Rotation Block 3: FM/OMM

This last rotation was spent with Dr. Markham McHenry, who is dual board certified in Family Medicine and Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine. He owns his own private practice in Scottsdale and is also part of the OMM department faculty at Midwestern. This was really a spectacular rotation. It was really neat to see how a private practice is run, and I learned about what all goes into it. My biggest reason for seeking out Dr. McHenry for this rotation was to learn how to integrate true OMT into a Family Medicine setting. I was relatively comfortable with providing a designated OMT visit, if given 1/2 hour- 1 hour, as they are scheduled at our University clinic, but he does it in 20 minutes, comparable the military visit timeframe. The first time I saw a treatment, he blew me away! He truly incorporates the philosophy that the body is a continuous unit and that a problem at one end of the body can have big impacts on other areas of the body! He also integrated a lot of teachings of Dr. Philip Greenman, a master of exercise prescription. This mainly focuses on muscle imbalances, firing patterns, and retraining techniques. He was very good at not only treating a patient's dysfunctions, but also giving them exercises or stretches to help retrain the body to prevent recurrences. In addition to the musculoskeletal cases, he saw a wide range of family medicine visits. I really enjoyed the balance there. I was given pretty loose reigns while there. I would see many of the patients first, get the H&P, come up with an assessment and plan, and then present it to Dr. McHenry. He would then go back in with me and finish the visit. With the OMT visits, I would start the treatments, and then Dr. McHenry would come in at some point and finish up. It was really encourage that most of the time, he would tell me that I had corrected nearly everything, and that he just needed to spend a couple minutes with the patient so they felt that he was spending the time with him. I was pleased that numerous patients complimented my skills and commented kindly to Dr. McHenry regarding my treatments. One long-time patient told him that I was easily the best student that had treated him! I also gave many flu shots and saw a couple joint injections. I came out of this rotation a lot more equipped in not only my OMT skills, but my entire medical knowledge was bolstered this month!