Reversing the paradox: evidence-based medicine and osteopathic medicine.

Because the individual patient is the center of our philosophy, osteopathic medicine has been called a paradox for attempting to maintain a distinct but equal profession beside its allopathic counterpart. Moreover, its distinctiveness has been challenged in light of this paradox.10 Although there are some dissenters, our profession is in danger of fully embracing EBM because of its normative push into the practice of medicine in general.11 As Howell10 suggests, osteopathic medicine is paradoxical in that (1) osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), one of osteopathic medicine’s unique distinctions, is not widely prevalent (according to surveys) and (2) the whole-person approach has been adopted by our allopathic counterparts. These factors challenge our right to be called a separate profession.10 The real divide between osteopathic philosophy and EBM is statistics. Evidence-based medicine is a population-based, mathematical approach to patient care in contrast to a patient-based approach. In terms Reversing the Paradox: Evidence-Based Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine