What is a DO?

What is a DO? an osteopathic physician. There are two types of full physicians in the U.S.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• osteopathic
• medicine
• DO
• D.O.
• medical
• school
• OMM

[ciuck]

Come in europe and see what is a D.O here...

[medhacker]

In Europe, U.S. trained D.O.s are full physicians

[nab1dolac]

Your wrong!U.S trained DOs are full practice physicians in many, many other countries. US trained DOs and MDs are trained equally, are eligible for the same hospital residencies. US trained DOs can take the same licensing exams as MDs, and can practice in every single subspecialty as an MD. Non US trained DOs are osteopaths not physicians, and practice only manipulation.

[thesloc]

DOs and MDs are essentially the same physician, they both study the same amount of time. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between DOs and MDs. Your GP could be either one and you would not know.

[m015094]

@ucdh10 You're right, MD schools wouldn't give me a chance, I'm a DO and I scored 720 on the COMLEX. How did you do on the USMLE? I love the fact that I'm smarter and better prepared than my MD counterparts.

[esdtenis]

@ucdh10 "When a D.O. wants to enter a specialty, they must take the M.D. boards" This is simply not true. There are D.O. specialty programs that use D.O. boards (COMLEX), and there are D.O.'s in M.D. specialty programs who never took the M.D. (USMLE).

[ucdh10]

A couple of facts. D.O.'s score an average of 5 points lower on the MCAT than their counterpart M.D.'s, which equates to an ass kicking. They have a 3.4 average GPA, and spend a great deal of their medical training doing body manipulation. Further, when a D.O. wants to enter a specialty, they must take the M.D. boards. It is simply a collecting pool of people who could not get admitted to an allopathic program. Further, almost every D.O. applied to M.D. programs and didn't get in.

[Nadianva]

I had a question mark in my forehead but know it's gone! thank you!

[arthur2647]

because drin, the requirements for DO medical schools are comparably lower than MD schools so more people will lean towards it. If what you are saying is what is the point of becoming a DO if you dont really learn anything different then the that is the answer- because its an easier path to become a doctor and you will still have all the necessary education. Thus having said this, i believe the DO field will continue to grow.

[drin2014]

The AOA would never go for that. They're too proud of the DO initials.

[Orlan54]

Personally I think D.O schools should just become M.D. schools. The U.S. needs more medical schools. Every year boatloads of Americans have to go leave the country to train and some of them have the scores in get into D.O. school but don't want different letters behind their name.

[drin2014]

"DOs treat the whole person" This is why I withdrew all my DO applications...these doctors claim to practice medicine from a different approach and often it comes off as being superior to an MD. This claim, by its nature, implies that MDs are not interested in treat the "whole person" which is a complete farce!

[drin2014]

if a DO is going to be a radiologist, then why the hell would he want to know OMT? It seems that this is the only appreciable difference between the two, so if you want to be a doctor that sees very few patients, why learn OMT? Why not just get an MD?

[drin2014]

except for the sign on their office door, their name stamp on the lab coat, or if they try to crack your back for "treatment"