I know this conversation is old but I may be able to ad some useful commentary regarding OGI. I have completed the OGI residency and I am about to test for FAAOMPT credentials. I have worked in a clinic that had many OGI trained therapists. The residency program is legit. The residency consisted of meeting one time per week with an OGI instructor for a year, completing 2 of their con-ed exercise courses called STEP, one con-ed course on manipulation, and a 5 day course on orthopedic differential diagnoses and clinical reasoning. The residency terminated with a written exam and a practical. Once all of that has been completed you have earned the credentials Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT). If during this residency you participate in a research project you earn the credentials Doctor of Manual Therapy (DMT). Absolutely OGI never intended earning the DMT credential to substitute for your DPT credential, any PT who is doing so is not accurately reporting their credentials. Personally, I have never known an OGI trained PT to do this, and I have known many, so it seems like this is an outlier occurrence and not the norm. The residency program does not require that you meet once per week like I did, many people will do the distance education route and meet once per month. The fellowship program has a similar structure to residency but obviously the content of the program changes. So after doing all this what's my opinion of OGI? The program has it's strengths and weaknesses. great instruction on manual techniques, you will certainly build your skills in all joint mobilization, soft tissue work, and manipulation. More than just teaching you a rote technique your instruction will emphasize identification of movement impairments and honing a tissue sense and applying the best technique to achieve your goal, be it oscillation or distraction for tone/pain inhibition, improving tissue hydration, applying a stretch to collagen...etc. What really distinguishes OGI from the rest is the approach they take to exercise, a concept they call Scientific Therapeutic Exercise Progression (STEP). This is a scientific foundation for exercise design, dosage, and progression. With this foundation exercise can be customized to any patient to train a specific tissue with an exact dosage. It is exercise principles rather than a rote protocol so that the PT is equipped to create their own tissue and goal specific exercises. My perceived weakness of OGI is that the exercise dosage can be overly specific and anal with dosage, many of the exercises require pulley equipment which many clinics do not have, OGI in general is overly anal when it comes to anatomy (often asking ridiculously specific questions on anatomy that do not have a great deal of clinical relevance). Keep in mind that I am studying for the fellowship exam RIGHT NOW so maybe I'm a bit frustrated with their anatomy questions
. Am I happy I participated in this OGI residency and fellowship? absolutely. The program has developed many skills and knowledge that I will use throughout my career. I believe that achieving clinical mastery is best accomplished by being eclectic in your approach so I plan to use what I have learned from OGI and supplement it with other schools of thought and techniques. In that regard OGI may be a little overly dogmatic, but you are perfectly capable to use OGI's teaching as a platform and not limit yourself to one school of thought. If you are considering doing an OGI residency or fellowship but are not sure if it's for you than I recommend taking a STEP course, it will give you some exposure to what OGI has to offer in weekend course. You can find information on OGI STEP courses on their website
www.olagrimsby.com
John Egbert, PT, DPT, COMT
