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Letters to the Editor  |   October 2005
“Opportunities” for Improvement
Edward E. Packer, DO
Author Affiliations
  • Edward E. Packer, DO
    Pediatric Residency Palms West Hospital Fort Lauderdale, Fla
    Program Director
Article Information
Medical Education / Graduate Medical Education
Letters to the Editor   |   October 2005
“Opportunities” for Improvement
The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, October 2005, Vol. 105, 443-444. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2005.105.10.443
The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, October 2005, Vol. 105, 443-444. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2005.105.10.443
To the Editor:
It is important for the future of the osteopathic medical profession to encourage its graduates to consider osteopathic graduate training programs as a professional path. The enhanced Opportunities Web site maintained by the American Osteopathic Association, available at: http://opportunities.aoanet.org/index.htm, has taken a positive step toward this goal. The site now allows for extensive and specific searches directing students to osteopathic internship and residency programs to meet their individual requirements. 
Despite this improvement, however, my searches in the Opportunities site yielded many disappointing results. Many of the programs had several blank entries, and the material was frequently too brief and not exceptionally interesting. I rarely discovered any information that would motivate me to explore a program further. 
If the osteopathic medical profession is to attract students to its graduate training programs, the profession will need to make its online search results more inviting. I encourage all program directors to review their material on the Opportunities site and improve its content before the next crop of students begins researching their training prospects in osteopathic medicine. 
 As the premier scholarly publication of the osteopathic medical profession, JAOA—The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association encourages osteopathic physicians, faculty members and students at osteopathic medical colleges, and others within the healthcare professions to submit comments related to articles published in JAOA and the mission of the osteopathic medical profession. The JAOA's editors are particularly interested in letters that discuss recently published original research.
 
 Letters to the editor are considered for publication in JAOA with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and that they are not simultaneously under consideration by any other publication.
 
 All accepted letters to the editor are subject to copyediting. Letter writers may be asked to provide JAOA staff with photocopies of referenced material so that the references themselves and statements cited may be verified.
 
 Readers are encouraged to prepare letters electronically in Microsoft Word (.doc) or in plain (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) format. The JAOA prefers that letters be e-mailed to jaoa@osteopathic.org. Mailed letters should also be sent electronically, in one of the aforementioned electronic formats on an IBM-compatible CD or a 3½-inch disk, and addressed to Gilbert E. D'Alonzo, Jr, DO, Editor in Chief, American Osteopathic Association, 142 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611-2864.
 
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 All osteopathic physicians who have letters published in JAOA receive continuing medical education (CME) credit for their contributions. Writers of original letters receive 5 hours of AOA Category 1-B CME credit. Authors of published articles who respond to letters about their research receive 3 hours of Category 1-B CME credit for their responses.
 
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