Overview
Osteopathic physicians (Doctors of Osteopathic medicine, or DO) diagnose illness and injury, prescribe and administer treatment, and advise patients about how to prevent and manage disease. Like M.D.s, they are licensed to diagnose, treat, prescribe, and perform surgery in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In addition to using all of the tools and technology available to modern medicine, D.O.s have a strongly holistic philosophy and practice osteopathic manipulative medicine - a distinctive system of hands-on diagnosis and treatment which focuses specifically on the musculoskeletal system.
Osteopathic manipulative medicine is an outgrowth of two basic concepts that undergird the osteopathic approach to health:
- Structure influences function, which means that if there is an imbalance, injury or other problem in one part of the body's structure, it will affect function in that area - and sometimes elsewhere in the body, as well.
- The body has an innate capacity for self-healing. Thus, the object of osteopathic manipulation is to eliminate or reduce impediments to proper structure and function, in order to promote the body's own self-healing mechanisms.
Approximately 50% of all D.O.s practice general or family medicine, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics. The rest specialize in a wide range of practice areas, including emergency medicine, anesthesiology, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and surgery.
There are approximately 54,000 osteopathic physicians in the United States, and 25 osteopathic medical schools. In addition, several new schools of osteopathic medicine currently are being built and will be admitting students within the next couple of years.
You can download, save and print a PDF of this career profile:
Physician D.O. 14 May 2008 [pdf, 166 KB]