I wish to congratulate my student, Registered Manual Osteopath Loretta Penetrante, on becoming the first member of the College of Registered Manual Osteopaths (CRMO) to join ACMA under the new joint initiative adopted by ACMA to ensure its members become Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMOs).
This is an important milestone for our profession.
ACMA and CRMO are now two Canadian professional associations requiring their members to hold the RMO designation. We hope that, in time, more professional associations will follow this example and adopt the RMO standard. Internationally, the International Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Osteopathic Manual Practitioners have already joined this initiative.
At the heart of this movement is one important goal: protecting the public.
Unfortunately, there are individuals entering the profession with extremely limited education and training. Some programs reportedly provide as little as 46 hours of instruction, while others offer short seminars or certificate programs that may lead graduates to present themselves as manual osteopathic practitioners.
We believe the public deserves a clear way to distinguish practitioners who have completed comprehensive education, substantial supervised clinical training, professional examinations, and additional training in areas such as ethics, insurance fraud prevention, and sexual abuse prevention.
The RMO designation is intended to provide that distinction. RMOs must meet rigorous educational and clinical requirements, including more than 2,000 hours of education, over 1,000 hours of clinical practice, and successful completion of written and practical board examinations, along with required professional courses.
The public deserves access to safe, effective, and ethical manual osteopathic care.
Registered Manual Osteopaths are answering that call by working toward a higher and more consistent professional standard.
Congratulations again, Loretta, on being the first to take this important step under the new ACMA–CRMO initiative. I hope many more will follow your example.
Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day
Better than McGill University!
I sincerely appreciate all your advice and your work to give us the best means to improve our odds to succeed in this new path. Your speech at graduation ceremony was very inspiring. As you said, you will always be part of the change in our lives, an important part, let me complete, and I will always be grateful to you for all the knowledge that you have transferred to us but most of all, for your devotion as a teacher and your engagement to your students to make successful people of us. Words are not enough. Thank you. .
Irmina Toledo Gehrmann, DO (Spain)
Hi Dr Pourgol, Just wanted to let you know I am enjoying your online classes, I like the fact that you use the skeleton and then the actual human patient, it really drives the point home, I especially like the Ethics and Clinical Management lectures, I thought they would be boring, but your personal experiences make it very inspiring. Thanks.
Dr Randy Nagir, ND (San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago), 3rd semester National University of Medical Sciences (Spain) student – Doctor of Osteopathy program
Dr Randy Nagir, ND