Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Residency Program
  3. Curriculum
  4. Osteopathic Medicine

OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE

Explore osteopathic medicine at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, where we are committed to offering hands-on skills, continuity of care, and excellence in osteopathic education.

Two female PMLGH Residents

A Message FromOur Director of Osteopathic Education

At the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, we are delighted to offer our osteopathic residents a broad spectrum of opportunities to use their hands-on skills in multiple arenas of family medicine. Our program achieved the ACGME’s Osteopathic Recognition in 2023, and our training emphasizes continuity of care and incorporation of osteopathic principles and practice with the goal of creating the finest osteopathic physicians.

Our faculty, both osteopathic and allopathic, are committed to excellence and teaching in all of our clinical settings. Our DO residents get to apply their skills with patients during our weekly OMT clinics where they are supervised by osteopathic faculty. We offer dedicated osteopathic didactic sessions for reviewing and practicing techniques, board review, hospital rounds, journal club, and a variety of other osteopathic experiences.

In addition, residents are able to treat their continuity patients and hospitalized patients with osteopathic methods under the supervision of our staff. Both of our outpatient family health centers have the facilities needed for OMT. We offer elective rotations in OMM as well.  Our osteopathic residents participate in osteopathic scholarly activity and are encouraged to attend osteopathic conferences. As a long-standing and well-established family medicine program, we are proud of our excellent reputation for producing highly qualified and skilled physicians for our community.
 
We welcome your questions and look forward to meeting you!
Kirsten Johnsen Martin, DO, FAAFP

Director of Osteopathic Education

Osteopathic Applicant FAQs

Osteopathic Applicant FAQs

Absolutely! We are excited to have osteopathic candidates and value the “whole-person” philosophy and unique musculoskeletal training DOs bring to our program. Currently we have four first year, three second year, and three third year residents, as well as two DO core faculty members. There are also two DOs on our obstetrics faculty. The hospital and greater Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health community have many osteopathic physicians. Our residents work frequently with DO attendings on our internal medicine teaching service, as well as with consultants in sports medicine, emergency medicine, cardiology, pulmonology, pediatrics, nephrology, ENT, GI, surgery and orthopedics to name a few. We have several prominent DO graduates who are leaders in the community of Lancaster and around the country.
Yes. Whether you take COMLEX, USMLE, or both exams, we expect our candidates to demonstrate strong standardized testing skills and will honor whichever exam(s) you prefer to take to meet your school’s requirements and demonstrate your competence in this area.
Yes! LG Health’s Family Medicine Residency Program received Osteopathic Recognition from the ACGME in 2023. We have developed our osteopathic curriculum in alignment with Osteopathic Recognition requirements. Dr. Johnsen Martin, a 2007 graduate of our program, serves as the Director of Osteopathic Education. Dr. Geoff Dreher, a sports medicine fellowship-trained osteopathic family physician is also a core osteopathic faculty member with our program. We are actively recruiting an additional core osteopathic faculty member. The residency program is committed to providing education in osteopathic principles and practice as well as osteopathic manipulative treatment in a nurturing learning environment for DO and MD residents alike.
Currently we have biweekly OMT clinics at both of our outpatient clinical sites - Downtown Family Medicine (urban) and Walter L. Aument Family Health Center (rural). Both DO and MD residents participate in OMT clinic on a rotational base. This is an opportunity for all participants to hone hands-on manipulation skills and provide effective treatment for our patient population.

Currently our osteopathic residents are also able to incorporate OMT visits into their own clinic schedules. We have plans to start a consult service for OMT in the inpatient setting in the near future. Drs. Johnsen Martin and Dreher, as well as several osteopathic community preceptors, staff our OMT clinics and supervise OMT performed by our residents. All core faculty undergo ongoing, targeted faculty development to better prepare them for precepting osteopathic residents performing OMT. All faculty encourage DO residents who are interested in OMT to keep up their skills, apply them whenever possible, and share this knowledge with their MD counterparts!

We encourage you to attend osteopathic conferences and workshops as your schedule allows. There are also a variety of elective opportunities that can be devoted to furthering your manipulative medicine skills. We have many faculty and residents interested in complementary and alternative medicine, including OMT.
You will take your COMLEX step 3 during your R-1 or R-2 year. The NBOME fee is covered by the CME allowance just as it is for the MD residents taking the USMLE step 3. After you complete your residency, you will be eligible to sit for the ABFM Family Medicine boards or the AOBFP Family Medicine boards. Since the 2020/2021 academic year, we also host the osteopathic in training exam delivered by the ACOFP each fall.
Any of the current residents or DO faculty would be happy to answer your questions: