May 2026 Vol. 126, No. 5

Parental leave policies for physicians in the United States remain inconsistent and inadequate, despite growing recognition of their critical role in supporting families’ well-being and retention in the workplace. This review and policy proposal highlights the unique challenges faced by physicians and the urgent need for targeted federal and state-level policy interventions to advance paid parental leave and improve the physician workforce sustainability in the United States.

While medications have their place in the treatment of pain, incorporating osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) into pain treatment protocols may be beneficial. OMT has been administered with positive results in the reduction of pain, but it has been difficult to quantify palpable somatic changes, post-OMT. However, with technological advancement, adding objective documentation could potentially support the many published subjective studies demonstrating OMT effectiveness, reproducibility of OMT techniques, and the effect of OMT in pain reduction. This study documented objective changes in cervical hysteresis, consistent reproducible palpatory diagnosis, and treatment pressures with associated pain levels.

The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) provides the Foundational Biomedical Sciences (FBS) examinations – FBS-Comprehensive and FBS-Targeted – to support the evaluation of osteopathic medical knowledge. However, the relationship between FBS performance and performance on the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States (COMLEX-USA) Level 1 has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between performance on Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Achievement Test (COMAT) FBS assessments and COMLEX-USA Level 1 scores.