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AOAO News

The Orthopod

The Official Publication of the
American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics

    • Leadership Notes
      • In Step with the AOAO President
      • Update on Single Accreditation and the 2019 AOA Annual Business Meeting
      • Passion Needed!
    • Membership News
      • DOs That Do:
        CAPT Mark E. Fleming, DO, FAOAO
      • Committee Highlight: Program Directors Committee
      • The Wisdom of Teams
      • Osteopathic Orthopedic Post Apocalypse – Is it Time for Alternative Accreditation?
      • Osteopathic Orthopedic Sports Subspecialty Certification – Available Now!
    • General Articles
      • Join Us at The Broadmoor!
      • AOAO Foundation Update: Research and recognition
    • Students
      • Chasing the Orthopedic Dream: A student’s path to orthopedic surgery
    • Research
      • Simultaneous Pectoralis Major Rupture at the Muscle Belly and Musculotendinous Junction
      • Rare Complication of Levamisole-Induced Vasculitis and Skin Necrosis Following Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

Letter to the Editor

Osteopathic Orthopedic Post Apocalypse – Is It Time for Alternative Accreditation?
By Gregory L. Barnhill, DO
Senior Examiner, AOBOS
Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon by the AOBOS
Assistant Clinical Professor KCUCOM
Resident Trainer
Kansas City, Missouri

The year is 2025. The landscape is desolate. All osteopathic hospitals have closed, or been absorbed, or restructured. The American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics is simply cleaning up and getting ready to close and turn out the lights. ACGME accredited graduates may skip the AOBOS and choose allopathic certification. Our osteopathic medical schools have quadrupled the number of graduates, and new schools are being planned but challenged because of lack of slots for medical education and post- graduate training.  Meanwhile the number of osteopathic orthopedic residency slots has been winnowed down significantly by the ACGME requirement.

The AOA has effectively thrown the surgical specialist under the bus.  As it stands right now, we are all doomed. Our ability to start new residency programs will be almost impossible, and existing programs will eventually fall by the wayside as their program directors retire, or the painful bureaucracy and timelines of the ACGME take their toll.

We need an alternative method of accrediting osteopathic surgical and orthopedic residency training programs. While this single accreditation system has been good for the majority of the profession, the surgical specialties have been seriously destabilized. While we were once secure and thriving, we are now in danger of extinction. I strongly beseech the AOA, through the AOAO and AOBOS, to allow an alternative method of accrediting osteopathic surgical and orthopedic residency training programs.  If this is not possible or not adopted, then a truly radical alternative needs to be considered.

Gregory L. Barnhill, DO

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About the Orthopod

The Academy’s e-newsletter is published three times annually.

Editor:
Steven J. Heithoff, DO, FAOAO
Orthopodeditor@aoao.org

Contributors:
Kyle J. Busch, DO, MS PGY-5
Adam LaFleur
James S. Mason, DO, FAOAO
Fred McAlpin, III, DO, FAOAO
Gary S. Ulrich, DO, FAOAO, FACOS

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