Report on 7 years’ experience implementing an undergraduate medical curriculum for osteopathic medical students using entrustable professional activities

Abstract

Calls for changes in undergraduate medical education and the advent of the single graduate medical education accreditation system have challenged the osteopathic medical profession to maintain its identity and distinctiveness while adapting to innovations. For the osteopathic medical profession to thrive, its colleges must provide students with an educational framework that solidifies their osteopathic identity. The authors developed an integrated anatomy-clinical skills course at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Osteopathic Clinical Skills, that used the performance benchmarks of the Entrustable Professional Activities and the Osteopathic Core Competencies for Medical Students from the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. A primary tenet of osteopathic medicine is the relationship of structure and function; Osteopathic Clinical Skills fuses anatomical sciences with clinical skills and underscores this tenet in clinical diagnosis and treatment. This article describes the development and implementation of an educational framework that integrates anatomy, physical examination, history taking, and other clinical skills with osteopathic medicine principles and practice and osteopathic manipulative treatment.