What is the History of Functional Manipulative Therapy?

Andrew T. Still MD

Manipulative Therapy is a long-established technique that is widely utilized by the osteopathic medical profession. Indeed, in modern American medicine, manipulative therapy is the cornerstone of osteopathic medicine. It originated with Andrew Taylor Still, MD, who established the first college of osteopathic medicine in 1892, in Kirksville, Missouri. Dr Still was not focused on the foot, however, and it remained for one of his students to lay the groundwork for what Dr. Tikker has perfected.

John Martin Hiss graduated in 1914 from the college that Dr. Still founded, practiced osteopathy for 15 years in Columbus, Ohio, and earned a 1922 MD degree from The Ohio State University before relocating to Los Angeles in 1931.

Dr. Hiss developed foot and ankle manipulative techniques with Dr. Still. He focused on the foot in the practice he established in Los Angeles, calling himself an Osteopath, and it was not long before he had a string of clinics, stretching from Los Angeles to Oakland and San Francisco, in which foot problems were treated. He hired osteopaths, podiatrists, chiropractors, and medical doctors to work side by side in the clinics.

Dr. Tikker, a 1953 graduate of the California College of Podiatric Medicine, was one of them. He worked with Dr. Hiss from 1957 to 1962, and supervised six branches of his clinics. He was responsible for a great many of the 300,000 cases that were successfully treated by the clinics.