National Institutes of Health and Osteopathic Medicine: Another call for action and equality in a legal struggle won long ago
Discrimination, whether by conscious or unconscious means, can have significant and often long-lasting negative consequences on the afflicted group or individual. The osteopathic culture and field of medical practice has long fought for equal rights and recognition among their allopathic medical peers. Almost 90 years have passed since Congress, in 1929, declared allopathic and osteopathic medical degrees equivalent. Despite this, key resources and positions within the medical and research profession continue to be inequitable for the osteopathic community. There exists a severe paucity of osteopathic involvement at the National Institutes of Health today and throughout its history. Herein, the historic and current unequal representation of the osteopathic culture from the National Institutes of Health and MEDLINE is investigated.Abstract
Contributor Notes
Financial disclosures: None reported.
Conflicts of interest: All authors are osteopathic physicians. Although Drs. Peppers, Blumer and Thomas are editors of The AAO Journal, they were excluded from the review process for this manuscript. Opinions expressed in The AAO Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect viewpoints or official policy of the American Academy of Osteopathy.