What Type Of Medical Doctor Is A D.O.?
A physician with a D.O. after his name is an osteopathic doctor.
The D.O. stands for Osteopathic Doctor.
A doctor with who is a D.O. receives their degree from a United States Osteopathic Medical School.
The American Osteopathic Associate Commission within the Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) accredits passing medical students with a D.O.
An osteopathic doctor graduates from a medical school where doctors learn to incorporate manual medicine therapies, such as spinal manipulation or massage therapy.
The osteopathic medical school also train their medical students in a more holistic approach to medicine. The osteopathic medical students learn to follow a medical philosophy called osteopathic medicine.
The medical students training includes learning about a patient's nutrition, environment and life system as a whole when making a diagnosis or treating a patent. More premed students are choosing the earn a D.O. medical degree.
A big reason for the increase in D.O. medical degrees is that fewer than 50 percent of medical school applicants are accepted into traditional allopathic medical schools. The low acceptance rates of allopathic medical schools leave many premed students without options.
The few options that exist include off-shore medical schools or osteopathic medical schools. Many premed applicants who do not want to leave the United States to attend medical school decide to enroll in osteopathic medical schools.
What Are The Differences Between A D.O. And An M.D.?
A doctor of osteopathic medicine (D.O.) is a licensed doctor who has attended and graduated from a U.S. osteopathic medical school.
A doctor of medicine (M.D.) has attended and graduated from a conventional (allopathic) medical school.
After medical school, both D.O.s and M.D.s must complete residency training in their specialties.
Most D.O.'s are General Practitioners whereas, M.D.s are most likely to be medical specialists.
Both D.O.s and M.D.s must pass the same medical license examination before prescribing medications and treat patients.
As a side note, I am extremely impressed and grateful for the knowledge from all types of medical specialists.
I have had excellent health care from D.O.s and M.D.s.
I hope you have found the HypoGal post, What Type Of Medical Doctor Is A D.O.? insightful.
Resources:
https://www.reference.com/health/mean-doctor-facs-end-his-name-57c6ca6e96aa0abb
Please, Like, HypoGal on Facebook.
You can find additional shortcuts to living with a chronic illness on the HypoGal Blog.
