DOs and MDs

• Both D.O. and M.D. colleges typically have a four-year undergraduate degree with similar pre-requisite courses.

• DOs and MDs complete four years of basic medical education (medical school).

• After medical school, DOs and MDs can choose to practice in a specialty area of medicine such as family or internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, or obstetrics and gynecology. 

• Both complete a residency program (Post-graduate Medical Education) and may pursue additional fellowship training, typically three to six years, or more, of additional training. 

•  Post-graduate medical education for DOs and MDs is overseen by the ACGME, responsible for accreditation of all the residency and fellowship programs. 

• DOs and MDs must pass comparable examinations to meet medical state licensing requirements.

• DOs and MDs both practice in fully accredited and licensed hospitals and medical centers.

• DOs and MDs are the only fully licensed physicians in the United States.

DOs Bring Something Extra to Medicine

• Osteopathic schools emphasize training students to be primary care physicians.  However, DOs are increasingly expanding their distinctive body, mind, spirit approach to care across the full spectrum of medical specialties practiced in the U.S.

• DOs practice a “whole person” approach to medicine. Instead of just treating specific symptoms or illnesses, they regard your body as an integrated whole.

• Osteopathic physicians focus on preventive healthcare and have over the past 130 years.

• DOs receive extra training in the musculoskeletal system – your body’s interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones that make up two-thirds of its body mass. This training provides osteopathic physicians with a better understanding of the ways that an injury or illness in one part of your body can affect another.

• DOs a therapeutic and diagnostic advantage over those who do not receive additional specialized training.

• Osteopathic manipulative training (OMT) is incorporated in the training (for all) and practice (for many) of osteopathic physicians. OMT allows physicians to use their hands to diagnose injury and illness and to encourage your body’s natural tendency toward good health. 

• Combining all other medical procedures with OMT, DOs offer their patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.