What is an Osteopath?

In the United States, there are two types of physicians—DOs and MDs. Both DOs (osteopathic physicians) and MDs (allopathic physicians) are fully qualified physicians licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery. The difference between a DO and an MD is that DOs are trained in osteopathic manipulative treatment—hands-on care. Osteopaths use their hands to diagnose, treat and prevent illness or injury.

The medical education for DOs and MDs is almost identical.

• Both DOs and MDs complete four years of basic medical education.
• After medical school, both DOs and MDs obtain graduate medical education through internships, residencies and fellowships. This training lasts three to eight years and prepares DOs and MDs to practice a specialty.
• Both DOs and MDs can choose to practice in any specialty of medicine—such as pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry, surgery or ophthalmology.
• DOs and MDs must pass comparable (and often the same) examinations to obtain state licenses.

Consumers commonly think of chiropractors as the healthcare practitioner who practices manipulations; DOs are trained to perform manipulations as well, so in reality, DOs have a more comprehensive license.

DOs have a long history that started with A.T. Still, M.D., and his efforts to better treat illness beginning in 1860. His response was to treat musculoskeletal problems with a logical, pragmatic, hands-on approach to counter balance the heroic (surgical) direction modern medicine was headed in the United States at the time. Osteopathy, following these basic principles, grew in popularity and came to be known as the “holistic” or “whole body” approach to medicine—first, conservative hands-on treatment, and then combined with medication and finally surgery, if needed.

With its beginnings in the Midwest, for more than a century, osteopathic medicine has continued to develop physicians who have brought health care to those who need it most:

• Approximately 60% of practicing osteopathic physicians practice in the primary care specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.
• Many DOs fill a critical need for physicians by practicing in rural and other medically underserved communities.

DOs understand how all the body’s systems are interconnected and how each one affects the others. They focus special attention on the musculoskeletal system, which reflects and influences the condition of all other body systems.

Adapted from AOA website: www.osteopathic.org