Paul R. Rennie, D.O.’87, FAAO, of Henderson, NV, was installed as the president of the American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO) on March 14 during the AAO’s 2020 annual Convocation in Colorado Springs, CO. Before becoming president, Dr. Rennie served for one year as the president-elect of the AAO, the nation’s largest medical society devoted to fostering neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine (NMM/OMM).
A 1987 graduate of the Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Rennie has chaired the department of osteopathic manipulative medicine at the Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUNCOM) in Henderson for 11 years. He is board-certified in NMM/OMM and in osteopathic family medicine. Dr. Rennie has dedicated himself to preserving the ideals of osteopathic medicine, and he is very active in the profession nationally.
He previously served on the AAO’s Board of Governors and Board of Trustees, and for more than 16 years, he has worked with the Educational Council on Osteopathic Principles, a national collaboration dedicated to developing curriculum for osteopathic principles and practice. He has also served with the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners since 1997, developing assessment services for the osteopathic profession. In addition, he has spent 12 years as a member of the NMM/OMM certifying board, the American Osteopathic Board of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine.
As the OMM department chair at TUNCOM, Dr. Rennie coordinated with faculty to develop a curricular database for the undergraduate OMM program that employs a Regional Anatomic and Methodology Progressive System (RAMPS) approach. In addition, he is the author of Counterstrain and Exercise: An Integrated Approach, which outlines a more learnable anatomical approach to the counterstrain methodology, and he is a coauthor of the strain-counterstrain chapter for the second through fourth editions of Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine, the most widely used textbook in the field.
His vision for the AAO is to work with the Academy and its members in advancing the best interests of the osteopathic philosophy and unique osteopathic approaches for the care of our patients, and to strengthen the role of the Academy to meet the current challenges in academic, economic, regulatory and organizational management needed to promote and maintain the osteopathic profession.
The United States currently has more than 120,000 osteopathic physicians. Also known as D.O.s, osteopathic physicians are fully licensed physicians, as are M.D.s. The profession has grown 63 percent in the past decade and nearly 300 percent over the past three decades. Osteopathic physicians prescribe medicine and practice in all specialties, including osteopathic manipulative medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery. They are trained to consider the health of the whole person and to use their hands to help diagnose and treat patients.
The mission of the American Academy of Osteopathy is to teach, promote and research the science, art and philosophy of osteopathic medicine, emphasizing the integration of osteopathic principles and practice in patient care. Founded in 1937, the Academy is a specialty college of the American Osteopathic Association.
