LUCOM treats for free

Students use osteopathic manipulative medicine to improve wellness

During the month of April and continuing into the month of May, students of the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) are providing treatment for members of the Lynchburg and Liberty communities.

All four sessions have already filled up for the opportunity to receive a free diagnosis from students under the supervision of their professors.

This is one of the first opportunities these students have with real patients looking for treatment.

These clinics offer osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) to help address structural issues a patient may be facing to help with the overall wellness of their body.

“In addition to managing a patient’s problems with medicine or surgery, osteopathic physicians are trained to address structural issues as well,” Dr. James Kribs, department chair of LUCOM and Osteopathic Principles and Practices programs, said.

“That is the osteopathic medicine component of their education. It is what makes (doctors of osteopathic medicine) unique.”

Kribs explained that there are two different types of approaches used in OMM, which he described as the “direct” and “indirect” approaches.

According to Kribs, the direct approach uses the patient’s own muscles to help with the treatment, where the indirect approach looks “for a neurological reset within the tissues.”

Depending on the actual issue at hand, Kribs and other osteopathic medicine doctors will choose a direct or indirect approach to help resolve the patient’s issues by restoring the body part that is in complaint to its intended purpose.

OMM is appropriate and beneficial at all ages but is used for different issues depending on the stage of life.

“Newborns often will have compression at the base of their skull that may interrupt or interfere with their suckling reflex, and decompressing that area can help facilitate that child latching on,” Kribs said.

“Then for adults, the obvious treatments are neck pain and lower back pain, but in addition to that we treat asthma, pneumonia, and gastrointestinal problems with osteopathic manipulative medicine in addition to normal standards of care with medicine.”

Before this clinic, some students gained experience working with real patients on missions trips to Martinsburg, Virginia and Guatemala. Zach Jensen, who is on track to graduate in 2018, was able to use what he had learned in the classroom to help a woman in Guatemala. She had been told she had arthritis, which they found out was not true.

“We used all our OMM techniques and loosened all those muscles,” Jensen said.

“Once you loosen the ones that were spasming, she had enough control that she could have a normal gate. Over in Guatemala, if you don’t have mobility, you can’t get water for your house, you can’t get your food, or your firewood, and all that kind of stuff because they live on hills. That was probably the biggest effect I’ve seen on someone.”

When working with patients, two students will pair together to assess the patients’ complaints as well as give suggestions for treatments and any medicine that may be necessary.

All of this is done under the supervision of their professors, who will sometimes watch the evaluations during the clinics from an observation room with one-way glass.

According to Kribs, he has never had to interfere with any students’ recommendations or handlings of a patient in the middle of their interaction with the patient.

Before coming to work at LUCOM, Kribs was a faculty member at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

He described the opportunity to work in a Christ-centered environment as one he simply could not pass up. Kribs has high hopes for the new medical school both in the spiritual and academic realm.

“It is my hope that as challenging as medical school is, that these students have felt loved here,” Kribs said.

“It is exciting to watch them now go out and share the love of Christ through humility, serving, compassion and kindness in providing excellent patient care.”

Some students who are participating in the OMM clinic believe it to be going well and that it is a great learning experience for them.

Thomas Ulmer described his experience as different from all of the practice they have done before interacting with actual patients, but he is thankful for this learning opportunity.

“I think it is somewhere in the middle, where you have a sense that we’re not 100 percent ready because we’re not,” Ulmer said.

“We’re in our second year and have tons of stuff to learn, but at the same time we have been well-trained.”

Ulmer further explained that for him, working in pairs has helped as they navigate through this new challenge together.

After the appointment is complete, he and his partner will go back over their notes before the check-up appointment to see what they can do better in their next interaction with their patients.

The final clinic will take place May 9 and for now will continue to be a part of the training process for students in their second year of medical school.

PIERCE is a news reporter.