Starting in 2006, some officers of different European societies for Manual Medicine (MM) gathered together more officers of other MM societies to create a scientific but also health policy-related European Society for Manual Medicine, initially called ESOMM. One of the reasons for founding an additional MM society was the experience that the International Federation for Manual/Musculoskeletal Medicine (FIMM) was not accepted to negotiate with the European Union for Medical Specialists (UEMS), particularly regarding the recognition of MM as an official educational curriculum for all of Europe. Another reason was the ongoing Bologna Process for European postgraduate higher education in medicine, which was supposed to lead to the degrees “Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS),” “Diplomate of Advanced Studies (DAS),” and “Master of Advanced Studies (MAS).” After the founders agreed to the statutes and the original ESOMM Curriculum, the group started to meet every year in Rome for an ESSOMM Instructor Course comprising a conference of the responsible officers for education. This group then started to work on a consensus paper concerning the contents of European MM education and training. The FIMM, which passed the “Guidelines on basic training and safety” in MM in 2013, gave substantial input to this work. The FIMM guidelines were adopted for European purposes and submitted to the UEMS. ESSOMM—as it is called today—applied to create a Multidisciplinary Joint Committee (MJC) for MM. After fulfilling all requirements of the UEMS, this MJC was accepted by the UEMS in 2014. As the UEMS had passed new regulations about the “Training Requirements for the Additional Competence of ‘Manual Medicine’ for European medical specialists”, the MJC immediately had to produce a paper entitled “Training Requirements for the Additional Competence Manual Medicine for European Medical Specialists.” The ESSOMM President Prof. Locher presented this paper to the UEMS General Assembly in Warsaw in November 2015, and it was accepted. However, these training requirements were not precise enough. The contents of the educational courses and the degree of competence in knowledge, skills, and attitude had to be defined. This is why the participants of the annual ESSOMM Instructor Course in Rome had to work very hard to reach a consensus at a European level in this respect. ESSOMM is very proud to have on one hand compiled an updated version of the European Core Curriculum “Manual Medicine” (300 EU) which also indicates the degree of knowledge, skills, and attitude for all items of the education. On the other hand, ESSOMM has additionally passed an outline for the 100-EU Basic Course. These two documents are hereby published. The consensus discussion for the 200-EU Advanced Courses is still in progress and will follow in due time.

Current ordinary and extraordinary members of the ESSOMM with the officers that contributed to the documents:

  • Austrian Physicians Society for MM (ÖÄGMM)—Alexander Lechner

  • Austrian Working Group for MM (ÖAMM)—Heinz Mengemann, Michaela Habring

  • British Institute for MM (BIMM), section of the British Society of Sports Medicine—Nicholas Straiton

  • Bulgarian Association of Manual Therapy in Vertebrogenic Diseases of the Nervous System (BSMMVD)—Marietta Karadjova

  • Bulgarian Society of Manual Medicine (BSMM)—Ilya Todorov, Demitar Genov

  • Berlin Physicians Society for MM (ÄMM)—Lothar Beyer, Stephan Vinzelberg, Volker Liefring, Wolfram Linz

  • Danish Society for Musculoskeletal Medicine (DSMM)—Helle Borgström, Karen Goss, Lars Faldborg

  • Dutch Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine (DSMM)—Wim Jorritsma

  • German Society for Musculoskeletal Medicine (DGMSM)

  • Italian Society for Orthopedic Pain Therapy, Osteopathy, and Manual Medicine (AITODOMM)—Manlio Caporale, Federico DiSegni

  • Netherland Physicians Association for MM (NVAMG)—Henk Bultman

  • Physicians Association for Manual Spine and Peripheral Joints Therapy (MWE)—Michaela Habring, Hermann Locher, Wolfgang von Heymann

  • Physicians Society for MM in Children and Atlas Therapy (ÄMKA)—Stephan Martin, Ruth Kamping

  • Spanish Society for Orthopedic Medicine, Osteopathy, and Manual Medicine (SEMOOYM)—Maria Victoria Sotos Borrás

  • Swiss Physicians Society for MM (SAMM)—Bernard Terrier

  • Turkish Society for MM (MTD)—Hüseyin Nazlikul, Tijen Acarkan, Sibel Caglar Okur (application submitted)