LECOM to hold open house

LISA MARIE LENTZ

Herald Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD RANCH - Hoping familiarity will breed acceptance, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine has scheduled its first community-oriented conference in its short history.

The first gathering, held in October, was aimed at prospective students, and although students are invited to this second one, education of the surrounding community is the main goal, according to Lisa Cambridge, LECOM spokeswoman.

The mysteries that surround osteopathic medicine are frequently intertwined with the misconceptions, she said. Commonly, people do not perceive doctors of osteopathy in the same light as medical doctors.

"We need to let them know that D.O.s are physicians trained as extensively as M.D.s are," she said.

Confusion about the parameters and overlap of both types of medicine are frequent.

"Osteopathy is still such an unknown entity," said June Flaim, the school's director of student affairs. "We want the community to get to know us, and the best way to do that is to open our door and show them what we're all about."

Doctors of osteopathy prescribe drugs, perform surgery, and use technology for diagnosis and evaluation of sickness and injury, Cambridge said, but they add hands-on manipulative medicine therapy.

Therein lies another misconception: that doctors of osteopathy do the same thing as chiropractors, who are not licensed physicians. Osteopaths believe that all the body systems are connected, Cambridge said.

For instance, if someone came to a doctor of osteopathy with arm pain, instead of just giving the patient medicine to treat the pain, the osteopath would look at the entire body, and try to discover why the arm hurts.

"They use their hands to discover where your body may be out of alignment, may have some swelling," she said. "By touching and feeling, they can discover where there may be problems that are creating these symptoms."

The awareness conference will feature one of LECOM's physicians demonstrating the osteopathic examination technique, Cambridge said, and a discussion about the concept of treating the whole body rather than just the symptoms of illness. The event will also include a tour of the campus, a $25 million, 109,000-square-foot building on the west side of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard between State Roads 64 and 70.

The conference is one of several planned for the year, including one in late March and another in April. There is also a mini-medical school in the works for later this year, which will feature a once a week, monthlong program with a faculty members speaking on community-relevant topics each week, Cambridge said.

Participation in the osteopathic medicine awareness conference is limited to 50, and reservations are required.

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