The Effect of Experience and Gender on the Palpatory Forces Exerted by Novice and Experienced Osteopaths in Australia

The study will assess pressure used during palpatory diagnosis of the paraspinal region. The research hypothesis is that both experience and gender will affect the amount of pressure exerted with diagnostic springing. The data will be valuable in characterizing practice parameters of novice and skilled osteopathic clinicians in palpation and will provide data on skill maturation from novice to experienced clinician. It will also allow far more precise teaching of these skills to students, who can use the transducers to determine how much pressure they are using compared to skilled clinicians. For measuring the palpatory forces, a thin film pressure transducer will be used in the hand of the clinician. Data will be collected on a portable computer via an analog to digital interface.