Symposium Shines Light on Integrative Medicine
Alumna Sees Strong Potential for Osteopathy Across Wide Swath of Conventional Medicine
A member of the first College of Osteopathic Medicine class to complete its entire four-year curriculum at the Mare Island Campus returned to her alma mater Jan. 26 to share her passion for medicine during the 7th Annual Integrative Medicine Symposium.
Dr. Carmen Hering, DO Class of 2003, presented on the topic, “Introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine,” during the student-led symposium.
Hering envisions a future where osteopathic principles are shared across the medical profession so those who are not Doctors of Osteopathy can develop skills to better serve their patients. Such collaboration would also allow for DOs to refine and perfect their skills through post-doctoral training.
A Vision for Osteopathic Medicine’s Future
Hering views collaborative training among medical professionals from various specialties as “untapped” areas where DO schools could expand their reach – and in doing so improve the medical profession.
“I think the intention of osteopathy is to re-enliven conventional medicine, to breathe life back into it, to really understand a whole other perceptual experiential level of wellness and health,” Hering said in an interview prior to her IMS presentation.
Hering’s specialty, anthroposophic medicine, integrates well with the overarching practice of medicine, she said.
“So, it’s not that we have to change conventional medicine, we just want to bring something to it. We want to re-enliven it, so it’s not sort of dead, materialistic, reductionist thinking. We want to bring more synthetic, more observational and phenomenological thinking to it, and osteopathy, of course, has that potential. I just wish that more physicians could access it.”
Hering describes medicine as “a tremendous calling.”
“I feel strongly that we have so much to bring as osteopaths, and also just as human beings, we have so much to bring,” she said. “I really want to see medicine expanded and developed in these more spiritual aspects, I would say, and to really learn how to study the phenomenon of life, scientifically. I believe that’s what A.T. Still was doing and I think we need to further that work.
“It’s ongoing: We’re not done.”