EDITOR’S NOTE: The Tillamook County Pioneer is pleased to announce our newest column “In Good Health” by the Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation. We are proud that NWOMF selected the Pioneer as it’s first media partner to increase their outreach and education about osteopathic medicine and general wellness. Weekly columns will focus on particular topics each month. If you have suggestions for health/wellness articles, please contact editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net.
By Linda Tate, Communications Director, Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation
The Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation (NWOMF) was created in 1985 from the sale of the Eastmoreland Hospital in Portland OR. We are a 501(c)3 health-care conversion public charity. Our mission is “Advancing Wellness through the Osteopathic Approach.” We achieve this mission through: providing awareness to the public on the benefits of an osteopathic approach to wellness; by supporting medical education that reinforces the osteopathic approach to wellness; and by promoting the tenets of osteopathic medicine.
The body is a unit; the person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit.
The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health maintenance.
Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.
Rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function.
For many years after the sale of Eastmoreland, and before the hospital was closed, the NWOMF did radio and public access television programs focusing on osteopathic wellness. In 2000, we underwrote a OPB television program “Growing Up and Growing Old.” This lead to the publication of a book, “Hospice Care – A Physician’s Guide” in 2003 and the American Osteopathic Association’s official policy on elder care came from the work we sponsored in this area.
In the early 2000’s, we sponsored the largest children’s safety fair in Portland each summer at OMSI. In recognition of the 100th anniversary of osteopathic medicine in 1992, the Foundation donated funds for “The Transparent Women”, the longest running exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). We have also provided osteopathic medical school scholarships to over 560 students with 75% of them returning to the Northwest to practice medicine.
Over the past decade, we have been putting energy and resources into the establishment of 4 osteopathic medical schools in the area. With this project being completed, we are looking to get back into more public awareness programs. The creation and expansion of our blog and social media are the next big important project and we look forward to building partnerships to assist with these efforts.
// The Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation is a public charity committed to Advancing Wellness through the Osteopathic Approach. As a charity, we do not represent any medical school, medical association, medical practice, or individual physician.
This blog should not be considered to be medical advice. Your personal health is best discussed one-on-one with your personal physician. Rather, this blog is intended to highlight the distinctive philosophy and practice of osteopathic medicine as expressed by the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation, or other Osteopathic physicians. The information and opinions are solely those of the author.