Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine

This article is about physician qualifications and titles in the United States. For other uses, see DO (disambiguation).
Osteopathic medicine in the United States
Andrew Taylor Still (founder)

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO or D.O., or in Australia DO USA[1]) is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States.[2][3][4] DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licensed as a physician or surgeon and thus have full medical and surgical practicing rights in all 50 US states. As of 2023, there were 186,871 osteopathic physicians and medical students in DO programs across the United States.[5] Osteopathic medicine (as defined and regulated in the United States) emerged historically from the quasi-medical practice of osteopathy, but has become a distinct and proper medical profession.

As of 2014, more than 28% of all U.S. medical students were DO students.[6][7] The curricula at DO-granting medical schools are equivalent to those at MD-granting medical schools, which focus the first two years on the biomedical and clinical sciences, then two years on core clinical training in the clinical specialties.[8]

One notable difference between DO and MD training is that DOs spend an additional 300–500 hours to study pseudoscientific hands-on manipulation of the human musculoskeletal system (osteopathic manipulative technique) alongside conventional evidence-based medicine and surgery like their MD peers.[9][10][11]

Upon completing medical school, a DO graduate can enter an internship or residency training program, which may be followed by fellowship training.[8] DO graduates attend the same graduate medical education programs as their MD counterparts.[12]

  1. ^ "Osteopathic Medicine Advances Down Under — NBOME". October 2020. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  2. ^ "U.S. Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine". AACOM. December 2019. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  3. ^ "School Directory". LCME. December 2019. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  4. ^ "Who We Are". AAMC. December 2019. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  5. ^ "OMP Report". American Osteopathic Association. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  6. ^ Berger J (August 14, 2014). "The D.O. Is in Now. Osteopathic Schools Turn Out Nearly a Quarter of All Med School Grads". The New York Times. No. ED14. NY Times. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  7. ^ "OMP Report: Osteopathic Medical Schools". American Osteopathic Association. Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  8. ^ a b Kasper, Dennis L., Eugene Braunwald, Anthony S. Fauci, Stephen L. Hauser, Dan L. Longo, J. Larry Jameson, Kurt J. Isselbacher (2004). "Chapter 10. Complementary and Alternative Medicine". Harrison's principles of internal medicine (16th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-139140-5.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Medline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference steve was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Swanson ES (2015). "Pseudoscience". Science and Society: Understanding Scientific Methodology, Energy, Climate, and Sustainability. Springer. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-319-21987-5. Archived from the original on May 25, 2024. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  12. ^ "ACGME, AOA, and AACOM Usher in New Era of Single Accreditation for Graduate Medical Education". ACGME. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.