Doctor's new practice offers healing touch
Dr. Susan Rose believes she has the right touch when it comes to helping patients who are suffering from pain, recovering from injuries or dealing with symptoms of the common cold or other maladies.
According to Rose, she is the only physician in Livingston County who specializes and is board-certified in osteopathic manipulative medicine. She opened her own practice about six months ago in Brighton Township.
Osteopathic physicians complement their medical knowledge and their use of medical technology with hands-on manipulation of the body that can often reduce or replace the need for medications or surgery.
"I do a lot with the patient on the table in my treatment room. I'm working a lot with their head and their neck, but I'm really treating them from head to toe," Rose said. "The thing I tell patients all the time is that pain is a symptom. Where you have your pain isn't necessarily the site of your problem.
"I don't cure people; that's the philosophy of osteopathy," she added. "I don't heal people; they heal themselves. I try to give them assistance, give them tools."
Rose was trained at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She used osteopathic techniques on some of her patients while practicing family medicine in Brighton for more than 20 years.
She opened her own practice to concentrate on osteopathy.
"I get more personal satisfaction from osteopathy, and in general, I think the patients get better faster," she said. "The family practice patients wanted a quick fix or a pill; if they came in for a sore throat, they wanted an antibiotic, not a manipulative technique to help relieve the congestion. They wanted a pill for the headache. The osteopathy patients were coming in specifically to see me for what I could do to relieve their symptoms using my hands, not by giving them medication."
Rose's patients have ranged from infants to the elderly, from high school girls soccer players dealing with ankle injuries to a man with a shoulder problem who wanted to avoid surgery.
Because it requires extensive training and an osteopathic physician must work so closely with patients, it's a specialty that draws few medical doctors, Rose said.
"Not a lot of physicians want to be that intensely involved with patients," she said. "It requires an emotional connection with patients. Some doctors these days don't like touching patients; that's all I do is touch patients."
Rose points out that she is much different than a chiropractor. As a physician, she can prescribe medications and order lab tests, and she expects most osteopathy patients to see significant improvement after one or two visits and not require continuous treatments over long periods of time.
She also emphasizes the roles nutrition and exercise play in the healing process.
"So many Americans are so unhealthy and don't take care of themselves and don't want to take care of themselves," Rose said. "Most of the patients I see are people who are in tune to what they should be doing. In family practice, I'd tell people to exercise and they'd all groan. But these patients want to be coached; they say, 'Tell me how I can make myself better without taking pills or surgery.' And that's my goal."
Contact Livingston Daily business reporter Mike Lammi at 517-552-2854 or at mlammi@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeLammi.
At a glance
Dr. Susan Rose is a physician who specializes in osteopathic manipulative medicine and neuromusculoskeletal medicine. Her practice is at 5889 Whitmore Lake Road, Suite 4, in Brighton Township. Call her at 810-588-6911 or visit her website at http://www.drsusanrose.com.