Osteopathic medicine

Once in a while, I am asked what is Osteopathic medicine and what is a DO? The answer is a little involved. There are two types of complete physicians, MDs and DOs, who are fully licensed to prescribe medication and practice in all specialties of medicine and surgery. In 2008, there were about 780,000 practicing physicians in the United States, of which 68% were graduates from a U.S. MD school, 25% were graduates from a foreign medical school, and 7% were graduates from a DO school. All these graduates must pass the medical licensing board examinations and complete internships and residencies before being licensed to practice medicine.

What is Osteopathic medicine?

DOs are fully licensed physicians and are recognized as equals to MDs at every level of government in all 50 states. There are more similarities than differences between MDs and DOs. The medical education and training of DO physicians follow a curriculum as rigorous as that of MD physicians. The main difference lies in the osteopathic philosophy of the preventive and holistic approach of these tenets:

• The body is a unit, and the person represents a combination of body, mind and spirit.
• The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing and health maintenance.
• Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.

• Rational treatment is based on understanding the body’s unity, self-regulation and the interrelationship of structure and function.

With the concept that diseases of internal organs can manifest externally as referred pain to different musculoskeletal regions and vice versa, DOs are trained at least 200 hours extra in osteopathic manual medicine (OMM), a hands-on technique for diagnosis and treatment. OMM incorporates aspects of traditional manual therapy, soft-tissue massage therapy, and other body-based modalities to relieve pain from strained muscles, tendons, and joints and improve motion and function of blood circulation, lymphatic and respiratory systems. Another important educational difference in the DO schools is the emphasis placed on primary care specialties such as internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology during the clinical years. Therefore, approximately 60% of DOs practice in the primary care specialties in contrast with 35% of MDs. Furthermore, osteopathic schools focus on providing care to rural and urban underserved areas by recruiting students from these areas, promoting rural medicine, and even establishing new schools in the underserved areas. While DOs constitute 7 percent of all U.S. physicians, they are responsible for 16 percent of patient visits in communities with populations of fewer than 2,500.