The vision that Dr. Typaldos had for the FDM is that it would become part of the foundation of medicine, much as the germ theory did. Obviously the germ theory came along long after many aspects of medicine were established, but it was so integral to the successful practice of medicine that it became part of medicine. Although the FDM has many wonderful musculoskeletal treatments, if that was all of the FDM that got used, medicine and patients everywhere would have been robbed of many spectacular insights and treatments for medical problems such as kidney stones, gall stones, fractures, heart ailments, stroke and many more. We, as the AFDMA, founded to advance the vision of Stephen Typaldos, carry the responsibility of this vision. The reality of the American medical system is that if we want to see FDM treatments in every Emergency Department in the USA, we will have to go through the physicians. If we train all those chiropractors and physical therapists who want to utilize the FDM in their practice before achieving our objective, we will never succeed in our mission. It is for this reason that we offer courses only for M.D.'s and D.O.'s at this time. It is not our bias, but our society's bias that causes us to have to make this decision.
Currently we are working on training physicians in the theory and practice of the FDM. Our goal is also to place the FDM into the curriculum of medical schools, so that every medical student will receive at least some knowledge of the FDM. We are also working on developing certified practitioners (M.D.'s and D.O.'s) and certified instructors so that more courses can be offered in the future.
Looking off into the future, when the FDM is part of the foundation of medicine, I see FDM sprained ankle treatments in every emergency room in the country and the FDM taught not only in every medical school, but in every physical therapy school and every school of chiropractic. At that time, the physical therapists and chiropractors will likely provide the bulk of the musculoskeletal treatments and the physicians will provide the medical FDM treatments. Gone will be the days of RICE and acute injuries will be fixed in one to three treatments by FDM specialists. I wish that day were going to be very soon. The first goal in this paragraph was my 5-year goal after beginning to work with Dr. Typaldos in 1997. We haven't gotten very far as yet, but we will not give up because we have a mission and we are committed to it.
- Marjorie Kasten, P.T.
Executive Director, AFDMA
