What is Osteopathic Medicine?

Many of you have heard that I am going to medical school later this summer. I am really excited and a little nervous about the whole thing. I decided to attend Chicago's College of Osteopathic Medicine (CCOM) at Midwestern University and I figured I would give a little background on osteopathic medicine, since I've been asked quite a bit already.

Osteo...pathic? Is that a bone doctor?

Well, sort of. Osteopathic medicine was started in the late 1800s by a physician named Andrew Taylor Still. He was an MD who became disillusioned with how medicine was being practiced after the death of several family members. Discouraged with the inadequacies of medicine, Dr. Still took a step back from his contemporaries and tried to re-examine health care with a fresh perspective.

His search for improved medical care brought him to examine problems with skeletal arrangement. When bones (especially the spine) are slightly out of place, they can pinch nearby nerves that lead to organs. In these cases, adjusting the spine can help organs work properly by improving their signal from the central nervous system. This technique can spare patients the side effects of drugs that treat that organ's deficiency. The practice of manipulating bones was a major differentiation between osteopathic ("osteo-" meaning bone, and "-pathy" meaning sickness) medicine, and medicine practiced by A. T. Still's MD colleagues, who would often focus only on treating symptoms. In this respect, A. T. Still wanted to change the focus from treating symptoms to treating the patient's underlying problem.

So osteopathic doctors don't use drugs or surgery?

Actually, Dr. Still eventually concluded that these spinal manipulation techniques did not adequately address many medical problems, so he began reincorporating mainstream medicine back into his practice using drugs and surgery, as well as the osteopathic manipulative medicine. In order to advance this new direction in medicine, Dr. Still started the first osteopathic medical school in 1892.

In the end, the branch of medicine he initiated strives to differentiate itself from medicine as practiced by MDs through the occasional use off spinal manipulation, a focus on recognizing that quality health care must address a person's physical, social, and emotional needs, and a recognition that treating only a patient's symptoms leads to inferior health care. The majority of both MDs and DOs see each other as colleagues and neither branch claims to be the sole provider of high-quality medicine.

So what is a "DO"?

Graduates from osteopathic medical schools are often referred to as "DOs" in reference to their medical degree: DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) which they receive instead of MD. After graduation, DO medical doctors choose to become board certified either through the same three-year residencies as their MD counterparts, or through similar osteopathic three-year residencies.

During the eleven decades since A. T. Still set up the first osteopathic medical school, osteopathic medicine has aligned itself increasingly with "MD" medicine as both have incorporated new procedures that are supported by legitimate medical research.



DOs are licensed physicians throughout North America, board certified in their respective specialties (such as surgery, anesthesiology, or any other specialty), and are neither homeopathic/naturopathic practitioners, nor restricted to working with bones. Also, DOs should not be confused with "osteopaths" whose practice a form of alternative medicine called "osteopathy." Although osteopathy and osteopathic medicine have shared origins, the educational requirements, philosophy, and scope of practice for osteopaths are much different from osteopathic physicians.

I'd love to hear if you have any questions about osteopathic medicine and, if I don't know the answer to your question, I'll make sure to find it!