Promoting the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment with a student-led program: a retrospective review of 713 patient visits’ characteristics and outcomes

Abstract Context Early clinical exposure (ECE), especially within osteopathic medicine, helps bridge the gap between medical theory and practical skills by giving students the chance to apply osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) early in their training. This enhances their competency and builds a stronger connection to osteopathic principles. Current literature highlights that the early use of OMT in osteopathic institutions motivates students to continue utilizing their skill set, yet few programs offer real-world, hands-on experience outside of lectures and practicals. This paper describes and evaluates one of these programs, a student-led, faculty-supervised clinic focused on enhancing early OMT skills and confidence. Objectives This study aimed to describe this student-run, faculty-supervised clinic and to document the most common somatic dysfunctions and the OMT utilized, and to compare pre-and posttreatment pain scores for participants. Methods This study was a retrospective chart review of 713 volunteer patient visits over a 3-year period, from the Fall semester of 2022 to the Spring semester of 2025. Data collected included volunteer demographics such as age, date of birth, gender identifier, status (faculty, staff, or student), chief complaint, body regions with somatic dysfunction, OMT modalities, and pre-and posttreatment Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) scores. Descriptive statistics were utilized to summarize the demographic frequencies to characterize the clinic’s operational impact. NPRS scores were compared before and after treatment, utilizing a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test for nonparametric data to assess the effect of OMT on volunteer-reported pain levels. Results Of the 713 volunteer patient visits at the clinic, 533 (74.8 %) were students, 149 (20.9 %) were staff, and 14 (2.0 %) were faculty. Volunteers’ ages ranged from 21 to 78 years, with a median age of 25.3 years. The most treated body regions were the cervical and thoracic regions, whereas the abdomen was the least treated region. On average, four body regions were treated per volunteer. The most utilized OMT modalities were the muscle energy technique and myofascial release, with lymphatic and visceral techniques being the least frequently utilized. An average of four modalities were utilized per volunteer. Posttreatment NPRS levels were consistently lower than the pretreatment scores (p<0.0001). Conclusions The data from this study provide insight into the most encountered diagnoses in a more real-world clinical setting for our students and the corresponding treatments most frequently applied. Although not explicitly investigated in this retrospective chart review, this student-run, faculty-supervised clinic allowed students to treat patients over 700 times in 3 years, presumably preparing them better to utilize OMT in their future clinical practice. Additionally, consistently improved patient-reported pain scale scores suggest the clinical effectiveness of the students’ OMT interventions.