Comment

Comment by david rodway on January 17, 2010 at 11:49am

Not sure if this should go in the bokk club section, but more of a question really - why dont (Or are trhere some that do) publishers provide a DVD with their books with all the content of the book on it. Far esasier to get at the precise information you want than wading through the index. Would be very useful with books like Frenchs and other reerence books.

Comment by Janine Leach on November 15, 2009 at 7:23pm

I am sure the profession will be fascinated to read about your work with this patient, and I look forward to seeing it- let the ink flow!

Comment by Hume O'Rous on November 14, 2009 at 4:38am

Hi Janine,

Firstly can I say how much I appreciate the work Ann Moore, Carol Fawkes and yourself do at NCOR to further osteopathic development in the UK.

Over the last few years considerable time has been spent working on what it is within the osteopathic framework that gets our patients better and then trying to distil these outcomes. Conversely, an attempt at establishing some of the reasons why optimal results fail to occur, has been made.

Every practitioner has an obligation to engage in this process?

I’m in the process of working with a several Scottish osteopaths who’ve formed a hub in Glasgow, and we’re working towards publishing several papers of osteopathic interest. Carol came up earlier in the summer and we had our first meeting at the Mitchell library to establish the parameters. We are at the post-germination stage…

I’ve deliberately chosen ‘difficult’ cases as my primary interest. For example a kidney failure patient is both complex and challenging! I’d imagine your cancer cases are similar….

The helpful thing about this type of patient is that they come with a number of identifiable and reliable bio-markers which exist prior to commencing osteopathic treatment. Several of my chosen cases illustrate that the key to successful treatment is good rapport with the patient at a number of levels.
It’s this interaction at physical, emotional and psychological levels (what are now termed ‘psycho-social’ levels by people like Eric Kandel and Tom Jessell), that allows the osteopathic endeavor to accomplish results, that are probably beyond the realistic. Hence ‘exceptional’….but that there are the important accepted markers to objectify your position.

Dr John Bartholomew Bastyr (1912-1995) offered the following advice to his students: “Always touch your patients…. let them know you care”

You are a naturopath as well as an osteopath. My understanding is perhaps the same as your own, namely that the practitioner is frequently almost incidental in the scheme of things. It’s the patient who engages in the healing process…. the practitioner is merely a catalyst.

‘Vis Medicatrix Naturae’(the healing power of Nature) and ‘Tolle causam’ (identify and treat or remove the causes).

I hope the Scottish hub’s contribution to evidence based research will be of value to osteopaths working in the front line, and not just be of academic interest.

Kind regards.

Comment by Janine Leach on November 13, 2009 at 11:56am

Donald, can you tell us a bit more about some of your patients with "exceptional results" ? These cases are very interesting, and the seeds of future research.
As far as "how to write case-histories" is concerned, Carol Fawkes and I use a little guide which was developed by the editors of IJOM a few years ago. I wrote up one of my cases, about supporting a cancer patient, and I must admit its really quite difficult to be objective writing up your own cases and I had to amend it 3 times before it IJOM accepted it!
The Ijom editors have found it difficult to get good case studies papers. But the good thing is, the profession enjoys reading them - much more interesting than most bits of research!

Comment by Hume O'Rous on November 5, 2009 at 11:10pm

Hi Robert,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'how do I work'? I guess the same as any other osteopath....

Regarding protocols, the reviews on some books on research are hopefully to be published shortly in 'Osteopathy Today' and they are the texts I've personally found helpful. Will send details via your direct link.

Also contact your local NCOR hub and research with others. That's what the Glasgow hub is all about.

Also contact Carol Fawkes as she's got experience and is a talented coordinator, working with Ann Moore. Pick her brains!

Regards

Comment by melonfarmer on November 3, 2009 at 8:21pm

if you have relieved the electronic version of the BOA mag, my letter has a lengthy response from Ann Moore head of NCOR...

Comment by Hume O'Rous on October 12, 2009 at 11:36pm

Several of the Glasgow hub met with Carol Fawkes three weeks ago and had a very productive day. One of the outcomes for me personally is that I've started doing case studies on interesting patients who've had exceptional results with osteopathic treatment (OT), including iatrogenic kidney failure, chronic capsulitis, psoriatic arthritis, and interestingly enough supporting a cancer treatment patient.

Our group is planning a regular meeting to critique one another's research papers, and eventually publish our findings. There's a steep learning curve on protocols, but I think individual case comparisons, in depth description of treatment modalities, assessment of outcome, recognisable markers of change and patient response are all accessible. Once established parameters have been defined and issues examined, then larger studies will be the next stage?

We all need to build research and what it offers into everyday practice. I just wish we could obtain more assistance from GP's on using their resources to measure possible markers: blood and urine analysis of patients samples for example cost so much for the everyday practitioner to afford in the name of scientific research!

Till then concise patient feedback questionnaires providing subjective response to treatment will have to suffice....

Comment by Janine Leach on October 12, 2009 at 8:10pm

Getting research funding is always challenging. The MRC ratio of failed to successful is somewhere between 5:1 and 10:1, probably worse post- recession.
Apart from submitting a good proposal, success depends on many things - it is more likely if you have some pilot results, are an established researcher, from a top tier 5-star university, are cooperating with other organisations and users too, and the subject falls in a priority area for the funder......

If I had wanted to research neck pain or back pain, the chances might have been better. But I feel we have reasonable evidence for back pain (Though we could do with better measures of improvement). I wanted to try for something which showed the breadth of osteopathy . Initially, I chose chronic headache, subsequently, support of cancer patients. The cancer one might run when I have time to work it up and pilot things some more. If anyone out there is interested, I would love to hear from them!

Comment by melonfarmer on October 7, 2009 at 2:23pm

thank you Janine for contributing on here. its very interesting to hear that you had lots of grant applications rejected. Was this purely because of a lack of previous research or were there other reasons?

Comment by Hume O'Rous on October 7, 2009 at 1:42am

Hi Janine,
Liked your contribution to Edzard Ernst's latest addition to the CAM debate in Complementary Therapies for Pain Management: An Evidence-Based Approach.

Nice work! (It's reviewed in the Book Forum, by the way...)

Have you had the chance to read the 2nd ed of Thomas Myers Anatomy Trains? I'm just about to post it.....

You have a little more than a passing interest in fascia....?

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• …
• 8
• Next ›
• Page