Annual All Members Meeting, September 2022

OsEAN All Members meeting - Sept 2022

The second annual All Members Meeting as well as the General Meeting took place in Antwerp on 28th September 2022. The meeting was only one day long because it was on the day before OsEAN's 8th Open Forum Conference dedicated to the topic of Clinical Competencies. The meetings topics were different. then last time. The members talked about the news from their schools and countries, about the upcoming Open Forum and decided on the topic of the Open Forum Conference in 2024. The exact title needs to be formulated but we can tell you already now that it would be on research and its implementation in the classroom. Further Marco Giardino from AIMO and Marco Sbarbaro from SSOI presented Fondazione PSP - Promozione della Salute e della Prevenzione (promotion of Health and prevention) how it works and what its goals are.

Annual All Members Meeting, May 2022

OsEAN All Members Live Meeting - Vienna, May 2022

This was OsEAN’s first in person meeting after the pandemic. The meeting took place in Vienna, Austria on the 23rd & 24th May 2022. Host was the WSO (Vienna School of Osteopathy). Main topics of this meeting were succession and leadership, two topics our members were highly interested in. Often osteopathic schools are reigned by one person alone which wears many heads in the structure of the school and in these cases, it is important to realise that the time will come for the principal to retire and there needs to be a plan of action in place on how to do the change smoothly. It is important to realise that when a school is led by one person only if anything happens to the principal, the school needs to continue working without major problems. Here is also important to acknowledge the role a good leader plays in the organisation of an educational institution. This led to the decision that workshops on these topics are needed. The workshop “Succession in osteopathic schools” a workshop led by Raimund Engel (WSO, Austria) and the workshop “Perspectives on leadership as principal for an osteopathy school” was led by Daniel Heed (SKOHS, Sweden).

OsEAN All Members Live Meeting Vienna, May 2022

OsEAN's Teachers' Working Groups

The idea for OsEAN’s Teachers’ Working Groups was born 2021 by Sandra Rinne (Metropolia, Finland) and Sandra Lois (FBEO, Spain) and presented to the other members during the All Members Live Meeting in May 2021 after an evaluation of our meetings where the principals/representatives shared that they enjoy meeting each other mostly because of the exchange of new ideas, best practices and the motivation and positive energy that comes with the exchange. OsEAN is a network, and this is why, we want to offer this opportunity also to the teachers of our members schools. The groups are there to benefit the teacher and participation is free of charge.

7th Open Forum Conference - “Teaching the Working Principles of Osteopathy”

The topic of OsEAN’s seventh “Open Forum for Osteopathic Education” conference which was held on 23rd & 24th September 2021 ONLINE was “Teaching the Working Principles of Osteopathy” (Historical, physiological, mechanical, philosophical, scientific ways of view). Even thou the workings principles of osteopathy are a central part of our osteopathic education many schools are still struggling to get a grip on the ‘how, why & what’ questions in explaining osteopathy. The lectures, workshops and poster presentations did their best to help with this well know issue. Sixty-five participants from Europe and Australia participated in the virtual conference. The conference continued one and a half days offering keynote speeches from Prof. Paul Vaucher on “Active communication and shared decision in osteopathic education.” (read abstract / view presentation) and Assoc. Prof. Gary Fryer on „Teaching the principles of Osteopathy in Modern Context.“ (read abstract / view presentation)
Next Open Forum Conference will be held in Antwerp, Belgium in person on 29th and 30th September 2022. The topic of the next conference is “Teaching Clinical Competencies”.

Message from our new president

Robert Muts - OsEAN's President Hello to all,

my name is Robert Muts, principal of the College of Osteopathy Sutherland in Amsterdam. Proudly re-elected as president of OsEAN, for the coming years.
I am looking forward to continue the work on cooperation between schools in Europe. Specially in the field of education, research, curriculum and delivering the best osteopaths. We already achieved a lot in the past years, such as students-exchange, International Students Day, teachers-working-groups, Open Forum, etc.

In Amsterdam I work as the principal of College of Osteopathie, Academy of Mesology (Naturopathy) and director of the Integral Medical Centre. In this centre are about 30 therapist in complementary Medicine working together with patients. It is also the home for the clinical part of our education. To stay in contact with the working field, I still practice with patients in this centre, with expertise on chronic visceral diseases.

Second annual All Members Meeting, September 2021

If you want to go fast go allone If you want to go far go togetherThe second annual All Members “live” Meeting in 2021 was also held online. It was on the 22nd September 2022, the day before the 7th Open Forum for Osteopathic Education conference, “Teaching the Working Principles of Osteopathy”. The meeting was only one day long. During the meeting all important matters for OsEAN and its members were discussed such as:

First annual All Members Meeting, May 2021

In 2021, OsEAN held its annual All Members “live” Meetings online. It was a hybrid meeting, with some members travelling to Milano, Italy and participating in person while others, due to the pandemic, participated online. The meeting in Milano was held at the beginning of May followed by a 2 days workshop on Faculty Development. During the meeting the present members exchanged opinions on what they expected when they first join the organisation, if these expectations were met and the return of investment that the membership brought to them. Networking and learning from other’s best practice was the biggest value all schools mentioned and cherish a lot. The visibility of the schools, the international teachers exchange, as well as the student exchange and the undergoing of the audit which helped them organise the schools in a better more efficient way, were some of the other values menshioned by the members. During this meeting the idea of OsEAN’s Teachers Working Groups was born. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to the news from the members, the organisation of the Open Forum 2021 and the 2nd Virtual Student Day. The foundation “Hands with Heart” and their function was presented to the members by Jorge Aranda. The meeting ended around 18:00h for those who were present online. Those who were in person in Milano had a lovely dinner together.

New dates for our 7th Open Forum - conference

We are delighted to announce the new dates for our seventh “Open Forum for Osteopathic Education” conference, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic travell restrictions. The Open Forum will take place on 23rd & 24th September 2021 in Antwerp, Belgium. Registration is open until 19th September 2021.

Logo Registration open NOW 2021 mit Rahmen 1

The programme of the Open Forum concentrates solely on teaching osteopathy and the “how, why & what”. This year, it features 2 keynote speeches held by Prof. Paul Vaucher from HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland with topic: Active communication and shared decision in osteopathic education. and Assoc. Prof. Gary Fryer from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia with topic: Teaching the principles of Osteopathy in Modern Context. , 12 platform presentations, 6 short workshops in 2 sessions and 13 posters.

As requested at our last conference in Lyon 2018, this year, the committee decided to include 30 min specifically dedicated to the poster presentations, briefly presenting authors and topics and allowing time for the attendees to walk around and talk to the poster presenters.

Madrid live meeting converted into an online meeting

Sadly, OsEAN's first live meeting for 2020 which was meant to be in Madrid on May 6th & 7th had to be cancelled due to the Covid19 pandemic regulations in Europe.

Luckily, we live in a time where technology is allowing us to stay in touch with each other while we follow the social distancing rule. OsEAN has been founded with the thought of helping and supporting each other. In this "interesting time" (as Terry Pratchett would call it), we know how important it is to share our experiences in order to find support and solutions for issues we face. That's why OsEAN's board has decided to use the odds our century is offering us and summon all members to a special 4 hours long online meeting hosted by our Madrid member Formación Belga-Española de Osteopatía that kindly offered us access to their ZOOM programme. The meeting will be held on 6th May 9h - 13h CEST.

Due to the nature of this meeting big decisions such as new memberships or changes to board members will be postponed to the next possible live meeting.

Stay safe and take care of yourself, you are all that you have!