a brief summary of the history of osteopathic graduate medical education (OGME). It then provides a historical summary of osteopathic GME consortia, including that of Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institutes (OPTIs), and a scope of the benefits that these consortia have provided to OGME. This paper closes with the impact of the single GME accreditation system on OGME and the importance of retaining osteopathic distinctiveness throughout the transition to this system.