Description
This article is from the Medical Education
FAQ, by eric@wilkinson.com (Eric P. Wilkinson, M.D.)with
numerous contributions by others.
1.2) What is a DO?
Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) are the legal and professional
equivalents of Doctors of Medicine (MDs). They are licensed to
practice medicine in all 50 states and use all conventionally
accepted therapeutic modalities such as surgery, radiology, and
drugs. They are eligible to enroll in all federal programs, managed
care and insurance plans, serve as commissioned medical officers in
all branches of armed services, and serve as public health officers,
coroners, insurance examiners, and team physicians. In other words,
they practice complete medicine and surgery. Only DOs and MDs can
do this.
DOs represent about 5% of the country's physicians and provide care
for approximately 10% of the patients. This is because higher
proportions of osteopathic medical graduates enter into primary care
residencies after graduation compared to their MD counterparts.
Andrew Taylor Still, MD founded osteopathic medicine in the late
1800's in response to what he thought was poor medical practice at
that time. He based osteopathic medicine on the following
principles:
1) The structure of the body and its functions work together,
inter-dependently.
2) The body systems have built-in repair processes which are
self-regulating and self-healing in the face of disease.
3) The circulatory system provides the integrating functions for
the rest of the body.
4) The musculoskeletal system contributes more to a person's health
than only providing framework and support.
5) While disease may be manifested in specific parts of the body; other
parts may contribute to a restoration or a correction of the disease.
The preparation and training of DOs is nearly identical to the
training of MDs. Admission prerequisites and curricula are very
similar. DOs can sit for the MD boards if they are interested in
pursuing a MD residency after graduation.
The primary difference in their education is that DO students
complete an additional 200-300 hours of training in osteopathic
manipulative medicine (OMM). OMM is a modality used primarily to
treat musculoskeletal problems and overlaps in its scope with
physical therapy and manual medicine techniques. Also, DO schools
place more emphasis on producing primary care physicians than do
some MD schools. This means that during their clinical years,
students at DO schools spend more time rotating through primary care
specialties such as family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and
gynecology, internal medicine, and psychiatry. Nevertheless,
specialty training isn't out of the question for DOs. Many DOs seek
and obtain residencies in surgical and non-surgical specialties.
For more information, see the American Association of Colleges of
Osteopathic Medicine at <http://www.aacom.org>.
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