WHAT IS A DO( Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine)?

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.