Why choose the IAOM-US Fellowship Program?

If you have been considering an application to the IAOM-US Fellowship Program, you may have noticed that the Program asks the Fellows to pay for enrollment. This is very different from most other Fellowship programs, in that the traditional programs typically reimburse the Fellows for participation.

At face value this appears costly to Fellows in the IAOM-US Program. However, you need to take a closer look at what this really means. Let's say as an experienced clinician you earn $75,000/year in salary, $3000-5000/year in pension contributions, $3000-5000 in bonuses, and receive health insurance coverage for your entire family. This adds up to $81,000 to $87,000 compensations plus insurance for your employment, not to mention higher earnings if you are a manager or practice owner. To attend a traditional Fellowship Program, you will likely be paid a part-time salary. Let suggest that you are offered $40,000/year plus your individual health insurance, not to include any other perks or benefits, to attend a one-year traditional Fellowship Program in Orthopedic Manual Therapy. In effect, you will be paying $41,000-$47,000 for one year of attendance in that Fellowship Program if you consider all of the salary and benefits you would lose in changing your employment status. In addition, you would be required to uproot your family and move them for one year to that location, if you intended to keep your family members together for that year of attendance. Moreover, you would have to negotiate their insurance coverage, as well as school for the children and new social activities.

In light of this, the IAOM-US opts to offer a Fellowship Program that allows colleagues to maintain their present employment arrangements and experience learning in the framework of their own caseload. So, this arrangement enables you to maximize your learning in your familiar context and minimize stresses on your personal and family members' lives, while maintaining your current earnings, benefits and vestitures. In exchange, you as a Fellow would pay a total of $8,921 (Texas residents) to $9,820 (non-Texas residents) over 3 years when taking requisites of the Fellowship program. This amount includes:

  • The cost of all required university-based classes that are taken over the 3-year period to complete the Fellowship Program, which can be applied towards earning a terminal Doctorate of Science (ScD) Degree at a collaborating Division I University;

  • Fellowship administrative costs encountered while in the 2- to 3-year Fellowship program; and

  • Extensive mentoring time experienced during that same Fellowship program time.

This means that you are allowed to continue earning your salary over the time required to complete the Fellowship program (2-3 years). Based on the figures above, this translates into earnings of approximately $400,000 to $440,000 across that time, from which you will pay the previously mentioned total Fellowship costs (less than 7% of your total earnings during that period). Thus, the IAOM-US offers you an opportunity to develop expertise in evidence-supported orthopedic diagnostics and manual therapy practice, potentially earn a ScD degree through a collaborative university and reduce your overall total costs in time and resources for participation in an accredited Fellowship Program.

Click here for the application packet.