Objective
Osteopaths are regularly challenged
by insurance companies, MDs and other healthcare
professionals for not having any scientific research
to back up osteopathic medicine. At the same time
there is a lot of interesting research done all
over the world that is relevant to osteopathy
but hardly known.
In addition to this professional research work
done by osteopaths and other medical disciplines
every osteopathic student does a diploma thesis
to finish his/her studies.
These dissertations -
some of which are high quality work - are presented
to a jury and a small audience, but after they
have been accepted they are neither published
nor easily accessible for osteopaths from outside
of the respective school.
Our project's goal is to connect
those two: The references and abstracts of osteopathic
research projects are entered into a database
that is accessible via internet from all over
the world, presenting osteopathic research not
only to the osteopathic community but also to
the interested public.
In addition to osteopathic dissertations
we also integrated projects from other
scientific disciplines that are relevant to osteopathic
theory and practice.
Osteopaths who are interested
in the details of a specific research paper from
our database could then mail-order a printed version
from the respective university or school. Alternatively
the full-text articles could be made available as PDF, as well.
New projects can be added directly
by the respective school, university or institution
via a simple web-form.
Benefits
For osteopathic students:
- When planning their thesis, the database can
help students to find out about similar projects
that have already been done, allowing them to
build on those past results instead of repeating
them.
- Students are more motivated to write a
dissertation by the knowledge that the perspective
of their work will add to the profession's knowledge
base.
- Defining areas which have been neglected by
research and working in these fields rather
than doing yet another project on low back pain.
For the schools:
- What helps the students in their research
also helps the school.
- The research work done at a specific school
can become widely known.
- The school can sell copies of the full text
of the studies
For the osteopathic community:
- This is most obvious: Osteopaths all over
the world gain access to a growing database
of osteopathic research that can be referenced
in writing, teaching discussion.
- The development of multicentered international
research projects can be coordinated with
the help of this database.
What you can do right now
- Have a look at the current version
of the database which has been up and running since 1999.
So far it contains dissertations from the Vienna
School of Osteopathy and the British School of Osteopathy.
and it may give you an idea of what we have in mind in the
long run.
- If you know about any good thesis that you
think should be listed in our database please
send us the references.
- And - most of all - please support our idea
by discussing it within the school(s) you are
working at, or pass this information on to faculty
members or librarians who might be interested.
- If you work at an osteopathic school or college
you might suggest that any new research projects
are made to fit to international research standards
by including important parts like an abstract
or keywords.
Language
In the long run we aim to make
all the entries available in English. To get a
critical mass of partners and research papers
we will start out with a multi-lingual website
in English, French, Dutch and German.
Who supports this
project?
This project is initiated and
supported by the "Vienna School of Osteopathy" -
based in Vienna/Austria in cooperation with osteopaths
and schools in various European countries and
the USA. In particular we'd like to thank the
British School
of Osteopathy and the British
College of Osteopathic Medicine for submitting
a large number of their diploma theses.
Students seeking help:
All the material we can access is included in the database,
so please don't email us for other projects or articles - sorry.
A good overview of osteopathic books in print can be found at
www.osteopathic-books.com.
Contact for Schools and Organisations:
Please email to raimund.engel@wso.at
for further details or mail / fax / phone to:
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Vienna School
of Osteopathy
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c./o.Raimund
Engel
Frimbergergasse 6-8
A-1130 Vienna/Austria
Tel: +43-1-879 38 26-0
Fax: +43-1-879 38 26-9
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