Trends in osteopathic medical education: a scoping review.

Context: Following the transition to a single graduate medical education (GME) accreditation system in 2020, leaders at American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) were interested in learning more about the research being done about osteopathic medical education leading up to that point in time.

Objectives: The objective of this scoping review was to identify trends in undergraduate and graduate osteopathic medical education and to determine where this information was being disseminated and the institutions who were creating the content.

Methods: Searches were conducted in eight databases: PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI]), MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Elsevier), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature ([CINAHL], EBSCO), Education Research Complete (EBSCO) OSTMED.DR, Education Resources Information Center ([ERIC], Ovid), and Scopus (Elsevier). Gray literature sources were also identified. All 10 authors were involved in the search. Search terms were identified by utilizing Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the Yale MeSH Analyzer, and through consultation with an expert searcher. Sources were excluded if they were not in English, were based outside of the United States, did not fit in the date range of being published between 2010 and 2020, and included information on COVID-19. The research team conducted title/abstract screening based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results: A total of 8,083 articles were identified and included through searches, ending in a total of 1,203 articles after full-text screening. Most sources for this osteopathic medical education review were journal articles (n=505) and conference proceedings (n=482). A total of 23 trends were identified, with the top three being residency (n=318), curriculum (n=235), and pedagogy (n=178). None of the other 23 primary trends were above 6.9 %.

Conclusions: Osteopathic medical education trends from 2010 to 2020 were primarily focused on residency, curriculum, and pedagogy. This information was disseminated evenly between published journal articles and conference presentations, and osteopathic institutions that have existed longer and have established research track records were more likely to publish and share information in this area.