Osteopathic Public Health Policy
What is Osteopathic Public Health Policy?
The roots of the Public Health system in America are over 150 years old and are a combination of scientific research into communicable diseases and the increase in the public’s acceptance that such diseases could be and should be controlled through government oversight and control. At the same time, Osteopathic medicine, in the aftermath of the Flexner Report of 1910, was struggling to bring itself into the scientific, research-backed medicine that was called for in the report. That struggle continued for decades before Osteopathic medicine was fully accepted.
Over the past several decades, osteopathic medical schools and other osteopathic organizations have looked for ways to bring the unique aspects of osteopathic medicine to the issues confronting 21st-century public health policy. The holistic approach to patient care naturally expands into understanding the social determents of health. An osteopathic approach to public health policy is a commitment to high-quality healthcare that is affordable to individuals and society and addresses historic and current healthcare access inadequacies.
The Foundation is supporting osteopathic public health policy with two strategic initiatives: scholarships for the Osteopathic Health Policy.
Osteopathic Health Policy Fellowships Scholarship
The Osteopathic Health Policy Fellowship Program has provided a year-long, in-depth study of health policy for osteopathic physicians for over 25 years.
The Foundation has for many years provided financial support of osteopathic physicians from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington State that successful complete the year-long fellowship.
Quarterly Osteopathic Public Health Policy Forums
Four times a year, the Foundation hosts a online forum for medical students and physicians focusing on topics of public health policy and how the osteopathic community is and can bring their unique philosophy to the issue discussed.