Over the past few years OSEAN has been experiencing a rapid growth from 8 to over 30 members. This has created the need for clear membership criteria and a reliable process of assessing them. In 2011 the EFO and FORE decided to initiate the development of a European standard for “Osteopathic Healthcare Provision” by CEN, which is still in a developmental stage and includes an extensive chapter on osteopathic education. OSEAN considers using this CEN standard plus a set of additional requirements as its membership criteria, requiring new applicants and existing members to undergo certification.

To develop audit criteria and to train auditors, OSEAN has partnered with the Austrian Standards institute and organized a joint workshop in May 2014, which included a model audit of the Vienna School of Osteopathy.

This presentation will give an overview of the standards and discuss the insights that were gained during the workshop as well as potential implications for all osteopathic education providers in Europe.

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Raimund Engel, MSc D.O.
OSEAN President
Director and managing director at Wiener Schule für Osteopathie (Austria)

Training in osteopathy, co-founder and managing director of the Wiener Schule für Osteopathie (WSO), training in Acupuntur and massage at College for Traditional Chinese Medicine (Fouzhou/China), training in Eastern and Western methodes of body therapy such as APM, Shiatsu and Physioenergetik®, co-founder and managing director of the Internationalen Akademie für Physionergetik