VCOM View Magazine Vol. 12 | No. 1

News & Events

academic sponsor for their osteopathic family medicine residency program,” explains Tom Maddy, the director for graduate medical education at VCOM Virginia. “After the ACGME/AOA merged accreditation, VCOM continued to support the VTC family medicine program by providing resources to their trainees and hosting their residents for sports medicine and OMM rotations.” In addition, the VCOM sports medicine fellowship program has had several VTC family medicine residents. It is an important relationship for both organizations. “Carilion is a core clinical site for third and fourth year VCOM-Virginia rotations,” observes Jan Wilcox, DO, dean of VCOM Virginia. “VCOM students benefit from the experience of working with family medicine residents on clinical rotations.” For Tu, the collaboration between VCOM and Carilion is a natural fit. “This collaboration allowed for camaraderie among those who attended as we all learned a new model in osteopathic medicine together.”

and to effectively treat the spine, sacrum and pelvis injuries they’re likely to see in practice. Like so much at VCOM, the workshop featured a lot of hands-on learning. Priscilla Tu is the director of student medical education for VCOM’s Roanoke region. She’s also the associate program director and director of osteopathic education for VTC. Tu worked with Rogers and Todd Capistrant, DO, president-elect of AFDMA, to bring the workshop to the region. “The benefit for those who attended was another tool in their toolbox of OMT [osteopathic

manipulation treatment] techniques to use to help patients,” she says. “Many of them, as I did at my first course, thought about patients that had been treated using traditional OMT who likely had a dysfunction in the FDM model. Now they can treat those as well.” Briana Beach, DO, agrees.The 2015 VCOM graduate and 2018-19 VCOM sports medicine fellow says she’s always on the lookout for new tools to treat her patients effectively, especially ones that do not include medication. “I had previously heard about the Fascial Distortion Model but was never able to fit in a course,” she tells us. “The chance to bring the workshop here and teach our residents as well as many physicians in our area at one time was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.” She says that she and the residents at Carilion were already using the techniques they learned within the first week after attending the workshop. Hosting the FDM workshop enhanced the ongoing relationship between VCOM and the VTC Family Medicine residency program. “Historically, VCOM served as the

Below, Dr. Matt Chung performs OMM techniques on Dr. Mary Mitchell. Both are a part of VCOM’s sports and family medicine faculty.

“Fascial Distortion Model (FDM) treatments will help us treat the fascia through manipulation which allows the fascia matrix to regain or restore its natural function. ”

-Mark Rogers, DO

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Spring 2023 | VCOM V iew