College of Registered Manual Osteopaths

10/09/2026

Dear alumni,

Please do NOT send another email to the College of Registered Manual Osteopaths (CRMO) if you have already contacted them. One email is enough. Please wait for their reply.

CRMO's email system groups all your messages into one conversation. Unfortunately, every time you send another email, your conversation moves to the end of the queue, meaning you lose your place in line!

Recently, five alumni contacted me because they had been waiting over a month for a response from CRMO. After looking into their cases, we discovered that repeated emails were the reason for the delays.

If you have already emailed CRMO, please be patient and wait for their response. If you absolutely must send another inquiry, consider using a different email address so your original email does not lose its position in the queue.

CRMO is currently responding to emails within approximately four days, but they still have over 450 emails waiting to be processed.

Please help them help you by sending only one email and patiently waiting for a reply.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Have a wonderful day, and God bless!

10/06/2026

Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMOs)

To register with Blue Cross Medavie as a healthcare provider, please visit their website and complete the provider registration process.

Visit:
https://www.medaviebc.ca

At the top right of the website, click on “Health Professionals” and follow the instructions to register as a provider.

Important for existing providers:

If you are already registered with Blue Cross Medavie but have changed your clinic location or added a new clinic, please log in to your provider portal and select “Add a Location” to make sure your information is current and accurate.

Keeping your clinic information up to date helps ensure that your patients have the correct information when submitting their claims.

A partner in healthcare, Medavie provides health insurance trusted by Canadians.

10/05/2026

Photo Guidelines for the Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMO) Directory

To ensure that the Registered Manual Osteopaths Directory has a professional, consistent appearance, all RMOs are asked to follow the guidelines below when submitting their photo and directory information.

Please email your photo and information to Almira at [email protected].

Photo Requirements
Your professional photo should meet the following requirements:
The photo must be saved in JPEG (JPG) format.
Please name the photo file using your full name.
The photo should be passport-style, showing your head and upper body clearly.
The background must be plain white.
You must wear a white clinical/lab jacket.
Men should wear a dress shirt and tie underneath the white clinical jacket.
Women should wear professional clinical/business attire underneath the white clinical jacket.
Please do not wear casual clothing.
The photo should be clear, recent, well-lit, and professional.
Please face the camera directly and avoid selfies, filters, sunglasses, hats, distracting jewelry, or busy backgrounds.
If you do not already own a white clinical jacket, inexpensive options are available online, including on Amazon for approximately $20.
Please submit the original photo without adding your own text, logos, borders, or graphics. These will be added in a consistent format for the RMO Directory by our staff.

Information to Include
In the same email, please provide:
Your full name exactly as you would like it displayed in the RMO Directory
Your professional titles and academic credentials
Clinic name
Complete clinic mailing address
Clinic telephone number
Professional email address
Website address
If you practise at more than one clinic or location, please provide the complete information for every location.
Please carefully check the spelling of your name, credentials, contact information, and website before submitting them. The information you provide will be used to create your professional RMO Directory profile.

Our goal is to create a consistent, professional national directory that presents Registered Manual Osteopaths to the public, physicians, and others in a professional manner.

Thanks and have a great day.

09/30/2026

Today, September 30, 2026, is the final day for ACMA members to qualify for the $2,500 ACMA grant toward the CRMO board examination fees.

If you contacted CRMO at any time during September 2026 to begin your membership process, you have already qualified for the grant. Please do not worry if your CRMO membership has not yet been completed. The CRMO membership process normally takes approximately 2–3 months, so it is not expected to be completed in September. As long as you contacted CRMO during September to begin the process, ACMA will cover your $2,500 CRMO board examination fees.

ACMA members who contact CRMO beginning October 1, 2026, will no longer qualify for this grant and will be responsible for paying the $2,500 CRMO board examination fee themselves.

Please also remember that beginning January 1, 2027, all ACMA members must become Registered Manual Osteopath (RMO) members of CRMO. ACMA members who have not become RMOs by January 1, 2027, will have their ACMA membership terminated.

Similarly, beginning January 1, 2027, all CRMO members must also become members of ACMA. CRMO members who do not maintain ACMA membership will have their CRMO membership terminated.

CRMO has now become the largest national osteopathy association. Building these numbers has been important because it gives us a stronger foundation for what we plan to accomplish in the coming years: improving professional standards, protecting the Canadian public, and supporting qualified manual osteopaths.

Most of my time this year has been focused on establishing our new medical school in Panama, which is the largest project I have ever undertaken in my life. However, throughout September, I did my best to personally answer the hundreds of messages I received from ACMA members regarding CRMO, RMO registration, board examinations, and the new requirements.

I have been very happy to help everyone. At the same time, I must admit that I am also happy September is finally coming to an end! 😊 Now I can return my attention to my main job—working toward obtaining the license to open our new medical school in Panama.

It is an enormous project and an exciting new chapter in my life.

Thank you to everyone who reached out this month, and I wish all of our members continued success.

Have a wonderful day, and God bless!

Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day

09/29/2026

RMO Directory Will Refer Patients to You

I am very happy to announce that Almira Navarro has officially joined us on a full-time, permanent basis as my Executive Assistant. Today is her first day!

Almira holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA). She has also completed an additional two years of education in Business Information Management.

In addition, Almira has extensive education and knowledge in artificial intelligence (AI), which will be a valuable asset to our organizations as we increasingly move in this direction. We plan to integrate AI into our operations to improve our systems, increase efficiency, streamline processes, and help us better manage and expand our projects.

One of Almira’s primary responsibilities will be helping us set up, manage, develop, and promote one of our most important new projects: the Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMO) Directory, scheduled to become fully operational in early 2027.

The purpose of this directory is simple: to connect the Canadian public with qualified Registered Manual Osteopaths and generate patient referrals for RMOs across Canada.

I strongly believe this will become one of the most important projects we have undertaken for the future of manual osteopathy in Canada. We have both the membership numbers and the financial resources necessary to give this project the support and promotion it deserves.

Unfortunately, there are individuals practicing manual osteopathy in Canada who have not completed adequate education or clinical training. Some have completed only very short courses before offering manual osteopathic services to the public. This creates concerns for patient safety and for the reputation of our profession.

The RMO designation was created to help the public distinguish practitioners who have met defined educational, clinical, ethical, and examination requirements.

RMOs have completed more than 2,000 hours of education, including at least 1,000 hours of supervised clinical education and training. They must also complete mandatory education in areas such as sexual abuse prevention and insurance fraud prevention, and successfully complete rigorous written and practical board examinations.

The RMO Directory will not simply be a list of practitioners. Our goal is to actively promote the directory so Canadians looking for manual osteopathic care can find qualified RMOs in their communities. I have personally committed $10,000 a month towards advertising this directory on social media.

There is a simple reality in any profession: when an organization helps its members build their practices and earn a better living, people recognize its value. By helping generate patients for RMOs, we can also create a powerful incentive for qualified manual osteopaths to come together.

We are already seeing members of other associations joining us because they recognize the potential of the RMO initiative and the directory. And that is exactly what we want. We want qualified manual osteopaths from across Canada to come together under a recognizable professional designation and have greater access to patients.

When that happens, everyone benefits. The public benefits because it becomes easier to identify qualified practitioners. RMOs benefit through greater visibility and potential patient referrals. And the manual osteopathy profession benefits by becoming stronger, more unified, and more professional.

Welcome to our osteopathic family, Almira! We are very happy to have you with us, and I am excited about what we are going to build together.

Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day

09/28/2026

I wanted to share a few updates with everyone.

The Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMO) Directory is so important to us that we have decided to hire a full-time employee with an MBA degree whose primary responsibility will be to help manage, develop, and promote it.

Normally, a professional directory would not require a full-time employee—especially someone with an MBA, which is a significant expense. However, we see this as much more than simply a directory.

Our goal is to create a major public resource that helps Canadians find qualified Manual Osteopaths while also promoting RMOs across the country. Having a dedicated professional managing and promoting the directory should benefit our members, the Canadian public, and the manual osteopathy profession as a whole.

A couple of quick reminders before I forget!

I have been informed by the National Academy of Osteopathy that our telephone service at the new campus should be installed this Wednesday. Until then, please do not call NAO. Email is the best way to reach the school for the next few days.

Also, there are only 2 days remaining to take advantage of the ACMA $2,500 grant toward the CRMO board examination fees.
If you have not yet contacted CRMO, please email them as soon as possible. Simply emailing CRMO to begin the membership process in September 2026 is enough to qualify for the $2,500 grant. You do not need to complete all the CRMO membership requirements or take the board examinations immediately. You have until the end of 2026 to complete the process.

Today is actually going to be a very busy day for me. I normally walk about four hours every day, with two of those hours after work. But today I finished my walking early in the morning because I have 25 video interviews scheduled! We are putting a lot of effort into finding the right person for this position.

Of course, projects like this require significant financial support.
Fortunately, the National Academy of Osteopathy is registered as a non-profit school, which means I cannot legally take even $1 of its profits for myself. Instead, funds are used to support initiatives that we believe can strengthen and advance the profession.

Over the past seven years, NAO has provided more than $750,000 in support to the College of Registered Manual Osteopaths (CRMO). NAO has also provided more than $1.5 million in support to the American Association of Osteopathic Manual Practitioners (AAOMP).

In the United States, that support helped fund the work associated with establishing the ROMP (Registered Osteopathic Manual Practitioner) credential as a requirement for practitioners seeking a GEHA license to practice manual osteopathy.

In Canada, I hope the support provided to CRMO will similarly help build public awareness and recognition of the RMO (Registered Manual Osteopath) title so that, over time, Canadians increasingly recognize it when looking for a qualified manual osteopath.

Ultimately, both the RMO in Canada and ROMP in the United States are about establishing meaningful professional standards.

The requirements for obtaining these titles are intentionally substantial. They help distinguish practitioners who have completed appropriate education, clinical training, competency requirements, and board examinations. Strong standards help protect the public while also strengthening the credibility and future of the profession.

This directory is another important part of that work, and I am very excited about what we can build for RMOs and the Canadian public.

Have a great day and God bless.

Dr Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day

09/23/2026

My Gift to Registered Manual Osteopaths!

“Go big or go home!” has always been part of how I approach life. Whatever I choose to do, I put my heart into it and try to make it the very best it can be. This project is no exception!

I want to create one of the largest and most comprehensive referral directories for manual osteopaths anywhere in the world, and I am personally committing $250,000 toward making this vision a reality.

Starting in 2027, Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMOs) will have a dedicated website and app designed to help the Canadian public easily find an RMO near them.

The website is www.registeredmanualosteopaths.ca, a name chosen by the majority of registered manual osteopaths in a poll we done last week. The website is not ready yet though as we just registered the domain.

But building the directory is only the beginning.

I plan to invest heavily in promoting it across Canada. We also plan to send referral information to family physicians, communicate with unions and employers, and work with extended health plan insurers to increase awareness of RMOs and encourage recognition and referral to qualified Registered Manual Osteopaths.

My goal is simple: I want more Canadians to know where they can find well-educated, competent and ethical manual osteopathic practitioners.

The Canadian public deserves access to safe, effective and ethical manual osteopathic care. Unfortunately, educational standards within our profession can vary considerably. There are programs with very limited educational hours, organizations that issue credentials without meaningful education, and short continuing-education courses that may give participants the impression that a weekend of training is sufficient preparation to practice manual osteopathy.

I have spent much of the past 16 years working to raise educational and professional standards within manual osteopathy. Promoting the RMO designation across Canada is another step in that journey.
I want the public to understand what the RMO title represents.

Registered Manual Osteopaths must meet strict membership requirements. These include written and practical board examinations, education in areas such as insurance fraud prevention and sexual abuse prevention, more than 2,000 hours of osteopathic education, 1,000 hours of clinical practice, and additional professional requirements.

When the public can clearly identify practitioners who have met substantial educational and competency standards, everyone benefits: patients, the profession, and the registered manual osteopaths.

This is my gift to Registered Manual Osteopaths, many of whom have been my students at National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA) and National University of Medical Sciences 9Spain, USA, Panama) over the years.

But the RMO designation is not just for my graduates. It is intended for qualified manual osteopaths from any educational institution who meet the required educational, clinical and professional standards required by the College of Registered Manual Osteopaths (CRMO), a voluntary association owned/operated by Indigenous Peoples. As you know osteopathy is a heritage of Indigenous Peoples and CRMO is the first and only association that is working to promote this knowledge through its Council of Elders.

I want to see our profession grow. And most importantly, I want Canadians to have confidence in the manual osteopaths they choose for their care.

One final note: my apologies if our staff have been a little slower than usual in responding to your messages. We are currently in the middle of moving, so for the next two to three weeks our team will be exceptionally busy. Please rest assured that they will get back to you as soon as possible.

Exciting things are ahead for Registered Manual Osteopaths in Canada!

Have a wonderful day, and God bless.

Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day

09/16/2026

Free $2,500 Seminar for RMOs & NAO/NUMSS Students and Alumni

This $2,500 seminar is being offered free of charge to Registered Manual Osteopaths (RMOs), as well as students and graduates of the National Academy of Osteopathy (NAO) and National University of Medical Sciences (NUMSS).

Join me on Thursday, October 29, 2026, from 9 AM to 5 PM at the National Academy of Osteopathy campus. This program is offered only on-site and is not available in online format.

In this seminar, you will learn how to create and implement a personalized financial system designed to help you keep more of what you earn, reduce taxes, build wealth, and protect your assets. Over a 25-year period, these strategies have the potential to help an average RMO create and preserve more than $1 million in additional wealth.

The seminar satisfies 8 hours of structured continuing education toward the College of Registered Manual Osteopaths (CRMO) CE requirements.

I will personally teach this seminar and share the financial strategies and systems I have learned and used over the years.

To register, please contact Maria at [email protected].

Love to see you at NAO this fall!

Dr. Shawn Pourgol, MBA, DC, DO, DN, PhD
Osteopath, Naprapath, Chiropractor & Founder of:
National Academy of Osteopathy (Canada, USA)
National University of Medical Sciences (USA, Spain, Panama)
Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada (380 clinics in 34 countries)
Florida Naprapathic Association
World Osteopathy Day

09/14/2026

The College of Registered Manual Osteopaths received the following communication from Provider Connect and Green Shields for attention of Registered Manual Osteopaths. Please do not give your banking information to anyone who is claiming to represent Green Shield!
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We are reaching out to make you aware of reports of individuals contacting healthcare providers while falsely claiming to represent providerConnect or GreenShield.

In some instances, providers have received phone calls asking them to provide or confirm banking information associated with their providerConnect account.

As an important reminder, GreenShield and providerConnect will never contact you by phone, email or text to ask you to provide or confirm your login credentials or banking/EFT information.

To help protect your account:
Do not provide or confirm login credentials or banking information in response to an unsolicited phone call, email or text.
Do not use links or contact information provided in a suspicious message.
Sign in to providerConnect directly to review your account and confirm your information is accurate.
Treat any unexpected request to update or verify your banking information or login credentials as suspicious.
If you receive a suspicious communication claiming to be from GreenShield or providerConnect, please contact us directly at [email protected].

If you believe you may have shared information or notice an unauthorized change to your providerConnect account, please contact us immediately so we can review your account and provide next steps.

Your account security is important to us. We encourage you to remain vigilant and share this reminder with anyone in your organization who accesses or manages your providerConnect account.

Thank you for helping us protect provider accounts and information.

The providerConnect Team

09/14/2026

CRMO Study Guide

The new CRMO Board Examination Study Guide is being emailed to candidates who have a confirmed date for their written board examination.

The guide has been developed to help candidates prepare for all four parts of the written examination: Clinical Sciences, Clinical Skills, Ethics, and Jurisprudence. It also includes important information to help candidates prepare for the Practical Board Examination.

Please note that the study guide will only be sent to candidates whose written examination date has been officially confirmed by CRMO.

We wish all candidates great success with their studies and board examinations!